This is how you finish… (Taken with Instagram)

Remember the article about the pig? This is how you start the “soppressata di testa”… (Taken with Instagram at Locanda Vini & Olii)

Grapes are in season so… Let’s put them into the pheasant terrine! (Taken with Instagram at Locanda Vini & Olii)

Going to visit the famous area of Piemonte called “Le Langhe” has been a dream of mine for a while. When I heard that Enzo Boglietti was coming to visit us in Brooklyn to organize a tasting of his wines at Locanda, I thought: that’s it! November 24th was my birthday so I decided to give myself a trip to Italy. I wanted to not only see where Enzo was from and taste his wines, but also sample some of the local food so I could begin crafting the menu for our wine dinner.  I organized a visit to Enzo’s winery with my uncle and brother, who live about 4 hours away in Florence.  We arrived at noon on a beautiful sunny Friday. Enzo was there to welcome us and give us a tour of his estate.

Enzo’s winery is located in the very heart of “Le Langhe”, the historic region between the provinces of Cuneo and Asti in the southern part of Piemonte, famous for its wines and white truffles. His vineyards are all over this area and the oldest, and most famous, are in the cities of Barolo and La Morra.  After visiting a few of the vineyards, and touring his new central facility in La Morra, time had come to eat lunch!

We went to a local restaurant called “Osteria More e Macine”. We started with a bottle of Arneis as the owner showed us the menu written on a blackboard. Arneis is an indigenous grape to Piemonte, and means “little rascal” because of how difficult it is to grow.  Everything on the menu sounded so good, we decided to order all of the appetizers. 

The highlights where the “battuta di fassone” a Piedmontese beef tartare with just a touch of oil and salt, the “salsiccia di Bra”, a sausage made from Piedmontese beef, and a giant bowl of snails in a green sauce.

At the third bottle of Barolo, we had finished the appetizers and were already stuffed.  We were pleading with the owner to not bring out any more food.  We needed to save room for the night’s dinner! 

The owner, while opening yet another bottle of Barolo, solved the situation saying: “Ok then, taglierini with truffles for everyone!”  Taglierini is a traditional Piemontese egg pasta, a bit thinner than tagliatelle, served simply with butter and truffles, and I must say, truffles and Barolo work quite well together.

Always saving room for desserts, we had the “bōnet”, a typical flan made with chocolate and ameretti cookies, and a hazelnut tart with zabaione cream. To top it all off, before we left we somehow finished three bottles of Moscato d’Asti “bollicine”, or as they say, little bubbles.

I left the restaurant very happy and very satisfied, having had my first experience of Piemontese living.  This is what I came here for!

After lunch, we had a nice drive through vineyards and rows of hazelnut trees and in about half an hour we arrived in Alba, the truffle town. We checked into our hotel and the first thing that we noticed was the subtle smell of something very familiar. We looked outside our window and we were staring at the Ferrero’s factory. That smell was coming from tons and tons of Nutella! Hazelnut is another typical product of Piemonte, and the fruit of the trees we passed on our way to Alba are use to create their world famous gianduia.

After a brief rest, we head off to dinner. The restaurant that the owner of “Osteria More e Macine” recommended is called “La Coccinella”, the Ladybug. It is a very elegant, yet cozy, place with a lighted fireplace and the intense aroma of truffles. The food is very good. The antipasti ranged from caramelized pumpkin with Castelmagno cheese gelato, to stuffed onions, to marinated trout. The pasta I had is called “plin”. It’s similar to the square shaped agnolotti, but its smaller and more rectangular.  Basically, its a small ravioli, this one stuffed with roasted pork and tossed with a ragu of the roasted pig itself. I, of course, needed more truffles, so I also ordered a cheese fonduta with poached egg and white truffles. My favorite dessert was a very nice red wine poached pear served with zabaione cream.

The next day, the weather was still amazing, so we decided to visit the part of Alba where the local farm markets are gathered. The products are beautiful and fresh and I want to buy everything. Among the vegetables in season where Topinamburs and cardoons that are used to dip in a very typical and creamy sauce called “bagna caôda” made with milk, garlic and anchovies! The cheeses where beautiful: “Testun”, “Toma”, “Castelmagno”, “Raschera”, “Robiola”, just to mention a few. There was a stand that featured small salami with different flavors like truffle, Barolo, wild boar and donkey! Hazelnuts, Gianduia chocolate and truffle completed the experience. 

Later in the morning we took a walk through the hills of Barolo, where workers were tending to the wines.

It was almost time to head back home but first we went back to Enzo’s estate to sample some, actually almost all, of his wines. Some I was familiar with because we have them on our list at Locanda. Some are new to me, but all are delicious.

On our way to Florence, we have yet another amazing lunch in a very remote place that my uncle knows because years ago had worked in the area. We had an incredible Vitello tonnato sandwich, home made salame, pancetta and cheeses to die for.  The desserts were also really good. Bonnet and hazelnut tart.

As they say: it is a hard job, but someone has to do it… And I did it!

The food in Piemonte is amazing, the products are fresh and genuine and the wine delicious. I was definitely inspired and I look forward to Boglietti Wine Dinner on January 19th at Locanda Vini e Olii, where I will try to recreate some of the atmosphere of Le Langhe.

Michele Baldacci.

Prosciutti, salami, salsicce, pancetta, soppressata, cotechini, lardo and so much more! 

It’s no wonder that every family in rural Tuscany and the rest of Italy would wait anxiously through the months of December and January for the annual ritual of the killing of the pig. 

One animal can feed a whole family for the entire year.  The process is more, though, than just slaughtering the pigs for food.  It is part of our heritage, of our history, of our culture. 

However, in the 1960’s, government regulations cracked down on the practice of home slaughtering due to hygienic concerns. John Caserta sums it up perfectly in a great article in Meatpaper about the pig slaughter in Montenero Val Cocchiara….

“Traditionally, stables were in the village and people would keep their pig under their house, so that every piece of land could be used for agriculture. Eventually, sanitation laws stepped in and the government imposed incentives to build stables outside of town. Nowadays, it’s illegal to slaughter pigs in this traditional way. Pigs are supposed to be sent to a government-sanctioned butcher. There are signs around saying “You’re not allowed to kill pigs.” But it’s expensive to send the pigs to a butcher, and people say that the meat doesn’t taste as good.

For a while, there was some embarrassment about being too much of a villager, not being able to afford people to do things for you. But that’s changing. The people who are killing their pigs are happy and proud that they know how to do it. It’s not a sign of poverty, as it was in the 80’s and 90’s; it has now become a point of pride.”

By this time in the winter, people everywhere are getting ready. Phone calls are made, e-mail are sent, appointments are scheduled: “Is it this Sunday? Next one? O.K. Let’s meet at the exit of Valdarno at 6:00 a.m. It’s done we have a date”.

The ceremony starts early in the cold morning. By the time we get there, the pig, a beautiful animal of almost 100kg, is already dead. It’s throat had been cut, and men are now pouring hot water all over its body to skin the thick fur. All you can see is an intense vapor.

I will skip butchering part, as its pretty graphic and purely technical. If you really want to learn how to butcher a whole hog though, you should take a class at the Meat Hook…..those guys are serious about pig.

Anyway, lets get to the interesting part: the transformation of the different cuts.

The two thighs are carved, then carefully massaged with salt and pepper. In six months they will be two succulent “prosciutti”.
The shoulders get the same treatment and will become “spalle”… a leaner version of the prosciutto.
The tenderloin is also put under salt to produce the “lombo”… a cold cut that we like to eat fairly fresh, dressed simply with oil and lemon. 

People are getting hungry, so it’s time for “quality control”. We put some of the ribs on the grill to see how good this pig really is! They are superb. The fat melts, tenderizing the meat, which is so flavorful that it needs almost no salt. On the side, we have “migliaccio”, a sort of pancake made with pig blood, salt, peper and parmesan cheese. Yummy.

Now that our stomachs are full, let’s keep going.

image from Hobson’s Choice blog

The belly is saved, of course, to make pancetta.  Most pancetta you find in the States is rolled, however, in Florence, we leave it flat.  After covering the belly with salt, pepper, juniper berries, bay leaves, thyme and rosemary, the belly put skin side down in a container and left flat to cure for about a month. 
The two cheeks are also prepared in the same manner to make the even tastier “guanciale”.

Now, it’s time for the not so fun part of the job…cleaning the intestines. After removing any residual matter, the intestines must be cleaned, thoroughly and carefully. After the last wash, they are ready to be used as containers for salami and sausages.
Since the pork chops and bottom rounds have already been divided among the workers, whatever is left over (like the head, including the ears) is used to make “soppressata”.  The parts are boiled for a few hours, then taken off the bone and chopped, lightly dressed with lemon zest and parsley, and then put into a thick cloth sack, which is left hanging to let the excess liquid to drip away. After it has stopped dripping, the sack is pressed and rolled, and then hung in a cool dry place … and as soon as the next day, its ready to be eaten, and should be eaten within the month.

The final part of the four legs are perfect as “involucro” for the “zampone”. For us “zampone” and also “cotechino” (savory sausages full of spices) mean Christmas time. We eat them for the festivities. They are slowly boiled and served with lentils or mashed potatoes. I put them on the menu at Locanda and they will stay until the early spring.

Most of the pig has now been cut and processed. But the job is not yet finished.  The innards are what we call the “fifth quarter”. Liver, heart, kidneys, and lungs are the precious reward for all our hard work, and are consumed, grilled or stewed right away.

We are now ready to start. It’s nine o’clock on a freezing Sunday morning. The morning frost has evaporated but it’s still cold. Luckily, today the wind is giving us a break. We start with the farthest trees and want to finish a row by lunch. I place the net and my brother helps with the “pioli” (little wooden sticks that we use to secure the net). My dad has already started with the bottom branches, my mom takes care of the other side. My wife has disappeared on top of the tree and I climb the ladder to help her. After about twenty minutes all the olives are picked, and are on the net ready to be collected and placed in the crate. It was not a big tree but produced about half a crate (20 lbs of olives). It should give us 2 lbs of olive oil if this is a productive year with the percentage around 10%. By lunch time it’s warmer, and we all take off our jackets and hats. It’s time for a quick snack: bread, prosciutto, pecorino cheese, a glass of wine and we are ready to go again. By five o’clock it’s too dark and you are not able to see the olives anymore. We collect our tools and put everything in the storage room. Last thing to do is to collect the crates and pile them under the “loggia”. They need to have air in order not to mold.

The morning after I am off work so I can help my parents who both took the week off. It takes us about two weeks to complete the job and if it doesn’t rain too much, we can pick almost all the olives and get around 10,000 lbs! When all the olives are in the crates, it’s time to bring them to the “frantoio”, the oil mill. My mom has booked us a spot in the morning, so we load all of our cars with the precious goods…they will smell like fresh olives for weeks…and we carefully drive to the mill. As we arrive, we encounter the giant tractors and trucks coming from the mill full of freshly pressed olive oil. They work for big farmhouses and usually press their olives during the night.

Soon, it’s our turn! We unload the containers into a giant hole, where they are sucked up, washed, and sent into the first machine. Two big stone wheels crush them, leaving a brownish thick paste. The paste goes through many processes and is always kept cool, which is very important to not alter the flavor of the oil. After about one hour the first drops of golden-green liquid are coming out.  It’s very dense and full of sediment. It has to rest for at least a week before it can be used, but it smells so delicious, so the the first thing we do when we get home is to try it on some grill bread. It’s very spicy and strong, but so good and we are very proud of it!

Michele Baldacci.

Part one:

As we say in Italy: after April, comes May. September is long gone,  the grapes have been harvested and our wine is secured in the vats. It is time to pick the olives! It’s November and in Tuscany you can tell just driving around the country side: hundreds of improvised  workers populate the hills around Florence. For about two weeks, whoever owns a “tongue of land” with olive trees on it is intent in  the ceremony of the olive picking. The fields workforce  quadruplicates. Accountants put on their gloves,  Surgeons take off  theirs and put on some boots, lawyers walk with ladders on theirs  shoulders and farmers look at all of them and shake their heads…

My family, of course, is part of the show. My parents bought an old barn in the late sixties with one hundred olive trees attached to the property. Today the barn is a house and the trees still produce excellent olive oil. It’s my mom’s job every year to check the tools. First the nets to catch the olives that fall from the trees. One of them is new, the other is old and ripped; it is probably the same one that my grandparents bought to replace the World War Two parachute that they used to use. We will use it this one last time, next year she will buy a new one… Ore will she? Next are the “manine”, little plastic combs in the shape of hands. Everyone should carry one: they run through the branches leaving the leaves, tacking the olives off. We also need two ladders and some gloves. In different parts of Italy, more recently, people have begun using motorized sticks that slap the trees and make the olives fall down into the net. We don’t use them. This system is valid for bigger plants and flat terrains. We live on top of a hill and our trees are only twenty five years old because of the great freeze of 1985 when all of them died from the intense cold. I also believe that there is something deeply wrong in the beating of an olive tree…..

Even bread made without salt can be delicious.  These beautiful loaves are 100% better than the bread we used to serve.  

Why does Tuscan bread have no salt, you ask? As with most things Italian, there are a few theories.  Some say it was a result of thrifty Florentine bakers in the 12th century rebelling against a salt tax.  Others say that “because the people of Tuscany have always favored pungent and salty meats, spicy salamis, rich olive oils, complex Pecorino cheese, and pungent liver paste on toast, a saltless product was naturally called for.” -  Wild yeast blog

Regardless of the reason, its been a staple of Tuscan cooking for centuries,  used in dishes like Panzanella, Pappa al Pomodoro, and Ribollita.   And when done well, it can be crispy and crunchy on the outside, and soft and flavorful on the inside.  You have to try it for yourself.

For the next few months, the young wine maker Kristian Keber, from Edi Keber in Friuli, will be on the floor at Locanda Vini e Olii on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.

He will be there to open wines, including his award winning Collio Bianco 2009, and answer any and all questions about the art and science of wine making.  

A little about his vineyard:

“Situated just a stone’s throw away from the Slovenian border, Edi Keber’s 10 hectares of vineyards grow on the classic “ponka” soil, a stony, friable marl that gives the wines remarkable weight and body. Extremely poor, the “ponka” naturally stresses the vines which produce very small quantities of grapes (1 to 1.5 kg x vine) and provide a distinctive minerality, typical of the Collio region. Keber’s first bottled wines date back to 1957, although his family, originally from Vienna, has made wine for 350 years. Edi deeply believes in the unique character of the Collio terroir and his objective is to make, starting with the 2008 vintage, only one white wine that will embody the tradition of the Collio by blending the three varieties that have been grown in the area since before the two great wars: Friulano, providing for body and structure, Malvasia Istriana to impart the aromatic component and Ribolla Gialla for its acidity. Edi’s young son, Kristian, follows his father’s maverick footsteps helping in every aspect of the production. The grapes are picked at their highest possible maturity levels and are then fermented and matured in old cement vats, which according to Edi, add an element of “soul” to the wine as opposed to the sterility of stainless steel. Keber’s wines are deep, intense, long-lived, where generous fruit and terroir blend seamlessly. The total production is 60.000 bottles.” - Jan D’Amore Wines