Truffles, wine, hazelnuts, cheese, chocolate, and more!

Looking for a life-changing adventure? Something that will provide you with marvelous memories of great food and great people that you will carry with you for the rest of your life? Curious about crafting your culinary and cultural wisdom? Consider this, then: while students are settling into their dorm rooms to start the new semester at the end of August, you could be landing in Turin to take a weeklong excursion in Piedmont with Zingerman’s Food Tours! Heading out at the end of the summer way is one of the best times of year to travel—you beat the bulk of the summer heat and also the height of the tourist season.

I’ve probably been to Piedmont at least 10 or 12 times over the years. While it’s well off the beaten tourist track, it’s long been one of my favorite places to travel to. Without question, Piedmont has some of the best food and wine you’ll find anywhere in Italy. If you want a literary recommendation to enhance what I’m offering here, the region’s elegant capital city of Turin was much appreciated by both Friedreich Nietzsche and Mark Twain. The region is located in the upper northwest corner of Italy, butting up against Provence to the west and Switzerland to the north. The name Piemonte is derived from the old local language and means “the foothills of the mountains.”

Although it’s very much part of Italy, the region really has more in common with eastern France and the foothills of the Alps than it does with other, more distant, parts of Italy like Sicily, Sardinia, Calabria, or Puglia in the south. Seth Sherwood wrote in the New York Times last winter,

With the Alps as a background, Turin, Italy’s fourth-largest city, is elegant, photogenic and rich with history. Grand squares and former royal palaces abound in this northern Italian crossroads, nicknamed Little Paris, which was briefly Italy’s first capital after the country’s unification in 1861. … the city is awash in earthly pleasures. Both gianduja chocolate and vermouth were invented there, and can be sampled among the historic coffeehouses, chocolate shops and aperitivo bars that line the city’s arcaded shopping boulevards.

The tour to Piedmont is a terrific way to taste the jewels of the region’s cuisine. There are truffles and anchovies, and an array of world-class cheeses that are little known outside the area. The wines, such as Barolo, are widely acclaimed. And don’t forget the fantastic hazelnuts, considered the best in the world, which will show up in any number of dishes during the course of the tour. There is also an amazing chocolate tradition—when you’re in Turin try the Bicerin, the classic coffee drink of the town and a favorite of French writer Alexandre Dumas. It’s one-third each of espresso, hot chocolate, and cream, all layered lovingly in a glass so you can clearly see each layer. You’ll also find lots of the terrific artisan chocolate hazelnut spreads that we love so much around here, like the super tasty Noccioliva (featured right now on our Summer Sale) we use so regularly at the Coffee Company and Roadhouse. The region even has its own ancient language called Piemontèis or Lenga Piemontèisa.

The tour starts with a wine class presented by tour cohost Bernardo Conticelli—Bernardo just came to Ann Arbor to visit us for the first time and was the guest star at a series of great events we held around the ZCoB last month. There’s also an old-school stone polenta mill, a century-old cheese shop that’s been selling artisan cheese for so long it makes the Deli look like a new arrival on the food scene, a day trip to go truffle hunting, and then a whole truffle-focused meal! Oh yeah, in the spirit of schools starting up for the fall semester, there are also formal lessons at Slow Food University.

Lots of wine, a whole lot of chocolate, and loads of good learning. There’s a whole range of really great highlights—check out the delicious details! If you’re looking for a life-altering, incredibly tasty, educationally inspiring, culturally rich, wisdom-building way to spend a week, check out this trip today! If you go on the trip, I’ll forecast that you’ll still be reminiscing about it fondly for years!

Plan to visit Piedmont!

Have you heard about our Parm Project? Throughout the Zingerman’s Community of Business we’ve embarked on a project to source Parmigiano Reggiano from multiple dairies in Italy’s Parma region and share them with you. We want to spread the word that this cheese is not a singular thing—there are a range of flavors and characteristics in Parmigiano Reggiano varieties, just like with fine wines and olive oils.

Today Grace Singelton, a managing partner at Zingerman’s Delicatessen is sharing highlights from her trip to Caseificio Ravarano #3084

I had the pleasure of spending time at Caseificio Sociale di Ravarano, where much of what I learned about the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese making was reviewed, but in much more detail and depth than I’d heard previously. Damiano is the cheese master at Ravarano and, like all cheese masters, his presence sets the tone for the production and the staff. Maybe it’s due to his study of engineering, but Damiano gave the most thorough and detailed accounts of the entire cheese making process. He gave us information on everything from the forage available in the fields to the care of animals and the gathering and transportation of milk, through the handling of the milk by the cheesemaker and all of the steps involved in creating and aging Parmigiano Reggiano.

I left with a more thorough understanding of the entire process. There are many traditions present in the production of Parmigiano Reggiano, and many newer technological advances have been added as well—older equipment, like using a hawthorn branch to cut the cheese curds, have been replaced with newer present day materials. Now stainless steel cutters have been formed for cutting the curds, but made in the same shape as the tree branch.

Damiano, the Cheesemaker

A 30 cheesemaking veteran, Damiano is a fourth-generation cheese maker who is very highly regarded and successful, but he wasn’t planning on being a cheesemaker. He started working when he was very young, and he had been an active participant in all of the cheesemaking operations throughout his life. He was studying engineering when his father passed away, but he was only 23. He returned to the facility to take over the business and that made him the person in charge at a young age. He says it was difficult, but he studied and is now happy—he gets good results and is considered a good cheesemaker. His mother is still there with him and involved in the business, helping during the production, and watching over the cheesemaking process. You can see her in the photo below, looking over the process next to her son.

Damiano has this to say about cheesemaking:

There are four tools needed to make the cheese: time, temperature, 1,000-year-old technology, and your hands. Physically making the cheese is the only way to learn—you can study, but really you only learn after a mistake is made. Your hands and your mind are the key to your success in cheese making. Man, mountain, cheese, farm are all linked.

Damiano starts his day at 5:00 a.m. He looks at the cream to see how the milk is and he decides how soon he should start. The day we visited he told us “the milk was good, outside is beautiful, and it helps the cream and the milk.” It was a sunny day, cool but not cold, and warming up nicely with the sun.

The Cheesemaking Process:

• The evening milk is brought to the dairy. It must arrive at the dairy within two hours of milking, and this limit means that the milk source cannot be a great distance away from the cheese production, keeping it part of the local economy. During the night the cream naturally rises to the surface and in the morning the milk is surface skimmed, removing a portion of the cream.
• There are 10 small farms supplying this dairy with an average of 30 cows at each farm. None of the farms have enough milk to fill a vat, but each farms milk is always divided up the same way. Damiano knows which farms pair well together, and although it may look like he does the same work for every vat, they were each treated differently.
• The morning milk arrives and is mixed with the skimmed evening milk and moved to the vats where the starter is added to the milk.
• When it is at the correct acidity level the rennet is added. The temperature is raised from 18 to 34 C (64-93 F) and after about 10 minutes it begins to coagulate. From this point on the main goal is to remove the water.
• The curds are cut into many small diamond shaped pieces. Damiano says it is important to cut the curds and not break them, so they will knit back together. The diamond shape allows more surface area, and helps the curds stick together. As the curds are cut into smaller pieces you can see them start knitting together (see photo below of cheese curd disc on Damiano’s hand or the side of the copper vat- this was not formed or strained it was simply removed with a ladle, and allowing gravity to unite the proteins).
• The heat is raised to 54-55 C (122-131F) and the curds continue to knit together and the cheesemaker uses their hands and eye to judge when the cheese is ready. This is the critical time to never walk away from the vat. The curds rest at 55 C for 60 minutes- the bad bacteria die due to time and acidity “like pasteurization but not as high a temperature”.
• Once the curds are ready, the cheese curds are gathered in the linen cheesecloth to separate them from the whey.
• The drained curds are divided in half to make “the twins”, (two wheels are made in every vat, every once in awhile if there’s not enough milk they will make a solo wheel in a vat) and the whey is drained off.
• Once the wheels are formed they will be put into the frame that imprints it with the recognizable pin dot markings along with the farm number and month of production. There are also QR codes on a casein label put on every wheel that can be used to provide full traceability on the cheese.
• The wheels rest for three days in a humid room, prior to going swimming in the brine pools. There are a couple different versions of these pools- some have the cheese floating freely in shallow pools, where they are only partially submerged and they must be rotated on a regular cycle. Other pools are much deeper, and the cheese are put on metal racks that allow them to be fully submerged into the brine water. The amount of time in brine varies with each producer but it is in a range of 18-23 days for the farms we visited.
• After removal from the brine, the wheels are moved to a larger aging room where they will be allowed to age and develop for at least 12 months. They can be considered Parmigiano Reggiano only when they are over 12 months of age and have been tested. If they pass the test they will be branded, or if they do not pass the rind on the wheels will be removed to prevent anyone from passing this cheese off as the real Parmigiano Reggiano.

A Centuries-Old Process

Many of the processes of the cheese making go back hundreds of years. The evening milk is left to sit overnight, and it is not refrigerated (held around 18 C /64.4 F). There are many different types of bacteria in the milk that are naturally occurring—they are impacted by the feed they eat, and the handling of the milk, as well as the local environment. We asked Damiano about leaving the evening milk to sit overnight at room temperature. He explained that if you had subpar milk the the outcome wouldn’t be good, which is why this isn’t done for all cheese production, but only when the milk is superior quality. The milk has a mix of bacteria that helps the cheese develop, and as the cream rises overnight it naturally removes bacteria they don’t want in the milk.

There remains within the cheese making of Parmigiano Reggiano® a blending of knowledge, traditions from the past combined with present day technology advancements. There’s still a strong reliance on the skill and craft of the cheesemaker in the process to convert a perishable liquid milk into an incredibly tasty wheel of certified Parmigiano Reggiano that continues to develop flavors and provide nutrition many years into the future. Even though we aren’t as dependent on our ability to preserve foods without refrigeration as our ancestors were, I can’t help but admire the care and skill that were developed to provide sustenance throughout the year, and the strong commitment to quality and flavor that continues to this day.

Ravarano is a coop- and the individual farmers own the dairy. Damiano is paid by the farmers to make the cheese. He also owns the cheese shop and buys the cheese that he sells in the shop. Prior to us importing the cheese with the help of Rogers Collection, all of Damiano’s cheese had been only sold in Italy. We’re thrilled to have his cheese on our counter at the Deli—stop by for a taste!

Four flights, five days, five dairies, about twenty-five different cheeses, some friends, a lot of time in the car, and a dozen very good meals all added up to one very good trip!

At the end of last month, I had a chance to go to Reggio-Emilia to taste test Parmigiano-Reggiano. Grace Singleton, long time managing partner at the Deli and my girlfriend Tammie Gilfoyle packed our suitcases and flew out to northern Italy.  There, we met up with my long time friend and very fine food writer Elizabeth Minchilli (check out her website—her blogging, her books and her food tours are all fantastic!).

We spent most of the week based in the lovely medium-sized town of Reggio-Emilia, headquarters of the Consorzio del Parmigiano Reggiano. From there, thanks to the good guidance of our Consorzio host, Simone Ficarelli, we spent three days driving back and forth across the province to taste cheese from some of the area’s best Parmigiano-Reggiano producers!  We hope to have some of the results of our travels and tastings in house for you to taste some time next year!  In the mean time here are some photos to whet your appetite!

—Ari

Celebrating Passover in Italy

Arugula…check.

Tomatoes…check.

Apples…check.

Arborio rice…check.

French Matzo…check??

If this is starting to sound like a game of Supermarket Sweep, you’re sort of on the right track.  This grocery list did in fact exist at one time and, while only comprised of a few items, evokes fond memories of a very impromptu, very resourceful, and very delectable Passover Seder thrown together by a friend and myself while studying abroad in Florence, Italy two years ago.

Before delving into the mishegas surrounding this particular Seder, I must preface with the fact that Passover and I have had a love/hate relationship for pretty much my entire life. Growing up in a reform Jewish household just outside of Chicago, my family upheld a unique but lax set of Passover traditions come springtime. While we always either hosted or attended a Seder, it typically consisted of 90% eating and conversation and only about 10% prayer or religious ritual (my kind of holiday indeed). So it came as quite the shock to me that one of the most salient and dare I say heartwarming memories from the five months I spent in Florence was the aforementioned Passover Seder.

After arriving to Italy in late-January 2012 and spending three lengthy months navigating the ins and outs of Italian life, I found myself slipping into a bit of a homesickness rut. As romantic as my perceptions of Italy were while still at home, nothing prepared me for the culture shock of living in a new country. Granted, the copious amounts of pasta, gelato, and brick oven pizza definitely helped ease the stress, but nailing down a new routine and finding my groove in a place so drastically different from home turned out to be an emotional roller coaster.

Fortunately, one of my best friends Emma G. was scheduled to pay me a visit in Florence right around said time.  As a study abroad student in Spain and a general detester of shellfish, cured meats, and excessive use of olive oil (pretty much the primary food groups of Spain), she had grown rather weary of the culinary landscape of her host country. Italy proved a haven of her personal food loves, so we both knew it would be a carb and dairy heavy weekend from the get-go. Coincidentally, her visit also fell right around the start of Passover and as two study abroad kids longing for a taste of home, we took it upon ourselves to recreate our very own Passover Seder in the heart of Florence.

Right off the bat, we had a set of foods in mind we knew we would have to include in order to make it a both an authentic Jewish and Italian Passover Seder. After deliberating and narrowing down options, we eventually settled on a menu of charoset  (a traditional salad comprised of finely chopped apples, walnuts, cinnamon, and wine traditionally piled on matzo), an arugula salad with grated Parmesan cheese, caprese salad, and risotto. For any fellow Passover celebrator, I a fully aware that risotto is probably the most inappropriate dish for a Passover Seder, but given it was Emma’s first time in Italy, grains were a very necessary component of our culinary lineup for the weekend.

While optimistic about our plan, the execution of the meal proved challenging to say the least, presenting a whole slew of roadblocks, the most challenging of which include:

1. Lack of matzo. As shocking as it may seem, Florence is not home to too many Jewish holiday foods, outside of the offerings from one shoebox size Jewish grocery store near the Florence synagogue. Unfortunately for us, as it was the first night of Passover, the store was closed on this particular day leading us on a mad hunt around town for an unleavened bread in any form. I think we tallied in at five different grocery stores before finally stumbling on a box of French matzo crackers, which are round rather than square in shape and have a slightly puffier and chewier texture. No it was not the matzo we had in mind, but it more than did the trick.
2. Lack of any and all Manischewitz products, particular their sweet cooking wine. In addition to being probably the most infamous and popular libation at Passover tables, this super sugary Kosher red wine is a crucial addition in charoset, giving it a distinct sweet/acidic tang that rounds out the fruity flavor of the apples. Scrambling for alternatives, Emma’s culinary creativity suddenly kicked into hyperdrive and lead to an ingenious creation that blew me away—Chianti wine (the king of Florentine wines) reduced down on the stove with a bit of sugar until becoming a syrup created nearly the same texture and flavor you would get from a traditional Passover sweet wine. Ten points to Emma. Charoset accomplished.
3. Lack of prayer books and minimal memory of Passover Seder songs.  Fortunately, this was the easiest fix of the bunch given Emma and I’s collective love of all things music. We figured a hefty Motown playlist would suffice just fine.

In light of all the kinks, the Seder surpassed all of our expectations. Emma got her long-desired pasta/tomato/cheese/veggie-filled Italian meal. We both got to indulge in our favorite Passover foods. And, most importantly, we caught up on much needed friend time—and about four hours of post-meal Mad Men on iTunes. Despite being in a foreign place with a language and customs different from our own, we found solace in each other’s company, in my cozy apartment on Via Ricasoli, in old and new traditions, and, most importantly, in matzo—even if it was French. To this day, it remains the best Seder I’ve ever  attended.

— Maddie

Zingerman’s Food Tours is about connecting with people and places through the food. We take a small group, settle in, and explore a cuisine and culture. We eat, we talk with the locals, and we learn directly from the artisanal food and wine producers about what they do. On our tours, you’ll go behind the scenes and learn from the locals about what makes the food so special. Come find out for yourself!

2013 Tours

Traverse­ City/­ Leelanau­ Peninsula,­ MI
*Our ­first ­domestic ­tour!­
May 17-19
A very special 3-day tour, packed full of tasting, eating, drinking, and learning about great food and beverages directly from the artisans who make them! These producers will open their workshops to us and share their passion for what they do. The local food scene up there is thriving – from farmers and cheesemakers to chefs and winemakers, everyone we talk to in that area is really excited about what’s happening and how vibrant, and delicious, their local food web has become.

Piedmont,­Italy­­
September 25-October 3
We’ll dine on regional specialties, and we’ll
go behind the scenes and learn about some of the wonderful products of the region, such as risotto, chocolate and nougat, cheese, polenta, grass-fed beef, the elusive white truffle, grappa, and of course the wide variety of wines, from the big reds such as Barolo, to the sparkling whites. And we’ll put on our aprons and get
a hands-on cooking class directly from a Piedmontese chef!

Tuscany­
October 6-14
We’ll visit traditional small producers of some of the region’s finest foods – from the massive wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano, to the beautiful, small bottles of real balsamic vinegar, from Chianti Classico wines and artisanal olive oil to the melt-in-your-mouth prosciutto crudo. And we’ll roll up our sleeves and enjoy Tuscan cooking lessons in a 15th century villa in the rolling hills outside of Florence.

Hungary
October 15-25
We’ve been blown away by the amazing artisanal food of Hungary and by the warm welcome of its people, and we want to share them with you! Hungary has an incredibly rich and varied food tradition reaching back at
 least 1500 years, including an Eastern
European Jewish influence. From the regional cheeses, wines, cured meats, and bountiful produce, to the incredible breads, pastries,
and elegant multi-layered tortas, Hungary has 
it all.

Visit our website for more information about our tours. Or find us on Facebook. We’d love to hear from you!

Zingerman’s Food Tours
phone: 888-316-2736­
email: foodtours AT zingermans dot com