This week, we return to Modena for a balsamic-soaked sojourn before heading to Padova for the scoop on gelato. We also welcome Guest Gulletier Mike Fish to the table.
Thoroughly Modena, Grazie Mille
by Mike Fish1
On a recent three-week trip to Italy covering four regions, I always had you Gullet readers in mind. With each dish I enjoyed along the way, I’d jot down notes, take time to savor the ingredients, recording my experiences to share. After finishing a meal, I’d ask myself..."Is this the dinner, the restaurant, the aperitivo, or the late-night panni snack? Is this the meal I will share with you?"
Let me back up: my husband Wally and I own Pogliani Select, a business based in the Hudson Valley where we offer a resource for food enthusiasts to taste and connect with Italy's finest extra virgin olive oils and balsamic vinegars. This trip was an intersection of connecting with our partners and absorbing our journey through the lens of food.
Then came Modena.
Love comes in many forms in Modena. Baroque architecture clustered in the town's colonnades. When the golden hour light hits the ochre-colored buildings. Quiet piazzas filled with incredible old-school specialty stores, cool wine bars, and bakeries. Whenever you go for a stroll, the pleasant aroma of sweets and pizza float in the air. Modena's culinary heart is on display at every turn. When a risotto trevisana is paired with a frizzante Lambrusco and an elegant twenty-year-aged balsamic, it feels like I'm living out a food fantasy.
Speaking of balsamic, after spending an enlightening Modenese day at Casa Giusti with our partners Claudio, Stefano, and Giulia we continued our conversation at Al Boschetto Da Loris. The restaurant was opened in 1961 by Loris and his wife and sadly shuttered during the pandemic. Now re-opened under two visionary chefs, Francesco Rompianesi and Davide Scappini, their takes on classic dishes are imaginative and utterly delicious. Our meal there was so good we returned a second time during the trip on our way to Parma.
Here are the dishes that Francesco and Davide keep us dreaming about:
Gnocco Fritto. Yes, anything fried is beyond, but this dish from the Emilia-Romagna region, particularly popular in Modena, is hands-down my number one bite of the trip. The gnocco are small, rectangular or square pillows of dough that are fried golden brown, puffed up and hollow, with a light, and crispy exterior. The chefs topped them with a local sixty-month-aged prosciutto, cut paper thin, and finished with Giusti Five Medal balsamic. We could eat this every day.
Frittata. Farm-fresh eggs are whipped with Parmigiano Reggiano and cipollini onions to create a lovely, light dish. The frittata is topped with greens; whatever Francesco finds locally...I call it "topping of the day." The first time we devoured the frittata, it was garnished with arugula. The second time, a sprinkling of chicory. Oh, and I almost forgot, before he sends it out to the table, the dish is paired with Giusti's historic twenty-year balsamic.
Tortellini in brodo di cappone (homemade capon broth). This dish made Wally declare, "This is the best tortellini in brodo I have ever had in my life." The tortellini are filled with brasato, a slow-braised beef with aromatics.
Risotto with quail. This was my favorite. A mind-altering secondo finished with the drippings of delicate quail that floats atop this Parmigiano/riso cloud-like dish. I literally couldn’t speak while eating this risotto.
Our second lunch lasted three hours and was followed by a conversation with Francesco and Davide, who shared the restaurant's history, sourcing locally and staying true to the heritage of Modena and the region.
Our sweet/dolce experience came the following day on our afternoon walk, where we discovered Antica Pasticceria S. Biago, an old pasticceria. We selected fresh spinach whipped into a sweet egg and ricotta filling and baked in between layers of butter pastry that we enjoyed in our room later that night. The following day, we returned and bought another local specialty, Torta di Rosa. A most fragrant, sweet, airy yeast bread made with Rosolio, a local liquor made with rose petals. It tasted like a promenade through a heavenly rose garden.
Modena is a paradise for Italian food enthusiasts. A living, breathing, delicious dream realized.
The food and conversations transported us through centuries of culinary history, and Wally and I continue to reminisce about the many exquisite bites from our trip. This enchanting city's rich flavors and traditions made us feel wholly present and have etched themselves into our hearts forever.
Name drops: Giusti 1605, Al Boschetto Da Loris, Antica Pasticceria S. Biago, Pogliani Select
Gelato À Gogo
by Greg
Last summer, Doug and I visited Luisa, his beloved host mamma in Padova. The most hospitable and put-together person you’ll ever meet, Luisa has exceptionally high culinary standards. To avoid wasting money at a sub-par restaurant, she’ll only dine out if the place has been vetted by a family member. So when she suggested La Romana, an expanding gelato chain that had just opened a location in her neighborhood, we knew she wasn't messing around.
Each night at around 11, Doug and I would slink like vampires out of Luisa’s casa and head straight to La Romana for our evening feed. No matter the day of the week, the line curled around the block. All walks of life were queued up for a little late-night lick; punk crust teens, graduates from Padova University celebrating their laurea, and grandmas with small dogs ripping cigs. The store is bathed in a warm yellow glow and smells incredible, like all of your favorite baked goods fresh out of the oven.
Luisa had warned us that La Romana gives its flavors fanciful names that reveal little about the ingredients. Doug couldn't decipher most of them, so we were forced to refer to pictures on their website of the current offerings and, cruelly, all of their past scoops. I let out a deep sigh of disappointment when I noticed that banana (my favorite) was in their hall of fame and not currently on offer. With that, I started off the week with a baseline of stracciatella, which was, how do you say, trascendente. The gelato is soft and ultra creamy, and the scoopers do this thing where they fill the bottom of your cone with a sauce of either chocolate hazelnut or white chocolate. It really makes that last bite something to remember it by. After sampling Doug's selection, which roughly translated to "crunchy granny," I knew I could do better than vanilla with chocolate slivers.
With each night’s order, I tried to level up my game by tweaking two scoop flavor combinations. I felt solid ending the week with a combination of “granny’s cookies” and “crunchy granny,” but Lady Delish sent one last Italian blessing my way.
On the last day of the trip we left Padova to visit friends in Milan before catching an evening flight, and we were excited to report our frozen finds via La Romana. To our surprise, they hadn’t heard of it, and as luck would have it, we stumbled upon one of their Milan locations. While inspecting the sandwich board outside, I locked in on a big, glossy glamor shot of their current special, Farcito 3, which translates to “stuffed 3.” We’re talking banana gelato filled with caramel toffee, milk chocolate, and tasty crumbles.
My week’s worth of “research” suddenly meant nothing. Banana was back, baby, and this time with a glow-up. La Romana had already figured out the ideal combo. This divine flavor has been staring me in the face this whole damn time, and like a dad in a McDonald’s Drive Thru, I needed a picture to know what the hell was up. Farcito 3 was everything I’ve ever wanted in a gelato: a trifecta of all of my favorite textures happily swimming around in a banana basin. It was like eating chocolate chip cookies, banana cream pie, and a candy bar at once, but not in a fucked up Ben & Jerry’s way. Sometimes, you just need to leave the art of gelato to the Italians. Chances are they already know what you want.
Name drops: La Romana
A special thank you to this week’s illustrator, Dongyan Xu2! See her work here.
If you’d like to be a Guest Gulletier or illustrator, drop us a note at putitinthegullet@gmail.com
Mike Fish is co-owner of Pogliani Select, the Hudson Valley food enthusiasts' source for the finest olive oils and balsamic. Before following his passion for Italian food and culture, Mike fine tuned his marketing, media, and writing skills with a 30 year career spanning media planning, advertising account management, communications, and advertising sales.
When Mike is not touring the Hudson Valley with his husband Walter to give olive oil and balsamic tastings, he enjoys running, cooking, traveling, watching old films, and naturally eating.
Currently his favorite foods are: mushroom (porcini) risotto, fettuccine with bolognese, farfalle with summer peas, and his husband's brodo (made with both chicken and beef). But he would never say no to a really good hamburger, a plate of aged prosciutto, or most fruit flavored gelatos.
Dongyan Xu is an award winning illustrator currently based in Beijng. She received an MFA in Illustration Practice and a BFA in Illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Dongyan is interested in the topics of mental wellness, individual emotions, and relationships between living things. Her work often consists of intricate lines, details, and patterns, and she enjoys inserting small animals into artwork to judge the human characters. Recently when she isn’t drawing, she reads fiction and fan fiction, takes walks, and listens to astronomy Podcasts.