After pinpointing the topics, we "forced" the restaurateurs to
reflect on the methods of preparation that they proposed. Each
recipe reflects the sensibility and the choice of restaurants and also
the territorial differences in traditional dishes within the province.
The other recipes, instead, are free interpretations of just as
many topics identified as strictly characterizing Mantuan cuisine.
Therefore a mention had to be made of frogs and snails, braised
horsemeat, Sbrisolona cake, fresh water fish presented as protagonists
or as an addition to risottos. Neither could we leave out the
feast-day guinea fowl or sugolo (creamy pudding made of grape must).
The absence of details on wine does not preoccupy us as Mantuan
territory does not produce fine quality wines apart from a few
hillside exceptions, but a word must spent on bread or bread-like
products. Not so much attention will be given to bread itself, to be
truthful, because Ferrara and Cremona can vaunt a tradition of
superior quality, but to the forms invented by Mantuan cuisine.
Certainly, popular tastes are met by the schiacciatina which
substitutes the bread roll, brioches, and various modern snacks. It
even appears, especially on request, on the tables of tourist
restaurants.
The snack fantasy has also influenced the schiacciata, somewhere
between a soft schiacciatina and a bun, which, in Mantua, we find
enriched with scratching (grepole), ham, olives, onions and still
more. Both the schiacciatina and schiacciata are noble breads, they need no
accompaniment. All they require is a cappuccino or, even better, a good
glass of wine. On festive occasions or in a classic menu integrating a
coordinated
sequence of dishes, Mantuan cuisine provides a series of courses that
recall the complexity of sideboard services and the Court Table,
simplified nowadays but with the clearly recognizable characteristics
of Po Valley menus.
With only a few hors d'oeuvres, Mantuan cuisine on many occasions
offers a light soup as a starter, passing then to a more substantial
pasta dish. By modern restaurateurs, the tendency has been to transform
popular dishes (luccio in salsa, polenta and gras pista',salami)
revisiting with Gonzaga recipes(Capon a' la Stefani, soused fish) into
"antipasti".
No way can the first course be replaced: the modern "single platter"
is in fact an enriched first course, as in the case of risotto with puntel or rice and fried fish.
Pasta is overlooked only when polenta is the protagonist, usually
accompanied by stracotto or salami, lard, scratching, gorgonzola or
other less traditional preparations (baccala' (salted cod), grilled pork, etc.).
On feast-days, there are usually two second courses: first, boiled
meats including those used How to make the broth and others boiled
apart (tongue, calf's head), then the roasts (guinea-fowl, duck in particular).
Mantuan menus usually end with Grana or other cheeses.
The traditional dessert, mostly traditional "homemade" cakes, cannot
be missing, and this was so even before the advent of the sickly sweet tiramisù.
Tradition calls for a homemade "nocino" (walnut liqueur) as a final
digestive.
We are fully aware that the written word is not a cook's usual
means of communication. Kitchen talk consists of aromas, flavors and
aesthetic equilibrium. A cook expresses the many tastes of a complex
process which contains too many variables to be summarized in a brief
schematic text. You only have to think of the importance of the
materials used in the preparation, the times required for cooking or
uniting the elements, the past experience that suggests small but
precious tips. This is why restaurateurs make no mystery of their
recipes because they cannot be reproduced, even in the most
sophisticated multi-medial forms, whether supported by filmed sequences
or meticulously articulated and illustrated explanations. On the
contrary, a recipe is an invitation to satisfy your curiosity, to
enquire and to try.
Taken from "Di terra e di acqua" ed. Franco Angeli.
Restaurants in Piazza Erbe - Photo © 
Photo © 