Emilia: unusual foods and new specialties of the Italian Food Valley

Emilia: unusual foods and new specialties of the Italian Food Valley

In Emilia, in the Food Valley, the companies of the Visit Emilia Food & Wine network amaze with traditional products and unusual specialties.

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Emilia is a land of hills and castles, plains and important cities of art, but above all it is a place where food tells the identity of a territory and its communities. Here, in fact, there is the Food Valley, the largest district of Italian food where excellences are produced such as Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Reggio Emilia, Parma Ham, Parmigiano Reggiano, PDO cured meats from Piacenza and PDO wines from enjoy in company. In the area that includes the territories of Parma, Piacenza and Reggio Emilia, in addition to the most well-known products, there are other exquisitely unusual products, particular productions, collected by the Food & Wine network of Visit Emilia, which express the most innovative and creative soul of Emilian gastronomy.

The strangest products of Visit Emilia’s Food & Wine network in Parma

On the Parma hills there is a winery that dedicates its wines to famous singers and operas from the Emilia region. It is called Monte delle Vigne and its prestigious Nabucco (Barbera 70%, Merlot 30%) is a tribute to the master Giuseppe Verdi. Emiliana is also the most awarded Italian Pilsner in the world, the ViaEmilia of the Del Ducato Brewery in Soragna (PR), which expresses herbaceous and floral aromas because it is processed by adding the hop flowers that grow only in September in Tettnang, a small town in southern Germany . Among the excellences awarded as the best stylistic innovation and butchery technique solution, there is MatuSalam, the one meter and 5 cm long salami made by La Fattoria di Parma in Fontanellato, historic artisans of cured meats. For lovers of spicy sauces, however, the Ca ‘d’Alfieri farmhouse surrounded by the nature of Val Noveglia near Bardi offers specialties created with the various types of peppers, from all over the world, grown in the old nineteenth-century farmhouse.

Emilia-unusual-food-wine-Nabucco — Emilia-Nabucco wine, Monte delle Vigne, credit Visit Emilia

The strangest products of Visit Emilia’s Food & Wine network in Piacenza

If Piacenza pancetta is a must among the typical productions, it is undoubtedly unusual the Cioccolatino alla Pancetta DOP created by the master chocolatier of the Pastry Falicetto of Piacenza Aldo Scaglia. It’s called DiPC, and it’s a chocolate in which the velvety taste of dark chocolate covers a heart of chocolate and crunchy Pancetta Piacentina DOP. The wine of the Trebbia Valley, on the other hand, is transformed into the refined LUVA eno-cosmetics products made by Poggiarello Cosmetici, which naturally extracts the active ingredients of the grapes specially cultivated to make creams, emulsions and other beauty essences rich in polyphenols while the Landini farm in San Protaso (PC) offers not only “Canafè”, hemp coffee, but also hemp oil which, when consumed raw, gives a slightly nutty flavor to salads and cold dishes. Finally, the truffles that grow in the hills of Vernasca, in Val d’Arda, become original startruffles, truffle candies, flavored oils, pasta, honey and butter in the specialties of Ranca Tartufi.

Emilia--unusual-food-beer — Emilia-Birrificio del Ducato (PR), credit Visit Emilia

The strangest products of Visit Emilia’s Food & Wine network in Reggio Emilia

Snails are the protagonists of the dishes of the Agriturismo La Cippaia in Enzola di Poviglio (RE) where the snails are raised outdoors on a land of 10 thousand square meters following the natural biological rhythms. Among the most particular dishes there are: fried snails, snail skewers with bacon, potato tortelli with sage pesto, hazelnuts and snails, and sautéed snails or snails with balsamic vinegar. The Agriturismo Ca ‘del Ciuco, in the Terre di Canossa on the Reggio Emilia hills instead offers Ciucolato, a delicious spreadable cream based on honey and chocolate while Terra del Tuono, a family vinegar factory from Reggio Emilia that transforms cooked grape must and ‘wine vinegar in balsamic vinegars of the highest quality, has created the Perle, small spheres of soft consistency, which contain balsamic vinegar or fruit essences such as lemon, pomegranate or blueberries and which can be grated, ground or sliced to taste to enrich all kinds of dishes. Finally, the Agriappennino farm prepares different types of chestnut pasta, but also for a particular chestnut beer and natural cosmetics such as scrub and shampoo-shower with the fruits of the centuries-old chestnut grove of Cecciola di Ventasso within the National Park of ‘Tuscan-Emilian Apennines.