Dishing out Italy

On a food trip to Italy, we find cheese that reminds us of body parts, discover the beauty of olive oil, and see what dante's descendants are up to these days

On a food trip to Italy, we find cheese that reminds us of body parts, discover the beauty of olive oil, and see what dante's descendants are up to these days

Mumbai claims Italian amongst its favourite things to eat. But you can count the number of Italian restaurants on one hand and the memorable from amongst those on two fingers. Maybe it's all that Italian we think we're cooking at home: paneer pizza and spaghetti alfredo (forget paneer pizza, even spaghetti alfredo is an American invention, not Italian, says a chef we know).

So when Italian food importers R R O Oomerbhoy plan a trip to Italy to sample real Italian food and learn how it's made, we go.

Our trip is to showcase the making of the stars of Italian foodu00a0 olive oil, pasta, cheese and wine. Just risotto is missingu00a0 but our curiosity about it is satiated back home in Mumbai. More on that later.

There is a case for being a touristu00a0 you see what makes a country proud, at one level. But if you want to know the people, you must break bread with them. Italians eat a lot of bread, from shapes as familiar as the morning's flaky croissant (with jam, cheese or Nutella, thank you) to another that looks like a goat's horns. The surprising thing is that in Italy, no matter how hard the bread is, it does not cut your gums like some Indian varieties do. This has to do with the countless types of flours available, we are told.

We first head to north Italy, where winters are cold and the people are hard to find. We are in Spoleto, where we look for signs pointing not to piazzas and churches but to people.

Wine and dante

Ask any Italian from Verona about Masi and his hand will instinctively go to his heart as he sighs in pleasure. Masi's Amarone wines are made with a special method of drying and double fermentation. They are smooth and expensive. We see their drying and storage facilities and walk past barrels of prize-winning wines. Then, there is a treat in store.

We are taken to the farm of Serego Alighieri. Alighieri. As in Dante. His son Pietro bought this farm. We are told it was from the money Dante made from selling his first poem but there may be more romance to that story than truth. But Dante did visit here and his descendants are still around. Serego Alighieri makes wines, olive oils, jams and moreu2026 the property also has rooms you can stay in that overlook a farmland straight out of a Monet painting.

Studd up

The expansiveness makes us mellow. Nothing like some pungent cheese-in-the-making smell to slap us awake then. We go to a factory that makes Grana Padano and Provolone. It's like watching Will Studd's show on cheeses of the worldu00a0 pumpkin-shaped cheeses (also called mandarini) ferment in water, green and quiet, like alien pods waiting to hatch. Elsewhere, grana padano takes its time to mature.

We taste everything and also get an unexpected lesson in spice. From Cremona comes mostarda or mustard. A spicy jam-type compote, mostarda is made with mustard and fruit and accompanies cheese. You think you're Indian and know spice but you don't. We pick up six bottles of the stuff.

Au00a0song for juliet

Our journey ends on a Shakespearean note. We spend two nights in Verona. The courtyard that houses Juliet's balcony also has a newly-opened hotel, the Il Sogno di Giulietta. You could have a balcony overlooking Juliet's or, even better, one opening on to the street below for your Romeo to climb up on to. Every room has a jacuzzi tub you will need after all the hectic shopping at the piazzas.

Rates go from Euro 300 upwards but there really cannot be anything more romantic than this. After hours, when everyone has gone, the courtyard is empty. And Juliet's bronze statue stands in a corner, alone at last. The tourists have gone but the poetry remains.

We come home with pasta in our bags and get an invitation to eat at a risotto festival at a Mumbai hotel. Our journey continues. For more on that, turn the page.

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