As a private chef for a wonderful Italian family in Kensington, California, I travelled to Northern Italy every year to eat great food and absorb traditional Italian culture. Since they travelled around Europe during the summer, mostly staying in hotels, they did not need my chef services so they paid my airfare to and from Italy instead.
These month-long trips deepened my appreciation for, and understanding of, the cuisine of Northern Italy. I generally stayed in Parma, but I also spent time in Bologna, Milan, Venice, Modena and Rome. In this post, I’ll delve into some of my culinary adventures in Parma.
The couchsurfing platform (a website which allows you to message locals throughout the world are interested in hosting travellers and from other countries) came in very handy on these trips as I used it to meet locals who were happy to direct me to their favorite restaurants, pizzerias and salumerias on my travels. In Parma, especially, I was endlessly impressed by the level of knowledge possessed by average Italians regarding their locally produced salumi, from the names of each salumeria to what to best serve with each type of salumi. And of course everyone had a strong opinion on which salumeria made the best cured meats.
On one trip I met a family who invited me to dinner at their home in a village about 20 minutes from the center of Parma. I accompanied the matriarch of the family to their family’s plot of land in the community garden where they grew all the usual suspects. Eggplant, tomato, basil and summer squash, among others. I was surprised to see that they, (and all their neighbors), did not grow zucchini, but zucchetta, aka trombocino which is my favorite summer squash. Zucchettta has a very firm texture and all of the seeds are contained in a rounded portion on one end of the fruit, so most of it is solid flesh. I have tried to convince many a farmer at Bay Area farmer’s markets to grow Zucchetta with little luck so far.
For dinner we had (of course!) prosciutto di Parma to start then tortelli d’erbetta, which I helped prepare, along with vegetables from their garden and some sweets from a local bakery.
Some other highlights of visiting Parma were:
*Enjoying my favorite local specialty in Parma was Cavallo Pesto – horse meat tartare. Horse is not as flavorful as beef, but the texture is amazingly silky without being soft or mushy. Sooo delicious with ciabatta and a glass of lambrusco!
Touring a dairy producing top quality Parmigiano Reggiano. Learning about the history of Parmigiano Reggiano, the importance of the quality of the milk, how the cows are raised and how the terrior is reflected in this unique world famous cheese was fascinating.
Sandwiches at Pepen were always delicious. I especially liked the bresola with lemon, Parmesan and grilled zucchini.