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September/October 2023 XV MAGAZINE IS INCREASINGLY APPRECIATED, ESPECIALLY IF TWO FAMOUS CHEFS FROM EMILIA-ROMAGNA SAY SO. STUDY FLAIR AND EXPERIMENTATION ARE THEIR INGREDIENTS by Alessandro Vergallo We left Tuscany to continue our gastronomic tour in nearby Emilia Romagna, a fertile land in the heart of the Po Valley rich in ingredients and gastronomic specialities. This is a region where the great reclamation works, the creation of the irrigation network and the multiplication of farms in the last century facilitated the development and growth of crops such as wheat, corn, vines and sugar beet. Equal development was seen in the livestock sector, thanks to the increase in livestock farms, especially cattle and pigs, which with their products - meat, sausages, milk and cheese - have a positive impact on the national economy. In addition to the indigenous Nera parmigiana or Nero di Parma pig breed, there are 6 cattle breeds, 3 sheep breeds, 5 horse breeds and 5 poultry breeds throughout the region. And there are more than 500 companies (26% of the national total) scattered throughout the territory, making Emilia the first Italian region in terms of the number of semi-processed meat companies. The most active are in the province of Parma (66.7%) and Modena (14.4%), the latter also home to the Modena meat district to which the municipalities of Castelnuovo Rangone, Castelvetro, Spilamberto, Vignola and partly Sassuolo belong. But there is more. In Emilia, every product has its own typicality, making it one of the Italian regions with the highest number of PDO and PGI food products: 44 in total, 19 PDO and 25 PGI; 30 PDO and PGI wine products. Then there are the four local excellences, now known all over the world, that confirm the uniqueness of this region: Parmigiano Reggiano , Aceto balsamico di Modena , Prosciutto di Parma and Mortadella di Bologna . EVOLVING REGIONAL CUISINE You cannot talk about Emilian cuisine without the guidance of two special ‘guests’, two world-famous chefs: Michelin-starred Aurora Mazzucchelli of the Casa Mazzucchelli Restaurant in Sasso Marconi (in the province of Bologna) and Stefano Roversi of the Stradora Ristrò & Cocktail in Reggiolo. Both absolute leaders of Italian cuisine, just a few kilometres apart, but with a common desire to experiment and dare while remaining faithful to regional traditions. Study, research and experimentation are the lifeblood of Aurora Mazzucchelli’s dishes, who claims that each of her dishes describes her creative world. In Reggiolo, on the other hand, Roversi revisits some of the recipes of Elena Storchi, the matriarch of the Storchi family (owner of the famous Stradora restaurant and Villa Nabila in Reggiolo). FROM THE GREAT CLASSICS TO EXPERIMENTATION Just utter two words - egg pasta - and everyone’s mind goes to tagliatelle and tortelli, two typical products of Emilia, a land considered the sanctuary of pasta. Everyone knows the doses of traditional egg pasta. There are those who adhere to them slavishly and those who dare to make their own unique recipe. Mazzucchelli, for example, in preparing her pastry for Tortello di Parmigiano Reggiano with lavender, nutmeg and almond flavours, makes a few variations to the recipe by adding more egg yolks to the dough than the doses specified and by adding Modica semolina flour as her Sicilian-born mother taught her. At the Stradora for his Tortelli di zucca , on the other hand, Stefano Roversi relies on a thin pastry, to obtain a very fine casing that can enhance the flavour of the filling made of pumpkin pulp, Parmesan cheese, amaretti biscuits, salt, pepper and nutmeg. ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS AND CREATIVE INTUITION In a place where so much pasta is produced, however, there can be no shortage of wheat. An ingredient that inspired and drove the Mazzucchellis to turn their idea into a project. This is Casa Mazzucchelli , a place that aims to fuse the art of bread-making with the world of baking. The inclusion in a room adjacent to the restaurant of the electric stone oven for baking breakfast items, simple lunch dishes, pizzas and focaccias, makes the purpose of their project clear. “After Covid-19, my brother Massimo and I decided to combine our two professions, baker and cook,’ explains the chef from Sasso Marconi. ‘That’s how our project was born, the common thread of which is the wheat product present in all my dishes, from bread to the crumb, from focaccia to the crust. And if first courses are more elaborate and creative, second courses, on the other hand, are simple and basic, but still require experienced and intuitive hands to choose the right combinations to accompany them, but above all, they require hands that have an excellent knowledge of cooking techniques. Aurora, for example, has dusted off an old technique for her Pancia di cinghiale (Boar’s belly) : after marinating the meat, she puts it in her ‘magic’ oven - turned off but still hot after baking the pizzas and focaccias at 280 degrees - and, with the oven on low, lets it cook slowly for about two hours. A tasty dish that Mazzucchelli, guided by flair, glazes with a honey base and serves it with a red wine babbà, sage mayonnaise and caramelised coriander seeds. Chefs’ skills, but also the luck of having high quality ingredients because, in the heart of the Po Valley, the supply of slaughter-related products is high, and equally high is its demand, which is amply satisfied by the butchers’ shops scattered throughout the territory that boast decades of experience and tradition in this field. EXCELLENCE AND TYPICAL PRODUCTS Parmigiano Reggiano is the absolute king of Emilian cuisine. It dates back