Parma

Italy blog #5

By the day our trip to Parma was to start, signs of Christmas became more and more prevalent. As we were walking to the train station in Bologna for our trip, we got to see our first Christmas tree being put up by the city square. It was still pre-dawn, but you could see the snow clinging to a few branches. We hoped that we could see it decorated before we left, but we had no such luck.

Parma.... just the name makes me sigh with happiness from all the good things this region produces, not to mention all the bootlegged products made here too. On this trip we were going to meet up with my friend and his family in the evening, so we decided to take a tour in the morning. We ultimately decided to go with Laura as our tour guide (http://www.foodtours.it/). On our first stop we went to see how Parmesan-Reggiano cheese is made at a local factory (http://www.cplparma.it/). First off, to be called Parmesan, it has to be produced from a certain area (See the picture of the map below).

Another tidbit, is that it takes only ~3 people to make large quantities of this cheese (10,000 wheels/year at this factory), and they work every day of the year. The cows that produce the milk going into the cheese don't stop producing milk just because it's Christmas or whichever holiday. At night the cows are milked and the cream and skim milk are separated overnight, and in the morning the cream is mixed with the whole milk from the morning milking. From there they add rennin and whey to the mix, and it sits in copper vats for ~1-2 hours at over 50C (about 122F). The vats are sloped so that the cheese is collected at the bottom. After the cook time has passed, the workers take a linen sling and collect the cheese into this big ball, and they tie the linen on a bar above the vat, allowing the cheese to drain of excess liquid and to cool. After about 20 minutes of hanging and cooling, they drain the vat, the liquid being given to pigs, and the ball of cheese is cut into 2. Each portion is put into a wood, cylindrical box where the date is written on top with the batch number (x out of how many wheels made that day). A cover is loosely put on, and the cheese sits for 24 hours and more liquid drains out. The next day the cheese is transferred to a metal wheel, and the printed Parmesan-Reggiano logo with the batch number stamp etc that you see on a wedge of cheese is wrapped around the now smaller cheese wheel. The cheese sits in this metal wheel for 48 hours, and then it proceeds to another room. The next room has shallow tanks of water saturated with a salt brine. The brine is so saturated that it is one slight step away from having salt precipitate in the tanks. The cheese sits in these tanks for 1 month, getting slipped daily so both sides are exposed to the salty solution. After this one month, they then go to a storage room which is set at 20C (68F). The wheels sit here for 1, 2, or 3 years. A machine goes around flipping the cheese regularly. After 1 year, the cheese is hit with a special hammer to detect if the cheese meets the Parmesan standard. If it doesn't it's stamps on the crust of the cheese is scraped off. This cheese consists of about 5% of all that is made. Sometimes it's made into table Parmesan (grated). Brie and I each bought 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) of 2 year old cheese (I'm giddy with delight to eat this).

Cream separator

The quality stamp gets added after 1 year (if it passes the hammer test)

The lovely outfits we had to wear

Rejected cheese wheels with the stamp scraped off

Our next stop was to learn about how traditional balsamic is made at Acetaia Picci (http://www.acetaiapicci.com/ing800/whoweare.htm). This is not the regular balsamic vinegar you have in your kitchen, this stuff has to sit for a minimum of 12 years before it can even be tested against the consortium panel to get certified and it is much more syrupy than your 'normal' balsamic. The official traditional balsamico has a single bottle type and is sold in 100mL volumes (~3 oz). They are typically at 3 different levels, red= 12 year minimum, silver= 15 year minimum, gold= 20 year minimum. Not all batches qualify, even if it's been sitting for 12 years, they have to get the consortium's approval, and the consortium is the ones who issue the bottles that are used to bottle the balsamic vinegar. The different ages of vinegar are used for different types of food items. There are also rules on how this traditional balsamico is made. Some companies make a condiment variety which is more flavorful than standard table balsamic vinegar, but doesn't reach the consortium level of quality. We learned that there are differences between traditional Modena and Reggio Emelia. Modena tends to use red grapes, and Reggio Emilia uses white grapes. The image below gives a quick overview of the process.

From http://www.acetaiapicci.com

The image above speaks to 3 of the 5 woods they use, in total juniper, oak, cherry, mulberry and chestnut are used in various schemes to get the right flavor. The barrels have an opening with a cloth over the opening, unlike with wines. The casks need to undergo all the weather conditions of the year (aka, no cellar or air conditioning), and they are stored in the attic. Anyone can take a 5 hour class on how to make the traditional stuff, and most, like Picci have a second job, such as owning a restaurant, since the time requirement in making the balsamic is not too big (with a few exceptions of course). The casks lose about 10% of their volume to evaporation, and to maintain consistent flavor, only a small fraction of vinegar from one barrel can be transferred to the next barrel, and then the first one can be back filled and so on and so on. Tasting the various levels (gold, silver, red, 2 different condiments), I could really taste the difference between each one and how they can be used with different foods.

Some extra small barrels

After the tours we went for lunch at Il Trovatore (http://www.iltrovatoreristorante.com/) where I had an appetizer of broccoli puree with cheese and Brie had Prosciutto with  pickled veggies, and they served us an apertif of prosecco. I ended up for my main meal with ravioli with spinach and Brie had al brodo with capaletti. We had a local wine with our meal, which was delicious. In a post-lunch food happiness haze, we walked around the city center trying to find the information center for a better map, and it turns out we passed it a time or two before finding the sucker. We went into the Duomo at Piazza Duomo and later we went into the Battistero (Baptistry), which was gorgeous inside, not at all what I expected from the outside. There were 3 different door arches, and inside were lots of frescoes. The rim on the halos on some of the figures in the frescoes was etched into the stone.

Duomo to the left, Baptistry to the right

Church of Santa Maria Della Steccata

One of the baptistry entryways

Another of the baptistry's entryways

Cloisters down the street

Inside the baptistry

Inside the baptistry

Inside the baptistry

Inside the baptistry

Inside the baptistry

The cloisters

Behind the Duomo

As it was getting closer to the time we were going to meet up with my friend, we headed towards the Barilla Center, yes, the family/company that makes your pasta is based out of the Parma region. After walking around a bit, we met up with my friend and his wife, who so kindly hosted us for dinner. Low and behold we also got to meet their adorable son (a 15 month old) who kept us entertained the entire night. We also met his brother-in-law who happened to be visiting, and who also made the evening's lasagna. It was a lovely evening filled with lots of fantastic food, laughter, and good times. The baby is a charming, smarty, daredevil of a little boy who is going to give his parents gray hair. He knows how to peel tape off of things (childproofing), and likes to stand on his rocking horse. A wonderful evening was had by all.

All the Christmas lights at the Barilla Center

Tip:

• Keep the end of the Parmesan cheese and throw it into soup for more flavor.