Hello foodies from all over the world, my post today will be colored differently, this time without a recipe 😉Maybe you know what Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Ducati have in common? No, what about mortadella, balsamic vinegar, Parmigiano Reggiano, Parma prosciutto, Lambrusco red sparkling wine? All this and more comes from Emilia Romagna, one of the richest and most developed regions in Italy. The knowledge of gastronomy is at an exceptionally high level there and accessible to everyone. Excellent food is not reserved for high-end guests, but is part of everyday life, and the local population has a very strong culinary consciousness.
If you are planning to visit Bologna and you are a foodie, today's post is right for you. Today I'm going to present you one of the biggest food park in Europe, FICO Eataly World. It is also known simply as FICO, which stands for Fabbrica Italiana Contadina (Italian Farming Factory).
Back home, when we were planning our family trip to Bologna (Italy), we decided that we had to see FICO Eataly World. We did it on the last day, because it is located a bit out of town, on our way home.
The park covers an area of approximately 100.000 square meters, and is divided into two main areas, the market and the park. The market area is home to over 40 restaurants and food shops, offering a wide range of Italian foods and drinks, including cheeses, meats, pasta, wine, etc. Here you can taste and purchase some of the finest Italian products.
The park area features a number of interactive exhibits and attractions that highlight the different aspects of Italian food production and agriculture. Here you can learn about the process of making cheese, watch bakers at work, and even milk cows.
Ticket prices vary widely. The basic ticket includes entry only to the shopping area and is of course the cheapest. To this you can add a number of tastings and food preparation courses, and the price goes up exponentially, of course. If you want to enter the park and see domestic animals or a demonstration of the production of cheese, pasta, mordadella, you must again pay extra on top of the basic ticket.
As the FICO visit was on the last day of our Bologna trip, we had already decided to see only the shopping area and skip everything else, because we knew we wouldn't have time for everything, as we still had a few hours' drive home.
When we arrived, we were a bit unpleasantly surprised, as the entrance fee had to be paid for the shop part. You actually pay to be able to buy or eat something in the shop or restaurant afterwards, which was very surprising to me 😗. From the descriptions online, I understood that there are various food tastings inside FICO, but actually you have to buy at least a plate in the restaurant to be able to try the food. Of course you can buy a ticket with degustations.
As soon as we entered, we found a multimedia room that told us all about olive oil 🫒🫒🫒 in Italy. From the history of olive oil itself, the types of olive trees, the methods and processes of pressing and processing olive oil, right down to the right bottles used to store the oil.
When I think of Italian food, I think of pizza, pasta, risotto, ice cream, etc. But when I think of drinks, what comes to mind, apart from coffee, is of course wine. Italy is a wine-growing country, with excellent wines 🍷🍷🍷, as evidenced by the fact that they can be found in almost every restaurant in the world. At FICO you can try and buy all the best on the market.
I won't waste words on pizza 🍕🍕🍕, it's the Italian standard.
Nor about pasta, we all love and adore it, in all its colors and shapes, such as Spaghetti 🍝🍝🍝, Fettuccine, Linguine, Penne, Macaroni, Lasagna, Farfalle, etc.
There is one thing that immediately makes me hungry when I think of it, and that is prosciutto 🐷🐷🐷. Delicately sweet and salty at the same time. A slice of great meat, with a little fat on the side, on a piece of freshly baked crusty bread,....mmmm just yummy. And as I wandered through FICO, believe me I got hungry 😋.
What about the king of cheeses? Parmigiano Reggiano 🧀🧀🧀is made from raw cow's milk, pasture grass and hay are allowed in the feed of dairy cows, but not corn silage. According to age, it is divided into four categories, indicated by color, orange-red (over 18 months), silver (over 22 months), gold (over 30 months) and Parmigiano Reggiano Riserva (over 48 months). The weight of each wheel of cheese is approx. 35 kg. It can be enjoyed as an independent dish, but it is excellent as an addition to meat, vegetables and even fruit. Have you tried it with a drop of balsamic vinegar? I recommend!
Did you know that Italy is the largest rice 🍚🍚🍚 producer in Europe? The exhibition space is correspondingly large and also the number of different types of rice.
Have you tried Italy's great bakery products like panettone or pandoro 🍰🍰🍰? If you haven't, I strongly recommend you do so as soon as possible. These are two pastries that look very similar at first glance, but are quite different on the other hand. The pandoro is very buttery, while the panetone comes in different varieties, with raisins and/or candied fruit, or filled with different creams, from vanilla to chocolate, to custards with a touch of different liqueurs.
Of course, we can find a lot of other products here, it is impossible to list them all, but I can mention at least tomato sauce (polpa), marmalade, chilies, anchovies, the specialties themselves in short.
After the FICO tour, we had some lunch before heading home. For lunch, we set out to try the different dishes that were available. We chose a plate of ravioli in cream sauce with balsamic vinegar sauce and grated Parmigiano Reggiano on top. Then we tried 3 different aged Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. The difference was really obvious, and we were most impressed with the 22-month aged one. For the end, we ordered the fried Parmigiano Reggiano crust - a delicious zero waste meals, which was the first time I had eaten it and I hope it won't be the last 😀.
I hope that today's trip was interesting for you and that I managed to conjure up a little taste of Italy for you.
Thanks for reading,
feel free to leave a comment, I will be glad to reply to.
Best regards, @miljo76
