Dining with Artusi - Where Italian Cookbooks Began.

Enjoy The Original Artusi Recipes from 'The Art of Eating Well'. 

Visit the Restaurant or Fabulous Festival Dedicated to Artusi in his Emilia-Romagna Hometown. 

The Founder of Italian Cooking with 'L'arte di Mangiar Bene' Becomes Real for Food Lovers.

In a country of epic heroes, grand empires, and daring military conquests one of my very favorite famous people is a mild mannered retired silk merchant who enjoyed eating the local dishes when he traveled around Italy in the 1800's.

Why is he of any note? Because he is Pellegrino Artusi - the author of  'Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well' (La Scienza in cucina e l'Arte di mangiar bene).  Today anyone with a word processor and access to the internet can be a culinary author - I'm guilty myself. But in Artusi's day it was a new concept, and although to the modern reader the recipes sometimes appear a bit vague (a pinch of salt, cook until done) they were marvels of precision in their day.

Not only that, he was so committed to his endeavor that when publishers rejected his book, he self-published the work. One of the best-selling non-fiction books in Italian history - in 1891.

And today in his hometown, there's a restaurant that offers dishes made from his original recipes, as well as a large festival dedicated to Pellegrino Artusi.

Artusi's 1846 passport from Pope Pius IX was
required to travel the Italian peninsula even
from the Papal State to the Duchy of Tuscany!

Artusi oversaw the recipes, while his cook and butler, Marietta Sabatini and Francesco Ruffili, measured, recorded, tested, tasted, tweaked, and refined. Not only was the approach new, the timing for a national cuisine was perfect: Italy had been fully unified only in 1871, and 20 years later his book was on sale to the first truly Italian generation. Making Italy into a unified nation was a long process that continues to this day. To form a modern republic from the individualistic dominions that had occupied the Italian peninsula for centuries presented some serious assimilation issues.

Recognizing dishes from any region other than Tuscany as Italian was radically inclusive. Recipes from Piemonte, Liguria, Calabria, even Sardinia and Sicily were included in a book about Italian food! Artusi is widely recognized as one of the important cultural unifying forces in changing Italy from an area of fiefdoms and regions into a national entity. He wrote engagingly and fluently in the new “Italian” language, was elegant and polished and comprehensible, and he interspersed his recipes with anecdotes and reflections to make the book enjoyable reading.

The Rocca Albornoziana  in the center of Forlimpopoli, Emilia-Romagna.
The 14th Century fortress is surrounded by the Artusi Festa each June.

Artusi was born in 1820, when the world was very different. His hometown, Forlimpopoli, was close to Bologna, and after a prosperous and comfortable childhood he spent a lot of time in Bologna, socializing with the students at the University and enjoying life. So far, so good, but in 1851 there was a famous bandit called “ Il Passatore”, The Smuggler, who terrorized the wealthy. The Smuggler came to Forlimpopoli with his band of thugs and raided the local theatre on the night of a popular play. He held the audience hostage until they paid up, then released them slowly, and his men attacked and raped some of the young women. Artusi's sister Gertrude was among the victims of the vicious attack, and never recovered; she was institutionalized for life. The times were violent, disorderly, dangerous, and it was no coincidence that the next year the family moved to Firenze.

Italian Food Specialties - The Tramezzino Sandwich

One of the World's Great Sandwiches is Celebrated in Cremona.

The English Tea Sandwich inspired This Edible Palette for Gourmets and Food Artists.

The Marcolino Tramezzino at Ugo's in Cremona. Bresaola, caprino, rucola.

Photo Courtesy of Ugo Grill.

Who doesn’t want a delicate and delicious English tea sandwich? I do, you do, pretty much everyone in northern Italy does. The Italian offspring born of this tea sandwich desire is the famous tramezzino. In 1925, Gabriele D’Annuzio invented these sandwiches as an inspired variation on the English version. He worked at Caffè Mulassano in Torino (still there) and he really knew the hungry inclinations of the Torinesi.

So why should a traveler care about a sandwich? Long lunches in Italy are a pleasure, and reason enough to travel to Italy.  But after a few days of long lunches and dinners it can be a relief to have a meal that isn't such a big deal. But a plain ham sandwich isn't an experience you'll remember dreamily in the depths of winter.  This is the time for tramezzini - simple, quick, authentically Italian, delicious and the food of dreams. Can you even imagine prosciutto, shrimp, and cream of asparagus.  How about a gorgonzola and salami tramezzini with mayo?

Cremona Duomo and the Torazzo Bell Tower.
Duomo begun 1107 AD, the Tower finished 1309.

The classic tramezzino is a small delicate sandwich made with two slices of soft white bread, crustless, spread with mayonnaise and filled with any combination of ingredients that satisfies, challenges, or amuses a needy epicure. Of course the concept has evolved and in some places now you might see the name tramezzino applied and/or misapplied to rolled-up sandwiches or toasted creations, and they might be the size of a matchbox or a multilayered affair half the size of a cigar box. Let others do what they may, here we are speaking of the classic version as celebrated in Cremona. They are hand-sized and the filling-to-bread ratio optimizes the taste, not the appearance.


Tramezzino is a diminutive of the word tramezzo, and it’s originally an architectural term meaning the division between spaces. So if you have an empty space involving your stomach between breakfast and lunch, here’s your snack. Today, it’s also used as an inexpensive, infinitely variable, and delicious lunch, an anytime bar snack, or a consolation for Hungarian train passengers (true).


First a word about the bread. Many people think that pane carre, the square loaf found in every Italian supermarket, is the proper bread to use. Well, it looks the same, but no no no. The proper bread is a particular type, made with milk in the batter to add softness and richness. The bread is soft - not in the way of Wonder Bread - but more in the way of the interior of a Parker House roll that’s freshly made. The whorls in the bread are distinct and supply strength without toughness - a marvel of sandwich physics. It has an almost meltingly fluffy texture, it’s irreplaceable and it's contribution is not to be underestimated.

Each tramezzino is made to order.
Tramezzeria XXV Aprile, Cremona

The other key ingredient is mayonnaise. This recipe is more closely guarded than the bread formula, and apparently everybody has a “secret” ingredient. A particular olive oil? Lemon? White pepper? It doesn’t really matter to your mouth, all you need to know is the stuff is smooth and unctuous and amazing and essential to this specialty.


The selections for the filling begin with the classics, lots of combinations of ham, sliced egg, tomato, artichoke, tuna...and now it's possible to make spectacular forays into new territory - turkey, brie, and even nutella. Tramezzini are available to a degree all over Italy, but especially popular from Turin to Venice, so wherever you find yourself in the north, you can seek them out. However if you strive - as we do - to know the best of Italy, you really want to go to the very epicenter of the modern tramezzini world: Cremona.

The most famous place to get one of these creations is at Ugo Grill.  The founder, Ugo Berti, was a restaurateur who was inspired to perfect this proto-street food almost 50 years ago, and now he's recognized as Il Re dei Tramezzini - the King!  Ugo went to his eternal rest in 2015 at age 87, but his spirit lives on in a tiny, standing-room-only shop filled with happy customers and friendly sandwich makers. Popular with office workers and tourists and laborers alike, the service is quick and the sandwiches are very affordable - about 2.50€ to 3€ (2018). The hard part is choosing from the extensive menu. Hint - it eases the stress to get two or three.

Professional food critic at work.

So now you’ve got the special bread, the special mayonnaise, the classic fillings... at Ugo Grill these are not cut in delicate little  triangles, they’re just handed to you freshly made and whole in a napkin with a smile and out you go. Don't expect a dine-in experience, but if the few tables outside Ugo's are full, head for the Public Gardens nearby, and you have a memorable picnic. After all, that’s why they call it street food, right?  We got one with tuna and artichoke, and one carbonara, which is pancetta and egg, both were fantastic.  You may also encounter tramezzini makers in other cities favoring a different approach - offering the sandwiches in small triangles or thick slabs.  Either way, they're great.

Cremona's Tramezzeria XXV Aprile at lunchtime.

What kind of food reviewers would we be to try only one place? Idiots is the word you're looking for.  So, a few doors down, we went to another Cremona hotspot - Tramezzeria XXV Aprile, with a bit more expansive menu. It caters to a broader market - offering hot dogs, hamburgers, piadini, as well as a large, adventurous and different selection of tramezzini. So, branching out - we tried two more: smoked salmon with asparagus, and shrimp with tomato. Here there's some seating inside and also seating outside in the arcade. The crowd of students and workers was pleasant,and  the tramezzini were very good. Yet, as romantics having been steeped in tramezzini history, we couldn’t help but feel disloyal to the King. Long live Ugo!

Ugo Grill Menu, pre-covid.
Start deciding now. Click to enlarge.

Ugo Grill
Via Antonio Gramsci, 13 Cremona
Phone 0372 20354
Ugo Grill Website  For info, online ordering, and even delivery.

Ugo Grill on Facebook with Menu link

Tramezzeria XXV Aprile
Piazza Roma, 25 Cremona
Phone 0372 750242
Tramezzeria XXV Aprile on Facebook with Menu link


Link: Tourism Cremona (Provincial Site)

Link: Tourism Cremona (Regional Site)

Written by Martha

Lunigiana Cheese Aged for Two Thousand Years

The Local Food of An Ancient Roman City
The Plains of Luni Still Offer Cheese & Milk to the World 

The cities  of Luni, Lucca and Pisa on the Tabula Peutingeriana - 1265 A.D. 

Between the Ligurian city of Sarzana and the Tuscan border at Carrara, there is a wide grassy plain separating the Apuan Alps from the sea. Here you can choose what you see. Will you see fields of bright green grass stretching into the distance, with a sprinkling of exercising Ligurians? Or perhaps you will see a kilometer of stone houses, two gleaming marble temples, a Roman forum, a huge amphitheater, and tens of thousands of Romans going about their famously chaotic business. This plain was the city of Luni for over a thousand years, and renowned in the Roman empire for its timber, marble, wine, and cheese. Luckily, today you can sample the local cheese as well as visit the ruins of Luni (especially the amphitheater at 10:30 & 17:30) - Archeological Park & Museum Link.

Luni Moon, San Pietro Church
Avenza (Carrara) 1187 AD

Ancient Cheese  The cheese of Luni was made in wheels that weighed 1,000 Roman pounds (that's 650 modern pounds) and shipped to other parts of the empire bearing the crescent moon symbol of Luni. For comparison, those big uncut rounds of Parmigiano* you covet in the gastronomia weigh a mere 85 pounds. There are few historical facts available about Luni's cheese, but the size of the wheels leads to the conclusion that it was made with cow's milk. The grazing area needed suggests that more of the Magra Valley than just Luni was involved, and given the long established connections between Lunigiana and Emilia, cheesy archaeologists have written that Luni's cheese was a forerunner of today's Grana and Parmigiano style cheeses.** Since there's evidence that the Ligurian tribes knew how to make cheese, the Romans may have capitalized on local skills when they conquered Luni in 177 B.C. They apparently knew a good thing, for in the first

Food is History in Liguria

Pignone Festival Celebrates Local Food 
One way Italians express pride in their culture and their history is with food - God bless them. Almost every town has it's Prodotti Tipici (local specialties) and the Ligurian town of Pignone has some that are really interesting. An historic town near the Cinque Terre and north of La Spezia, its food traditions go back centuries, and with good reason.  You don't need a history or marketing degree to realize a town on trade routes with rich farm land near a rocky coast might have the edge in food production. But keep in mind that Pignone's prodotti tipici  developed when marketing meant carrying the products on foot to La Spezia or to the coast. 

Granturco Dall'Asciutto of Pignone on the cob. Named dry corn because
it can survive dry spells. It makes good polenta and a special focaccia.

The big festival called Gli Orti di Pignone (The Gardens of Pignone) is the annual expression of local food pride in Pignone. It is held on a weekend at the end of August and it draws thousands. There is food and wine to buy, to eat, or just look at. Local music groups help celebrate the town's contadini origins, the atmosphere is lively and it lasts into the night. According to the Pignone Pro Loco, in 2014 the Sagra will be held Saturday August 30th from 18:00 to 24:00 and Sunday August 31st from 12:00 to 23:00.  Here's a rather long amateur video that you can flip through to see what to expect: Gli Orti di Pignone 2011 Video.

We genuinely like Pignone and have written about it before in Beautiful Villages of Liguria Part 7, where you can read a short description of the town and its history.  The Touring Club Italiano likes the town too and awarded Pignone its quality seal, the Bandiera Arancione: TCI Best Small Towns - Pignone.

Pignone's Products. Here is a guide to some of the most notable local foods. Most are hearty specialties that will store and travel well. As your friendly test dummies, we have tried almost all of

A Guide to the Local Food of La Spezia & Cinque Terre.

The Food Specialties of Liguria Levante. 

What Special Local Foods Can We Eat in Cinque Terre, La Spezia & Portovenere?

Liguria has many famous food specialties fit for every taste, such as:

Focaccia....This bread is originally from Liguria - it's much better and more varied here.

Farinata....Made from chickpea flour, it may look like flatbread, but it's unforgettably tasty.

Pasta..........Croxetti - with a stamped symbol, Trofie - a small, hand rolled, pasta are Ligurian DOC.

Mesciua.....Made from a legume mix topped with olive oil. Humble origin, divine accomplishment.

Cozze Ripieni.....Stuffed mussels as an appetizer or meal.

Torta di Verdura.....The words mean vegetable pie, but the taste speaks paragraphs.

keep reading for more....

When Italians refer to 'piatti tipici' (dishes typical of the area), it is serious business. This is where the culture meets the mouth, and every city, every province, and every region has its unique dishes. When Italians visit another region of Italy, they always eat the specialties, so you should too. The good news is you can tour Italy for the next decade or two and not encounter them all.

Here's our little food guide to the specialties that you might encounter on your visit to the Gulf of La Spezia area. This is only a select few from a long list. If you see or hear about others, all the better - just say yes.

Vegetable Pie and More in Portovenere.

Farinata This is first because it's one of our favorite things. It's a giant chickpea flour pancake that's baked in a wood oven in a pan about a yard in diameter, cut in to slices, weighed, and handed to you as a snack. It's nutty, smooth, crunchy on the edges, creamy in the middle, about ¼ inch thick, and just delicious. It's gluten free, but not gluttony free. Usually available in the morning and after 5 in the afternoon.

Foccacia You see it everywhere in the world now, I know, but it's indigenous to Liguria, and here it comes in many forms, many shapes and sizes, and is almost always interesting. It can be thin or thick, topped with oil and rosemary and salt, or split in half and stuffed with meat and cheese. It can be baked with cheese in it (this style from Recco further north is focaccia da Recco). Bakeries and snack places carry varieties, just keep trying until you find your favorite. At some snack places, you can ask for foccacia stuffed with farinata, odd sounding but great.

Torta di Verdura Ligurians love vegetables, and these large round pies are filled with cheese and a variety of greens and vegetables. They could include leeks, swiss chard, spinach, zucchini, artichokes, carrots, onions, the list is endless. They are a wonderful snack or lunch, and you can't go wrong, they're all good. They're available in slices at some bakeries, snack places, even deli counters, all sold by weight. They also might be a part of a restaurant's antipasto.
Travel Tip_____________________________________________________________________

Renting A Car in Italy. If you drive in urban areas at home, you can drive in Italy. Car rental prices are important, but don't rent based solely on low price and stick to well known companies. We have two articles to help you:  Link: Independent Car Rental Reviews for Italy and Link:Car Rental Tips for Italy - Pick It Up Right 
In them, we recommend the car hire broker Auto Europe where you can compare companies, reserve with a low price guarantee, purchase no deductible insurance, cancel easily, and have 24/7 customer service before and after the car hire. If you will rent a car and want to do us a favor, please use this link: Auto Europe.

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Spaghetti with Mussels, a La Spezia specialty.

Mussels  The Gulf of La Spezia is famous for growing mussels, called cozze or muscoli, and they're a particularly flavorful breed, briny and delicious. If you've never tried them, start now. Look for them served two ways. First, as spaghetti alle cozze (or similar pasta) when they're a tasty primo. Another unique preparation is stuffed mussels, muscoli or cozze ripieni. The mussels are opened, the meat is split, and a savory spoonful of stuffing made of vegetable, bread crumbs, ground mussels, and sometimes minced mortadella or pork is placed in the shell. Then they're reassembled, simmered in tomato sauce - fantastically good. Look for them in restaurants, trattorie, and sometimes at gastronomie.

Mesciua A strange name for a simple country soup that will knock your socks off. Every sample is a little different because this is true Cucina Povera, and the recipe has a whatever attitude. A couple of different types of dried beans, farro ( a hearty grain known in English as spelt), a flavoring of herbs and onion, and a healthy topping of dark green olive oil make for a terrific thick soup. Available at many authentic restaurants, often including Osteria all'Inferno in La Spezia. It's substantial enough to be lunch on its own.

Portovenere Restaurant Menu with Piatti Tipici.

Stuffed vegetables Doesn’t sound particularly spectacular, but wait until you try. The most popular vegetables to create Verdure Ripiene alla Ligure are baby zucchine, peppers, onions, and tomatoes. The stuffings vary, of course, but all have a bread crumb base, flavored with cheese and herbs, and sometimes ground meat. They’re usually offered as an antipasto in a restaurant, but if you buy them (by weight) in a gastronomia, they make a nice lunch.

Coniglio alla Ligure  In this region, rabbits are raised like chickens and used often. The traditional Ligurian recipe uses fresh herbs, local olives (often taggiasche which some dare call Nicoise), pignoli, local wine, and plenty of fruity olive oil. It’s simple, non-tomatoey, non-saucy, and all the tastes just work right together.

Sgabei These are little fried bits of dough, about 3 inches long and an inch wide, that make county-fair fried dough seem like greasy pancake batter. They have character and substance and a little crunch, and are often offered filled: choose cold cuts or cheese. While you can get them at a frigittoria (a fry shop) - a La Spezia favorite is Pane e Tulipani Via Prione 274- you also may see them as part of an antipasto in a restaurant.

Spaghetti with Anchovy. Osteria All'Inferno, La Spezia.

Anchovies I know, I know, but these are different. They're fresh, light, delicate, and ubiquitous. Italians are known for eating delicious things, so maybe you give them another try. They show up in numerous ways, some of the favorites are marinated, Acciughe Marinate, delicate little fillets in a dressing of oil, some herbs, served as an antipasto; as a sauce on spaghetti, Spaghetti all'Acciughe, which is generally pretty restrained, and involves some tomato and parsley; and stuffed, as Acciughe ripiene in which they are opened up flat, topped with a tablespoon of seasoned bread crumbs, and broiled until crunchy.

Pesto  Believe it or not, this was invented in Liguria. It's different here. It's better here. The dish always involves basil, pignoli, parmigiano and garlic paste, and Ligurians often add a handful of green beans and some slices of boiled potato. The most authentic presentation for pesto is on a short local pasta as trofie al pesto. However, you may also find it on spaghetti, bavette, buccatini, or another Ligurian invention - croxetti.

Croxetti, Ligurian pasta.

Croxetti These are a round thin pasta with a symbol stamped on them. You may not find these served in restaurants too often this far south in Liguria, since they appear more often about 30 miles up the coast (see our story & recipe at Living Ligurian History). However, you can readily find them as packages of dried pasta, and they make a great souvenir. When you get home and serve the croxetti to people with the pesto, green bean and potato mixture, you'll have a great way to share your Ligurian experience.


Vermentino This is a traditional white wine of the area, and it is excellent by itself or with seafood. The Vermentino grape is thought to be native to Sardinia and Liguria, and it is becoming very popular. For a favorable price vs. quality, we suggest you look for the DOC Colli di Luni from the La Spezia area and the nearby foothills of the Apuan Alps.

There could be many more foods listed here - baccala and stoccafisso, testaroli and bianchetti, but we are running long already. As you can imagine, there is never agreement over what constitutes a specialty and who is responsible for it. If you want an Italian viewpoint, here's a local website Ama La Spezia - Ricette Tipiche

Travel Tip
Where to Stay in Cinque Terre?
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Use the ferry to avoid the crowds while you enjoy the Gulf of the Poets towns. Read our descriptions and hotel recommendations:
                                            Link: Guide to Portovenere Lerici La Spezia
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Written by Martha

The Extracomunitari: Ligurian Pesto and Pizza Margherita

Travels With the Basil Worshipers

Jaipur, India. Selfie in the rear view mirror of Mr. Lala's autorickshaw.

As Italian icons go, they don't get much more sacred than Pesto Genovese and Pizza Margherita. These foods are so very revered that there's a World Championship of Pesto ("Pronti, al Pesto, Via!") and the famous Neapolitan pizza is legally protected with an STG designation (Traditional Specialties Guaranteed) enforced by the ominous-sounding Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. Now perhaps you can understand the courage needed for us to announce: Basil Is Not Italian.

It gets worse, it's not from neighboring Greece or even France, it's from India. The Romans would have nothing to do with basil because they thought it evil. In the Middle Ages, it was only used medicinally. Basil doesn't appear in the kitchen until the 1800's, and pesto is a real new-comer with the first written mention only in 1863.

Unsurprisingly, we learned this on a recent trip to India. A food trip devoted to eating wonderful Indian food of every type, except basil, all day, every day.  Italians may be comforted by knowing, however, that Indians don't eat basil so much as they worship it or use it as medicine. How wide is the world!

Hindu deities in their many forms.    The 120 foot high Gopuram of Kapaleeshwarar Temple (7th Century)     Chennai

Hindus consider basil (tulsi/tulasi) an important part of the worship of Vishnu, and his Avatars. It is considered to be one of the Avatars of the Goddess Lakshmi, and most Hindus will say a prayer to that Avatar, Tulsi Devi, every morning and evening. Many will have a tulsi plant in front of their house.

Holy Basil ( Tulsi)

As one Hindi site (www.krishna.com - naturally) explains: "One of Krishna’s most intimate servants comes in a special form to bless us with extraordinary fortune. Devotees of Krishna worship a little tree. But she’s not an ordinary tree. She’s Tulasi Devi, Krishna’s favorite plant. Tulasi has delicate purple and green leaves, flower tassels like miniature temple spires, and an arresting, sweet fragrance famous for attracting the minds of yogis to Krishna’s service. Tulasi’s wood is carved into the japa beads on which devotees chant Krishna’s name. Devotees wear strands of Tulasi beads around their necks. Her leaves and flowers decorate the Deity of Krishna in the temple and are placed on food offered to Him. She has taken the form of a tree so that everyone, even the poorest person, can offer something wonderful to Krishna." Maybe now you'll think twice before you mash those basil leaves with your pestle!

Amber Palace basil info sign.

If you're a suspicious type, we need to assure you that this belief was not made up in response to the invention of pesto - it goes way back. There's a special basil room in the Amber Fort (palace) in Jaipur from before 1600. The many Royal wives would offer water to the basil plant as part of their bathing ritual, and sing hymns to it after sunset.

Just to be totally forthright (or nerdy), the Hindus worship the variety of Ocimum tenuiflorum (Holy Basil) called Rama Tulsi and they use a variety called Shyama Tulsi for medicinal use. Cooking basil is Ocimum basilicum or sweet basil.

The timeless look. Amber Fort, Jaipur.

Have a look at our Selects Slide Show of 75 India pictures. We had great fun photographing as Indians are invariably relaxed, lively, and personable - although getting candid photos of Indians is nearly impossible since they are so alert. When we'd ask to take a photo we were never once turned down, and never asked for money.


In case you're interested, our tour was with Julie Sahni, a wonderful cookbook author, teacher, and tour guide. See her website: Julie Sahni.com.  In rough terms, Julie knows absolutely everything about Indian cooking and Indian ingredients and shares her knowledge generously. She operates two Indian tours in most years.

Our tour focused on spices and Southern India, and now we can never buy cheap spices again. More accessibly, look for Julie's books, such as her landmark Classic Indian Cooking (click for info).

Written by Martha