Ep. 2095 Pairing Food & Wine From All Italian Regions - 3 Year Anniversary Special Pt. 2 | Wine, Food & Travel With Marc Millon

This concludes part two of my special edition giro d'italia that has dipped into all twenty regions of Italy to discover a few of what I consider to be the quintessential food and wine pairings that no visitor should miss. You will find much more detail in my weekly discussions with wine producers, sometimes chefs who give us a deep dive into their lives, into their homes, and into what they most enjoy eating themselves. Welcome to wine food and travel. With me, Mark Billen, on Italian wine podcast. Listen in as we journey to some of Italy's most beautiful places in the company of those who know them best. The families who grow grapes and make fabulous wines. Through their stories, we'll learn not just about their wines, but also about their ways of life, the local and regional foods and specialities that pair naturally with their wines. And the most beautiful places to visit. We have a wonderful journey of discovery ahead of us, and I hope you will join me. Welcome to wine, food, and travel with me, Mark Minen, on Italian wine podcast. Today's episode, my one hundred and fifty seven celebrates three years of weekly episodes of wine food and travel with Mark Millen. This is part two of a special edition. A whirlwind giro d Italian visiting each of Italy's twenty regions to highlight the quintessential foods and wines from each. Last week, we covered the first ten regions So to complete the series, here are the remaining ten. Molize is the newest of Italy's twenty regions. A breakaway from Abruso that only acquired independence as a region in nineteen sixty three. It is also the second smallest after Valle Dosta. The one fragment of the region flanks the Adriatic, this is a sparsely populated mainly mountainous land of shepherds and farmers. The hard Durham wheat grown here is used for both artisan pasta manufacturer as well as handmade in hones and restaurants into an ingenious array of shapes using only Durham wheat flour and water. Fusili strips of pasta twirled around the wire are a particular favorite served in a rich lamb ragu spiked with pepperoncino or else lamb is grilled over open fires as in a Both dishes paired perfectly with a glass of Quintilia, a grape variety probably introduced by the Spanish during their long rule over southern Italy. Cheese from the milk, from cow, water buffalo, goat, and sheep are all delicious. Especially mozzarella di Buffana, which when encountered extremely fresh on the day that it is made, or maybe just a few days at most later, can rival examples from Campania. White Beferno from Trebiano to Scano and Bumbino can pair well with these creamy fresh dairy products. Piedmont. Piedmont, the foot of the mountain, is a region that is aptly named For this large northwestern corner of the country lies under the shadow of the Alps, with snow covered peaks often visible from throughout much of the region all year round. Piedmont's capital city, Turin, was the first capital of the newly Kingdom of Italy under King Vitorio Emmanuel secundo in eighteen sixty one. The Savoya lands at that time had extended over the mountains into French savoir, even including the city of nice, conceded unification, and also including the island of Sardinia. Today, Piedmont is a prosperous region through both industry and agriculture and with gastronomic traditions that reflects something of the multicolor cultural heritage of the savoia. In the north around Vricele is one of Italy's main rice growing areas. It's a striking sight to see those snow covered mountains reflecting in the glistening rice patties around Vricelli. Serial and livestock are cultivated in the flatter planes that eventually lead down to the Po valley, but in between is a ripple of hills in an area known as Leilenge. Around the wine capital of Alba, source of some of Italy's greatest wines. These hills are not only the source of barolo and barbaresco. In autumn, the woods, are the precious hunting ground for one of Italy's and the world's greatest gastronomic delicacies. The Tuuber Magnaudalba. Indeed, from October through early January, gastronomes come from around the world to sample at the source, this rare and in demand tumor found by trained dogs and their candy mask to be shaved raw for any number of foods from the simplest fried egg to more considerate an elaborate pianti. For me, the best way to sample the white truffle should you happen to find yourself in Alba or surrounds at this time of year? Is simply shaved over a plate of handmade, fine, tairine pasta, bathed in butter, covered with as much shavings of tartufo as you can afford. The wine to pair with this, some choose a white, such as a roberto, or a nice, or maybe a timoraso. But for my taste, I can think of nothing to beat a caliche of barbaresco. The lighter and more ethereal expression of the mighty Nebula grape pairing well with the truffle, which is not so much a flavor or a taste. As a heady and intoxicating aroma, a fleeting sensation that is almost drug like. White truffles are amongst the most expensive food products in the world, gram for gram. Other gastronomic highlights are much more down to earth and humbler. Another autumn specialty is, Banya Kauda, a pungent anchovy garlic, an extra virgin olive oil hot pot served in an earthenware bowl, kept warm over a tea light to dip in seasonal vegetables such as fennels, peppers, carrots, cabbage, the Cardi Gobi of Nisa Monferatto, bread, and anything else. Traditionally, Bana Kalda is served on San Martino, November eleventh, and best with the new Dol Chateau. Its fermentation perhaps not quite complete, so still foaming and even a touch sweet to down by the jug as you enjoy this simple repast eaten with the hands. As the seasons move from autumn to winter, Other favorite dishes are found in Reisterante and Osterii eight, including Bolito Misto, great trolleys of simply boiled beef, usually at least five to seven different cuts of prime facone. We're in the wine country. Brazato Obarolo is a favorite dish in homes and restaurants alike, beef raised in Barolo accompanied, of course, by that king of wines. Poulia. Poulia is a large southern region that forms the heel of the Italian boot for long consider the garden of Italy, a rich agricultural source of so many good things to eat and drink, including around forty percent of Italy's olive oil. Last quantities of derm wheat used to make bread and pasta, an abundance of fabulous sun ripened vegetables, including tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, beans, fennel peppers, onions, artichokes, and more to be enjoyed in the region, sent throughout the rest of the country, as well as conserve traditionally, so to hold you, packed into jars of extra virgin olive oil to provide goodness all year round. Sparks upland areas such as, morge, provide grazing for sheep and goats, source of rich milk for a range of cheeses as well as for delicious meat, and the long Adriatic and Ionian coastlines provide a wealth of wonderful fish and shellfish. Some say the best bread comes from Altamura while puli's most famous pasta is Orecchiette. Little ears of pasta handmade by women on their doorsteps in Bari and elsewhere from simply Durham wheat, water, and the skill of their fingers. Orecchiette can be enjoyed with any number of different sauces or toppings, depending on availability of ingredients and the season. Perhaps with a lamb ragu in winter or a simple raw tomatoes in summer. My favorite is Orrecchiate conchima de Rate with turnip tops, stewed in poullian extra virgin olive oil, garlic, and plenty of pepperoncino, for me, the taste of poullia, paired possibly with a good rose egg, such as Castel del monte, Pullia may seem like a far off outpost, but it's been a well traveled land since antiquity when the great Roman road, the Via Apia, led from the eternal city to Brindisi, the port that was a gateway to the Eastern Mediterranean. Cruiseaders set off and returned from here too, bringing back with them wealth and influences from the orient. And over the centuries, it has been been a by way for lombards, Normans, byzantines, Venetians, and more. Today, Brindisi is an important fishing port. An octopus fishermen may still tenderize their catch by beating it on shoreline rocks. The favorite preparation for this eight limbed Monask is Porbuapinata. Octopus stewed in a terracotta pot with cherry tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, wine, garlic, and pepperoncino. Though a full flavored rosato from salento might pair well with a seafood feast, I'm leaning towards a Salicee Salentino negro Amaro Rosault, full of plummy fruit with medium high acidity that cuts through the rich sweetness of the octopus. Sardinia. Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean and has long been a glittering prize as well as a staging post for peoples traversing the seas for centuries and millennia. The Greeks, the phoenicians, the Romans, the Byzantines, and for some centuries, the Spanish and the Savoya all pass by. Through it all, the Sardinian people have remained stoically courageous and fiercely independent. Traditionally turning inland rather than to the sea. Masterers has changed this to a certain degree, and a coastal cuisine makes full use of the bounty that comes from the sea to serve in resorts that cater to the well heeled. Local lobsters served over a bed of Frigula, a local pasta made from coarse semolina rubbed with water to form hard balls, rather like cuscoos, while fish such as sea bass, John Dorian, red mullet, are served simply grilled. Anchovies are salted to be conserved, and the rove of the gray mullet is salted and dried to make one of the island's great delicacies, butarga, to eat in thin slices on bread topped with a drizzle of olive oil or else grated over pasta. Sardenia's best white wine comes from the Vermentina grape, which here on the island, and notably in the vineyards of Gallura, as a fuller, richer character, the Paris so well with this full flavored island maritime cuisine. Indon, Sardinia remains a land of herdsmen where sheep and goats are tended both for milk, Sardinia is a source of some of Italy's finest Pacarino cheeses, as well as meat. Cooking is at once timeless, yet also highly skilled. With lamb, a kid, and sucking pig stuffed with wild herbs, and placed on spits to return by hand as the meat slowly cooks to just the right degree of doneness over a bed of fragrant wood embers. Indeed, porche do, sucking pig, cooked in this manner, served with pane, carazao, thin flatbread, cooked in a wood fired oven, and paired with a tumbler or glass of cano now is truly the taste of sardinia. Just reserve is a vast array of handmade pasta that is unique to the island. Sardinia can also boast an array of wonderfully simple sweet concoctions made from flour, sugar, eggs, and little else. Siatus is a traditional fried pastry filled with young pecorino cheese and topped with local honey, but passini or biscuits filled with almonds, raisins, and honey. Never too sweet and delicious with an amber glass of Bernacha Dioristano, an oxidized style of wine that is unique to Sardinia and connects with the island's Spanish heritage. Sicily. The history of Sicily can be found in a delicious crunchy bite of one of the island's most famous specialties, the canola. The sheep's milk ricotta with which this delicious tube of fried pasta is filled, harks back to the ancient Greeks. In Homer's Odyssey, there is a description of the one eyed cyclops polyphemus from his home on the slopes of Mount Aetna straining the way in wily baskets to make this cheese. The wheat to make the pasta is a reminder that Sicily was a bread basket for the Roman Empire. Those pistachio nuts that stud the shell of the fried pasta were introduced by the Arabs who brought so much else to the island. Chocolate came from the Spanish, a candied fruit from the French, or the British can even claim that touch of Marcella wine that is sometimes added as a flavoring. Why not continue the connection by pairing your canola with a taut of Marcella or perhaps with a dessert wine whose antecedents go back much further. A passito from the island of Pantelaria made from zebibble grapes left to shrivel in the heat of a near African sunshine, utilizing methods not that different to those used by winemakers in antiquity. Across centuries in millennia, foreigners have passed through Sicily and exploited it and also left their influences, not least on its richly textured and flavored cuisine. The Arabs introduced citrus trees to Sicily and brought irrigation for the cultivation of rice, Arancini, or balls of rice filled with a meat ragu and peas, then breaded, and deep fried, another quintessential flavor that Sisinians miss when they've been away from home for too long. Enjoy this street food with a carafe or tumbler of For an island people, fish of course is a staple of the diet, cheap, everyday fish like sardines or mackerel, as well as great steaks cut from huge tuna and soarged fish, and precious shellfish such as the gambarrosa or red prawn. Of Mazara Delvalo. Those tuna and swordfish steaks are grilled like red meat, and paired with red wine, while those beautiful red prawns are exceptionally sweet and best enjoyed crudo raw with a chilled glass of grillo. Masara in the west of Sicily is also the home for another dish that showcases influences from afar, the North African specialty of couscous here in Sicily made not with lamb, but with fish and shellfish. Paired perhaps with a glass of, or if you can find it with the wine that comes from a tiny island that was once a powerful finishing colony. Pork from the black pig of the Nebrady mountains is superb and goes well with the full red wines of Sicily, Nero da vola, Charaswaulo, DIVitoria, and Nocera, as well as with wines made from international grape varieties such as Sierra and Cabernet sauvignon. In lingua Glosa, on the slopes of Mountain Aetna butcher's hand cut on wooden trunks, a famous sausage, Salcichal Chapo, to be simply grilled over wood embers, beautifully paired with a calachier, Aetna Roso, perhaps Sicily's greatest wine, or full flavored. At Dorosato. Pastthala Norma comes from Catania, a city that was a birthplace of the composer Bellini made with salted and fried aubergines, tomatoes, and topped with ricotta salata, hard salted ricotta for grating. This lovely dish is just gorgeous with a glass of slightly chilled Frapanto. Who wants to be the next Italian wine Ambassador. Join an exclusive network of four hundred Italian wine ambassadors across forty eight countries. Vine Italy International Academy coming to Chicago on October nineteenth is twenty first, and while Matikazakhstan from November sixteenth to eighteenth. Don't miss out. Register now at Vineetri dot com. Tuscany. Tuscany is the Italy of all our dreams, the cradle of the renaissance. It's beautiful countryside, the backdrop of a painting by Leonardo. It's historic cities and towns such as Florence, Siena, Pisa, San Jimignano, and others are amongst the most popular and visited in the country. There's a strong Tuscan identity that is often linked to the city or town or even the precise neighborhood or contrada from which a person comes. And this is reflected not least in loyalty and taste in both food and wine. Tuscan cuisine is essentially rustic country cooking and all the better for it. The hearth is still the heart of both homes and restaurants alike, and even something as simple as no more than a thick slab of good, unsalted tuscan bread, toasted over wood embers, then scraped with a clove of garlic and drizzled over with tuscan, extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle of sea salt is transformed into something simply divine. Crying out, of course, for a good glass of the local wine, wherever in the region, you happen to find yourself. That distinctive unsalted bread forms a basis for any number of dishes too, such as that favorite summer dish papa al Pomodoro, a sort of tomato y mush or ribulita, a wintery minestrone spooned over stale tuscan bread to become thick and delicious, or pancanella, a bread and tomato salad that is truly the taste of summer. Pasta dishes are mainly simple too. One classic is peachy or peachy if you're in Montalcino. Long hand rolled noodles made from no more than durum wheat and water to be bathed into any number of sauces though the classic favorite is a shugo made from jingale, wild boar, fabulous with a good glass of sangiovese, Tuscany's greatest grape in all its various manifestations, Kianti Clasico, Kianti Rufina, cianti, and favorite. The t bone steak as thick as you want it. Indicate with your fingers. To be cooked over that hearth and seasoned. Yes, again, with the tuscan gold. Extra virgin olive oil, often produced from olives grown on the same estates as the wines, and often costing even more than the wines. Tuscany has a seaboard on the trainian, of course, and seafood is an important feature too. Kachuca from Nivorno is a one pot fisherman stew made with from whatever has been caught that day, best partnered with a Zesty Vermentino. Perhaps if you want something with a little more structure than with an oak aged or skin contact, Bernatra di san Jimignano, Tuscany's most historic white wine. To finish, lots to choose from, including cakes with unusual spicing and flavors such as Panepato flavored with black pepper and chocolate or why not settle in with a small glass or two of one of Tuscany's great passito dessert wines, been santos, made in the traditional artisan fashion from grapes, Trebiano, Malvasia, or sometimes sangervese, laid out or hung from strings to dry in ariadics before fermentation in one hundred liter caratelli that are left only partially filled before being sealed and placed in attics for a period of years. The wine that eventually emerges is simply glorious and far too good to waste by dunking Cantucini biscotti into. Trentino alto adige. Trentino alto adige or Trentino Suttiro only became part of Italy following the treaty of Versailles at the end of World War one. Prior to this, it had long been a part of Austria. While the Italian speaking Trentina region welcomed the change, it is fair to say that the people of Suttirole, the German name for Alto Adice. Were not and still are not wholly convinced. The German language remains the official language of Sutturo, which has been occupied by German speaking inhabitants since at least the eighth century and was part of Austria from thirteen sixty three until the end of world war one. Today, the province seems Austrian in just about every way, architecturally, linguistically, and not least gastronomically. This mix between the Italian heritage of Trentino and the Austrian of Suttirot results in a particularly delicious blend of flavors. Shaq, the hind leg of pig, dry salted, and smoked in a chimney, in his example of the Germanic traditions of meat curing that came here centuries ago, first, with the lumbards, Canaryardly, our delicious bread dumplings flavored with speck, poached, then fried in butter, lightly soft pillows of deliciousness that are perfect with a glass of trento doc, classic method sparkling wine, a sparkling wine from the mountains. Smoked, boiled sausages are served on platters of sauerkraut, simmered in wine and spices, perhaps paired with an aromatic gewirtztraminer or a golden muscatellar hearty one pot dishes such as Austrian inspired goulash or goulios are enjoyed in both Tarantino and suturo. The paprika flavored beef and potato stew paired with a powerful taro dego rotagoliano in the former or with a la grain from suturo. Her typical farmers repast in Sutturo might be a platter or speck and smoked reversed with local cheeses such as Isaac Tallar or the more pungent puzone de monnaeus, served with Shuttlebrot, the favored crunchy flat bread of the region. This together with a carafe or bottle of kernel or Vernotch makes a most satisfying meal. Umbria. The green heart of Italy is one of only three landlocked Italian region located in the center of the country, bordered by Tuscany to the north and west, Marghe to the east, and lazio to the south. The countryside is characterized by rolling hills that lead up to the Apennine, and there are scores of beautiful medieval cities and towns that attract visitors. Perrugia Asisi, spoleto, Gubio, Orvieto, Montefalco, amongst others. Castronomy and wine are one of its main attractions too. The region boasts some of the best salumi cured meat products. In all of Italy, with butchers from Nordcha, particularly skilled in the craft, so much so that the term Nordea has come to denote specialists in the production of Salumi wherever they are located. Enjoy then. Some fabulous platters of a tati, sliced cured meats, as well as some of the best porkettes you'll find anywhere. Delicious stuffed into a panino, to eat with the hands, a grease, dribbling down your chin as you wash it down with a tumbler of Roso de Montefranco. Food here is mainly unpretentious and down to earth. The humble lentil takes pride of place, especially a variety grown around the village of Castelucho. Simmered with vegetables and wine and topped with a juicy grilled salty chow or two. I'm reaching again for that bottle of Roso de Montefalco, or perhaps an or vietano rosso made from a blend of grapes including San Jose, Montipulchado, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, Merlo, and many others. Ficiency, if you don't feature that much on Umbria's menu, though you'll find a delicious freshwater catch from Lake Tressemino in lakeside, Osterien, West trunks, simply paired with a craft of Grachetto or Trebiano from local vineyards or with a good bottle of Georgiano Bianco or Orvieto, a wine that was famous, even in as far back as etruscan times. Don't miss enjoying tartuffie truffles throughout the year whenever you find yourself crunchy summer truffles to grate in abundance, prized an expensive white from October through December and pungent and deeply flavored black truffle to last through winter months. The best wine to enjoy with truffles, with a plate of tango, sea pasta, bathed in butter, then grated with summer black truffles, I'd go for a lighter summer rad, perhaps a gamay from Trasimeno or a Toriano Roso. White truffles need to be served as simply as possible to enjoy their intense and intoxicating fragrance and aroma, maybe on a plate of scrambled eggs with a glass of Trebiano Espolitino, the full flavored and structured white and noble partner. Finally, with winter, black truffles, perhaps served with a rich stew of chingale, wild boar, we can savor some of Umbria's greatest wine, Sanarantino de Montefalco, and Georgiano Roso reserva. Valladosta. Italy's smallest region, validosta is bordered to the west and north by France and Switzerland and to the south by the region of Piedmont. It's a majestic mountain man, crowned by snow covered alps, an historic crossroad since antiquity connecting Italy to Northern Europe today via the Mont Blanc Tunnel in the Great San Bernard pass. This is a favorite winter sports playground for both Italians and people from all across Europe, while in summer excursions to the high mountains are equally popular. Not surprisingly in this Alpine region, the gastronomy is strictly robust and hearty mountain food, the sort that satisfies after a day or days spent mainly outdoors. Perhaps the most famous dish is von Duta made with fontina cheese, served at the table fondue style, or else spread or spooned over cooked vegetables, potatoes, or toasted bread. The wine to accompany this is an ethereal light white mountain wine, belong to Margier Edelacao. Produced from that Prilet blanc grape, a variety that is cultivated in the highest vineyards in Europe. There's a long standing tradition of artists in Salumi produced in the mountains, including a jambon de Boss PDO, and air cured prosciutto flavored with fragrant mountain herbs, or lard Darnat PDO, salt cured in air dried, lard, also flavored with those mountain herbs, plenty of local sausages, and perhaps the region's most curious specialty. Toutoon cured cows on her. The wines to enjoy in Validosta's unique range of salumi, or should we say charcutri in this bilingual region is probably one of the regions, Validosta dog rands. Made midway down the valley, primarily from the Puti Ruge grape, possibly from a precise sub zone, such as Tourette, r v a, Chambach, or Nous. It's not surprising that game features, especially during the colder months. With feasts of venison, paired with red wine from Donah, primarily from the unibial grape, a lighter and more ethereal expression of that great noble grape of Piedmont. Venato. Venato is a northeastern region that encompasses Venice as well as the Tarafirma mainland that became part of this powerful republic as the lion of Saint Mark extended its influence across cities such as Padua Vicenza Verona, as well as north to Treviso and its province, and beyond into present day, Lombardi, through leaving Ezia, Julia, as well as down the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. Today, Venutaud is one of Italy's most prosperous regions, an economic powerhouse and a prolific producer of both prestigious wines that rank among the country's finest as well as everyday wines that have long slaked the thirst of wine drinkers in the region, as well as further afield. One food staple that unites the people of Veneto is Polenta. The cornmeal mushed that historically became an essential element of the diet ever since maize or corn was introduced into Italy from the new world and brought to Veneto by Marc Antonio Cerego, a pioneering agronomist. By sea or lagoon, it might be white Palenta with sardines or cuttlefish in its own ink. Perhaps paired with a garganaga or a tie. Inland, it's almost always yellow polenta to enjoy with grilled meats or sausages or perhaps a rich, winey concoction, such as pastisata de cabal, horse meats, stewed in red wine, the specialty of verona, and the wine to enjoy with that rich specialty of chorice, a vialoneana rice cultivated south of verona around Isola Delascala is utilized to make risottie. The most famous, perhaps the most delicious of which is risotto Alamarone accompanied, of course, by that king of wines. Amerone made from Corvina and Corvina grapes that have been left to dry and shrivel for a period of some months in ariatix to result in this famous passito heavyweight. Seafood risotti are delicious, paired with suave classical, while the Venetian favorite, Enrizi Abizi is delightful with a glass or two sparkling Dorillo. Speaking of sparkling, one of Italy's most famous is, of course, prosseco. The best example is coming from Corneliano Valdubiatane and Asolo. Prosecco Superior from these two zones always makes the perfect aperitivo with Venetian Chiketi, such as fried fish, pulpete meatballs. Christina talked with, or triangular filled sandwiches. Of course, the spritz comes from Venice. And while these days, Apodolas gained in popularity to drink like a venetian, always order yours with select the bitter of choice in Venice. Venice to offer some great cheeses, notably Monteveronese and asiago, mountain cheeses that pair beautifully with local wines, the former with straight El Pollicella or Bartelina, the latter, perhaps with a rustic robozo. To finish the meal, end with a pastito dessert wine, either red ricciotto de la Velicella or white ricciotto de suave. Perhaps served with a slice of Pandora, the traditional cake of verona, perhaps served completely on its own to enjoy as a so this concludes part two of my special edition giro d'italia that has dipped into all twenty regions of Italy to discover a few of what I consider to be the quintessential food and wine pairings that no visitor should miss. You will find much more detail in my weekly discussions with wine producers, sometimes chefs who give us a deep dive into their lives, into their homes, and into what they most enjoy eating themselves. Thanks for listening. Thanks for helping me to celebrate three years of weekly podcasts on Italian wine podcast. See you next week. We hope you enjoy today's episode of wine, food, and travel. With me, Mark Millen, on Italian wine podcast. Please remember to like, share, and subscribe right here, or wherever you get your pods. Likewise, you can visit us at Italianwine podcast dot com. Until next time.