2 Red Pet Nats by Women Winemakers Paired with Pasta Bolognese and Fennel Flower Salad

Following years of drought, devastating floods bring more rain in a few weeks time than in the previous year. Sound familiar? Maybe a little like California in 2023? While we in California did experience floods that triggered an emergency declaration in many counties of California including Ventura where I live, today I want to call attention to the spring floods that came in May to Italy’s Emilia Romagna when the same amount of rain that might fall in seven months fell in two weeks in a series of storms, and people are still recovering.

 Because even though these flood are no longer making headlines, I know from experience that after the news crews go away, the mud, the damage, and the trauma remains. The cleanup continues, and the need continues to be great.

Where is it? Emila Romagna is a large region just south of Lombardy and the Veneto on the eastern side of the Appenines that serve as a spine down the back of Italy. Bologna, an important city in the region, serves as a hub for food, wine, and education. Lambrusco is one of the better known wines, but it’s more well known for balsamic vinegar from nearby Modena.

When I arrived in Italy on June 1, rain continued to fall, making this an unusually wet spring all over most of the country; damaging hail hit Tuscany, including La Maliosa (read more here).. A week later, I drove through the Romagna region to the Veneto and then back again through Emilia, stopping on the return for a quick visit to Bologna which was struck with an intense cloud burst on May 16 when almost 12″ fell on the region, said Stefano Bonaccini, the president of Emilia-Romagna. On the drives north and then south, and in town, I could still see the signs of flooding: the clumps of trees and shrubs covered in silt, and in Bologna, as I walked the streets, I was extra aware of the drains. 

You can help with the recovery efforts  through this Fundraiser via Slow Food  You can also help by purchasing this trio of wines from the region from Bologna based importer Sheila Donohue of VeroVino. Read her article about the floods “A Love Letter to EMILIA ROMAGNA” here.

Roberto Condello, owner of Hotel Porta San Mamolo

While we were in Bologna for less than 24 hours, we spent it well! Our whirlwind tour of Bologna began by following our host, the gracious Roberto Condello, owner of Hotel Porta San Mamolo to his lovely, clean vibrant hotel with a glorious garden courtyard where breakfast is served. Our place had a small kitchen but it’s only about a 10 minute walk to the historic center where we had a delicious dinner at Osteria SetteTavoli Bologna Centro. Lots of great vegetarian options but I went with a classic carbanara bolognese tortollone and then duck breast for a main. 

Imagine Bologna with wine writers and influencers Terry Nozick and Lynn Dowd

at Erbe, Bologna where we bought tortellini and fresh sliced prosciutto for dinner

 

And imagine: We saw a street with the words to John Lennon’s “imagine” hanging above…and more!

 

St Peter’s Cathedral isn’t as famous or popular, but it’s a favorite of the locals, and an older woman pointed out to me in Italian that Jesus wears a crown not of thorns and his head is not downcast. 

 

Jesus in Bologna

Learn more about Emilia Romagna’s wines, food, and culture this month with the Italian Food Wine Travel group of wine writers; scroll down for links to their articles.

For our contribution, we have two organic, chillable, red sparkling wines for a  fresh summer surprise paired with Sue’s Bolognese sauce and the noodles she and her mom made which her mom says they called “rags.”

Sue Hill and her Italian mom Kay McLaughlin making pasta

Sue says of this dish that “The pasta must be the star, and the sauce is just there to enhance the pasta.” These two wines with two different grapes done in the same style yet very different were so fantastic throughout the meal with each course.

2 Red Pet Nats by Women Winemakers Paired with Pasta Bolognese and Fennel Flower Salad

Wines

• 2021 Cantina Del Frignano Sgarbato Pet Nat Rosato di Emilia IGP

• Vinovore Cosmic Juice Red Pet Nat, Ravena IGT

Menu 

• Cheese board with La Tur, truffle pecorino, Wellesley cheddar with honey and lemon, prosciutto, oil cured olives

• Fresh Fennel Flower Summer Salad (recipe below) 

• Bolognese on “Rag” Noodles (recipe below) 

• Italian Apple Cake with pine nuts (recipe here)

• Toroni Nougat candy 

2021 Cantina Del Frignano Sgarbato Pet Nat, Rosato di Emilia IGP

2021 Cantina Del Frignano Sgarbato Pet Nat, Rosato di Emilia IGP

ABV: 11.5%
SRP: $22
Grapes: 100% organic UVA Tosca 
Importer: VeroVino
purchased as part of the Emilia Romagna relief trio of wines

Considered a descendant of Schiava Grossa of Alto Adige, the rare Uva Tosca grape grows in higher altitudes in Emilia. and in this case, is a naturally fermented and sparkling ‘col fondo’ ancestral, or pet nat, style wine from Cantina de Frignano in Emilia-Romagna located at 1500-1800′ elevation in Serramazzoni, near Modena, Italy. They grow organic grapes and specialize in a few which grow nowhere else in the world, producing only around 22k bottles or 2k cases a year. 

Ukrainian Irene Balim and her partner bought the winery in 2018 because they both really liked the wine and the winery: “They are enthusiastic about the terroir,” importer Sheila Donohue told me in an interview. “She’s very knowledgable about the grapes,” she said, but they also have a consulting winemaker who looks after more of the technical aspects of winemaking. Read what we wrote about two Frignano wines in January when we paired it with pizza.

Appearance:  Such a pretty wine, cloudy, raspberry, mauve rim lined with delicate bubbles, 

Aroma: A bit of natural wine funk, raspberry, 

Palate: Tart cherry, cranberry, raspberry, cherry phosphate, raspberry phosphate, very playful delicate bubbles tickle the palate, nice yeast on the finish, like a raspberry croissant.

Pairing: Fantastic with the salad, the fennel pollen and the lovely vine ripened Ojai tomatoes were perfectly brought together  with the flavors of the wine. This wine responds so well with our meal. The pasta dish and the wine were also so nice together– we kept coming back for more even though we were on the edge of being stuffed. The wine was perfect with the Italian apple cake. The richness of the pine nuts, the depth of flavor from the apples and the lemon make this a perfect companion to this wine. The terronni should have been too sweet for the wines, but because of the orange peel and the pistachios which canceled out the sweetness of the desert it was perfect enhancing the wine and not seeming to be a super sweet dessert. 

Vinovore Cosmic Juice Red Pet Nat, Ravena IGT

Vinovore Cosmic Juice Red Pet Nat, Ravena IGT

ABV: 11.5%
SRP:  $28
Grapes: 100% Longanesi
Importer: Obvious Wines
purchased at Vinovore, Los Angeles 

Uva Longanesi is native to Boncellino in Ravenna where it was found climbing around an oak tree and officially recognized within the National Register of Grapevine Varieties in 2000. This all natural Pet-Nat of 100% Longanesi from Emilia Romagna, Italy, is a chillable red wine that’s part of the “Purple Ape” series made by woman winemaker Coly den Haan who is also the some/owner of Vinovore, a wine store in Los Angeles that sells exclusively women made wines and focuses on those wines that are naturally made. Raised in Santa Barbara, Coly den Haan moved to Los Angeles and became a certified Sommelier with AIS and NASA specializing in Italian wines in 2008 and a certified beer specialist, in 2009.   

Appearance:  Cloudy, plum, magenta rim, small delicate bubbles spring from the middle and cling to the outer edges of the glass

Aroma: Sweet ripe raspberry, sage, red vines licorice, 

Palate: Very tart cranberry in contrast to the nose, interesting mouthfeel, dusty tannins, tart cherry, tart raspberry, fresh raspberry finish, lots of texture, very foamy, very dry.

Pairing: I wanted a really rich salad with raspberry and other complex flavors, it tackles the complex flavors of the firoadori cheese, and perfection with the truffle pecorino, the wine cleanses and stands up to these bold rich flavors, think mushroom ravioli topped with shaved truffles, Yum with the Wensleydale lemon and honey cheese. It wouldn’t work so well if it were cheddar without the lemon and honey. The LaTur and the wine is fu***** amazing. The layers of flavor bring pizzaz in the wine. The salad with the fennel pollen perfectly enhanced the wine. The pasta dish was also a perfect companion to the wine. The apple cake was so great with the wine. There was the apple and the pine nuts and the lemon flavors , but the wine brought out even more complex flavors such as raspberry lemonade and pine tar and mint. The two together just dance and bounce off of each other. So many courses would be a perfect companion to this wine. 

For more articles about Emilia Romagna check out:

• Andrea at The Quirky Cork with “A Love Affair with Lambrusco” 
• Camilla over at Culinary Cam with “From the Italian Riviera: Animated Sea Monsters, Linguine al Pesto, and Mataóssu 
• Robin at Crushed Grape Chronicles has “Meditating on the Magic of the Cinque Terre with a Sciacchetrà” 
• Susannah at Avvinare is “Celebrating Summer with Lugurian Gems“
• Jennifer. our host at Vino Travels, shares “Ligurian Vermentino and Pesto“