This week, Rick Stein visits Bologna in northern Italy, a city so famous for its food that it is known as the stomach of Italy. He learns how to make the local fresh egg pasta used for tortellini, tagliatelle, ravioli and lasagne. There is stuffed rabbit, filled with parma ham and Parmesan frittata for dinner. At the market, he finds a fish stall and café where he enjoys squid stuffed with mashed potato and capers.
Bologna is a medieval city with a university even older than Oxford and Rick explores the cloisters and the Whispering Walls. He even climbs Bologna's famous Asinelli Tower, despite vertigo. He drives up into the hills to a cheese dairy where he tastes a 13-year-aged parmesan. Nearby there is lunch in at a pig farm with restaurant attached. Out in the back they are making brawn but for the crew lunch they serve huge pork steaks, grilled over charcoal, with a big glass of local San Giovese wine. Delicious.
Comments