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 | I drove up to Verona last night to attend Vinitaly, the major Italian wine show aimed at the trade. It's a huge show, with ,any large pavilions packed with stands, and there is no way one could come close to covering everything in a week, but it does offer an unparalleled opportunity to discover wines and wineries, and I will be sharing my discoveries over the next few weeks. The one down-side to Vinitaly is spending a week in one of the prettiest cities in the Northeast and not seeing anything except the fair. But the wines are worth it. | |
Verona: Florence of the North?
SOME GUIDEBOOKS INTRODUCE VERONA as the Florence of the North. The two cities do have rivers flowing through them, and have mountains behind them, but that's in many ways where the resemblance ends. Put simply, Florence was a Capital City and Verona was not. In other words, though Verona was at times quite powerful, it also spent long periods under foreign rule; because of this it didn't have the sort of long-term influence over its neighbors that Florence did, and didn't attract the sort of wealth that Florence did. There was no massive urban renewal program in the Renaissance, and this, for the tourist, is a very good thing: The old survived.
Both Florence and Verona were major Roman cities... Read More
| When In Verona...
Verona is an interesting city from a culinary standpoint. It was long part of the Austrian Empire, and therefore many of the dishes, especially the stews, have a Mitteleuropean feel to them that brings goulash to mind. On the other hand, there are many other dishes that do not. And what might you have in Verona? Risotto, because Rice (Vialone Nano) is one of the major crops, meats, lake fish... And to drink with these dishes? With the risotto or the fish I would think about a Bardolino Chiaretto, which would also be nice with the Minestrone. With the more substantial meats, a Valpolicella Superiore or an Amarone. The 2004 vintage is still young, but will by now be approachable.
| Spring Risotto
As I said, Verona is a land of rice cooking. And rice naturally brings risotto to mind. With the arrival (timid, but it is coming) of spring we can set some of the heavier winter risotti aside in favor of:
| Monday was Pasquetta...
And Pasquetta is traditionally the beginning of picnic season, or at least an opportunity for city folk to take a walk out in the countryside. It may not yet be warm enough to eat outside where you live, and here are a couple of suggestions featuring chicken that will work nicely when it's no longer winter, but not really warm either. The recipes in the Featured Articles section below make up a menu of sorts.
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