Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Bologna, Part 1

Bologna is the unofficial culinary capital of Italy.  Mario Batali loves it here.  Practically every street is arcaded.  The very first university in the world was founded here.  It is the birthplace of mortadella (baloney) and ragu (bolognese).  The historical center has two leaning towers (Pisa only has one).  The region of which it is the capital, Emilia-Romagna, lays claim to my favorite cheese in the world, parmigiano reggiano, and my favorite vinegar, balsamic.  Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and Ducati are all headquartered in Emilia-Romagna.


I love Bologna.

Like Lyon, the only thing that Sophie and I intended to do in Bologna was eat.  And eat we did.


CAMINETTO D'ORO

VS.

JOPHIE MINTZENSOP

Tasty breads and tomato-rubbed breadsticks.



An amuse-bouche of fried fish with endive.



Traditional regional antipasto of Parmigiano-Reggiano and mortadella.

Salad of zucchini and apples.



Tagliolini with ragu Bolognese.



Thick pasta with lemon pesto.



Polpettone with parsley oil.



Lemon cake with ice cream!

A very enjoyable meal.  Our second best thus far in Italy, bested only by Le Cinque Terre.  There was too much food, to be sure, but we made it through.  Sophie's pasta was (once again) the standout.  How does she do it?  The strange thick noodles were extremely pleasing and the sauce was out-of-this-world.  Lemon zest and pesto go very well together.


I would write more, but I don't want to.  Ha!

Posted by Joe Mintz at 6:40 AM

3 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 23, 2010 at 10:07 AM

    Boy, do I wish I could be there! YUM!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. alaskagrrrLJuly 25, 2010 at 12:58 AM

    Ditto, ditto and DITTO...looks amazing. Keep up the good work guys--I want to feel good about myself when you come back 50 lbs. heavier (and not in your luggage!) ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. DanaAugust 2, 2010 at 9:37 AM

    Can you please both change your names after your wedding to Mintzensop? This is one of the rare instances where the mixed name would actually be really badass. John and I would be Dana and John Blank. Or Plasko. Neither of which is any good.

    That lemon zest pasta has my mouth watering. I have grown increasingly jealous of you two throughout this blog, most of it because of the foods you are eating!

    ReplyDelete

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