Wit by Amanda: Bologna - This is the best one yet!

Enticed by my title? You can thank Christopher! :)

Today, we did a tour of three family-run "food factories" — Parmigiano-Reggiano, balsamic vinegar, and prosciutto. (Christopher says this tour was the real reason we came to Italy.)

Modena: this is a provence outside of Bologna, but also in the Emilia-Romangna region, where we toured all of these amazing places. This is also where they make Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Maseratis. Okay?

So, here are some facts I learned about some of our favorite foods

FIRST: CHEESE!

• It takes 160 gallons of milk to make one wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

• One wheel of parmesan weighs about 110 lbs when it goes into the aging process.

• This factory we toured makes 18-20 wheels a day!

• The earliest they pull the cheese off the aging shelves (aging) is 1 year.

• One man (wearing black in the pictures below) works 365 days a year. His title is "kazawa." Okay, I'm certain I have the spelling wrong, but this is what it sounds like. :)

• All the milk they put into the large vats (see below) is unpasteurized.

• Here's the ingredients list for Parmigiano-Reggiano: whole milk, skim milk, whey from previous day cheese making, and the rennet (a complex of enzymes produced in any mammalian stomach to digest the mother's milk), and salt

• A 2lb block of Parmigiano-Reggiano represents 4 gallons of milk…you would not believe how cheap it was buying it from the factory…CRAZY!

• 3 grades of Parmigiano-Reggiano: 1st grade - age it as long as you want and approved by the DOP (Italy's food regulations folks), 2nd grade - up to 27 months allowed to age and approved by the DOP, and 3rd grade - table cheese and NOT approved by the DOP

• To buy a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano in America is about $800-1000. At the factory where we were, it costs 380EUR! CRAZY!

• Ricotta is not cheese. It's just ricotta.

• The factory is not allowed to use any sort of chemicals/cleaners so they clean the area with water and the “watered down cheese.” So basically they wash the cheese with the cheese.

SECOND: BALSAMIC

• The Balsamic "villa" we visited started making their first balsamic vinegar in 1911. Traditional balsamic vinegar of Medona (Italian Name: aceto balsamico tradizionale di modena)

• Only one ingredient: Cooked grapes must

• Some balsamic sold has been aging for over 100 years.

• Minimum of 12 years of aging to be certified by the DOP (food regulations)

• All of the fancy bottles in grocery stores are not the real thing! To be approved by the DOP, you must use the same shape of bottle in order to pass the approval.

• The word "extravecchio”on a bottle means minimum of 25 years

• Second best kind of balsamic if you can’t afford the Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena is “Commercial Balsamic condiment” - less than 6 years (only ingredients: cooked grapes and wine vinegar)

• Americans invest their money in the stock market, while Italians invest in aging balsamic vinegar. Their investment for their family is a batteria of wooden barrels to make balsamic vinegar. When they have a child, they start one set of barrels; and when the child turns twelve, the first liter of balsamic vinegar is mature and ready to bottle. Another liter the next year, and another the next, and so on…that will keep them doing well for quite a while.

THIRD: PROSCIUTTO

• 22,000 pig legs were hanging in this "factory" we visited.

• Modena ham - EXACTLY the same as Parma Ham.

• I honestly am not a fan of pork, so there was not a lot of notes taken on this one.

OK so onto the pictures from yesterday and today!

Monday pictures:

Bologna - the city of arches!

Apple Store!

Amazing cookies

Ordering ricotta cookies, lemon-filled croissants, and Nutella-filled croissants

Food markets

Christopher's heaven!

My heaven! Denise Palma, Miriam Tedeschi, someone…please teach me how to do this! :)

Food markets

Food and flower markets

Food markets

Amazing restaurant in Bologna!

Homemade Tortelloni

We eat early in America. As you can see, hardly anyone is at a restaurant at 12:30.

Amazing food!

Beautiful Piazza St. Stefano in Bologna

Latte Macchiato! Cool way of doing lattes. You get a glass of hot, foamed milk…and then, on the side, a shot of espresso. You then pour the expresso into the foamed milk. So good!

Beautiful region of italy, Emilia-Romagna

Arches!

Sideboard at our dinner restaurant. I have told Christopher over and over since we have been in Italy... "If you have a meat slicer and a cappuccino machine, you are in business over here."

Piazza Maggiore at night!

Tuesday:

Parmigiano-Reggiano factory!

Our amazing food tour guide, Allesandro. I never have seen someone use there hands so much...see they are in motion in this picture!

Curdling the cheese

Molds for the Parmigiano-Reggiano

Cheese cloth (fine linen) to pull the cheese out of the vat

Christopher "cheesing it up" next to these hundreds of wheels of cheese soaking their sea-salt baths!

Self-explanatory!

There are 365 Parmigiano-Reggiano factories in Italy. Each factory has a certain ID number that gets stamped on all its wheels before they leave the factory. The one we visited was #2552. I can't wait to find this one in a Whole Foods!

Cheese...so good!

YUM!

This cheese did not past Grade 1 or 2 inspection, so they can only sell it as "table cheese"

Name of cheese factory

Balsamic "Factory" Tour

How real balsamic is made…in these vats

Ricotta (only about one hour old) and balsamic vinegar (about 45 years old)! Christopher (who will turn 31 years old on Friday) said he like this more than the prosciutto. Yeah, my husband, the carnivore!

Owner of the balsamic family factory

Such a cool place!

…and here is Christopher "hamming it up." Okay, so that I dont gross my vegetarian friends out to much, this photo only shows about 1/1000th of the ham legs we saw today.

We had a feast at the end of the excursion...Uhh-mazing!!!

Definitely gained 5lbs from 5 courses of mama's home cooking. Seriously, the chef, she was 86 years old!

Mom: this one is for you! There is a store named Pam! :)

Neptune fountain in Piazza Maggiore

Basilica di San Petronio

Basilica di San Petronio in Bologna - the 15th largest church in the world! (Incidentally, St. Peter's in the Vatican, which we toured a few days back, is the first largest; and Milan Cathedral, where we'll be heading tomorrow, is the fourth largest.)