Bologna in Four Meals
La Grassa — the Fat One. Bologna's nickname is also its philosophy. Over five days, I ate my way through the world's best food city, and came away with a new understanding of what hospitality means.
Bologna is not on most American itineraries. Florence is an hour away by train, Venice two hours. Most travelers pass through on the way to somewhere more photographed. This is a mistake. Bologna is the most livable city in Italy, the most honest, and — there's no reasonable debate about this — the best place to eat.
Meal One: Osteria dell'Orsa
I send every client here on the first night. Long communal tables, no reservations, a menu that changes daily based on what came in from the market. The tagliatelle al ragù costs eight euros. It is, without qualification, the best pasta you will ever eat. The ragù is cooked for four hours and contains no tomato — a fact that horrifies Americans and delights them once they taste it.
Italian food in Italy bears almost no relationship to Italian food abroad. Bologna makes this more obvious than anywhere else.
Meal Two: The Quadrilatero at Noon
The old market district, a tangle of medieval porticos and specialist food stalls, is where Bolognese do their daily shopping. I spent two hours on Tuesday morning following a sfoglina — a pasta maker — through her rounds. Parmigiano Reggiano from the wheel. Mortadella sliced so thin it's almost translucent. Aceto balsamico that costs more per milliliter than good whiskey. We ate standing at a counter, drinking prosecco at 11:45am, and this was entirely correct behavior.
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