Simon's Blog: Top Tips for Tuscany and Bologna – Part 1
We have not long got back from a couple of weeks away in Bologna, Florence, San Miniato. Here’s some of the culinary highlights that might come in handy if you’re headed that way and if you’re not, then maybe they’ll encourage you to do so.
Not a lot of this was planned in advance, just a couple of places that we had been tipped off about by locals. There’s so much info online these days but not necessarily much in the way of enlightenment. Our tactic is usually to let one thing lead to another, find somewhere that clicks and then make friends with the people who run it and ask them. The daisy chain of hospitality rarely fails us and this time was no exception.
Bologna
We took the train to Bologna and arrived mid afternoon in the blazing sun. First time in the Red City, we dumped the bags in a shady little apartment in the heart of the old town and headed straight out to take refreshment and make some hazy plans for the next few days. Enoteca Storico Faccioli is a cool and slender wine bar with a huge range of natural wines from the region and beyond. There’s a whole raft of stuff available by the glass. The staff are relaxed, friendly, enthusiasts and it’s wise to tune into that. As with all the places listed here, you’ll find prices reasonable, a lack of frippery and not a hint of cynicism - we returned several times. They do food too, top quality antipasto, polpette, mortadella of course - simple but not to be underestimated. We arrived around 4 and left at 8ish as I recall, we’d seen about 200 yards of the city but by the time we left we’d fallen in love with the Enoteca and Bologna. We quite liked each other too.
I’m a little allergic to coffee snobbery but there’s no getting around the fact that good Italian style coffee of the type to which many of us have become attuned is far from ubiquitous in Italy and Bologna is no exception. Frankly, and there is much we could self-flagellate over in this respect, much of the hospitality offering is, rationally, aimed at the hordes of tourists and pretty transactional on both sides. If you want something more than a cheap and consequently anaemic cappuccino you have to search it out at somewhere like Terzi (more on this one later) or Allegra.
Call it coincidence, fate, synchronicity, happenstance or whatever you will but this trip was marinated in it. In the cavernous cool of Allegra lit there was just a as a flicker of recognition as a young women approached to take our order but nothing that made me think twice. As it transpired, our first coffee of the trip was served to us by Holly, from Cardigan, we had mutual friends and later realised we had met on more than one occasion. Naturally Holly turned out to be a friend of Enotica Storico Facciola where the three of us later sat in the street outside talking over wine in the warmth of the late afternoon sun.
Some goods from Allegra. Left image courtesy of Allegra
Allegra’s a big set up with ambitions, they have a huge wholesale wine business too. In the morning it’s coffee and bakery, then it becomes a “natural wine bistro” for lunch and dinner. The large, spare, open room shout’s canteen rather than bistro and there’s the buzz to go with it. There’s a lot of fresh pasta on the cards, satisfying bright flavours sharpened up with frequent jabs of citrus. Roast guinea fowl with lemon and buttered carrots, agnolotti stuffed with roast pork, apricot sauce and oregano is the kind of thing to anticipate. If you’re lucky you might get to say hello to Holly too.
Some of the best local produce, on show at Ahimè
Bumping into Holly was a joy in itself but it came with the added gift that she knew and clearly loved, the city, especially its food. And so it was she that pointed us in the direction of Ahimè to which we strolled in the baking heat through graffiti sodden backstreets. Not that graffiti really does it justice, not because of any inherent beauty perhaps, but because some of the political stuff amounts to an essay - politics is a big thing in the Red City. Ahimè is by contrast diminutive and understated or, according to their own description ‘a simple place for daily use”. It’s no humble trattorie though, styled as it is on that small plates in a cool space set-up but it carries it off well because the young guys ( and they were all guys) running it are clearly on a heartfelt mission. They don’t take themselves too seriously though and sitting at the bar was an easy ride. There’s much that’s familiar on the daily menu but no shortage of creativity in dishes that deftly combine the flavours and textures of some beautiful local produce. Veal sweetbread with artichoke and tarragon, bean salad with cauliflower, bacon and apple, duck breast, broccoli and Cremonese mustard. There’ a more serious looking sister restaurant called Uno di Questi Giorni but it’s hard to imagine an extra layer of formality adding much. Not for me at least.
Cremeria Santa Stefano and Terzi, taking their crafts seriously. Images courtesy of the establishments
Terzi is the other place for great coffee. There’ll be a line outside the tiny shop and a crowd around the handful of little tables on the opposite side of the street. This is no hipster house, it has a more trad feel and an air of seriousness, reverence - a place of pilgrimage. Ten minutes after or before if that’s your cup of affogato, you can be at Cremaria Santa Stefano where there’ll be another tell-tale line. The gelato is made at the back and served at the front and this place is celebrated by locals as the best in town.
Octopus, prepared with care. Images courtesy of Sale Grosso
With no plans to go to the coast we took the short walk through a few backstreets to Sale Grosso where seafood beckoned. We did that twice, the first time mid-morning in the hope there might be someone there and we could book for that night. It makes no sense but after all these years the thought of trying to book on the phone in another country still makes my stomach churn and if I can avoid it I will. This time I got lucky and we returned in the evening to cheerfully feast on frito misto, fried artichoke hearts and braised octopus. I think the woman owner was pulling the strings in the cramped kitchen - it had the feel of a place with a chef patron or whatever the Italian equivalent.