Sunday, June 2, 2019

Wine and Food of the Giro 2019: Stage 21

Where are we? VERONA: The sweet loops of the Adige, that flows through the city, and the low hills surrounding it at the northern side contribute to creating an harmoniously beautiful landscape.
GASTRONOMY: Verona has a rich food culture, heritage of its thousand-year old local agriculture and plenty of DOP raw materials. The most typical main dishes of the city are: pasta e fasoi, bigoli con le sarde,  gnocchi and nodini di Valeggio. 
The rice, grown in the lowlands of Verona, is the basic ingredient of many dishes: risotto al radicchio and Amarone wine, riso al tastasal or with peas. Among the typical second courses it is worth mentioning: pastisada de caval and bollito with pearà (a typical sauce of Verona used to accompany meat).
Regarding the desserts, in addition to the famous pandoro, there are others which are typcal of the local cuisine: Nadalin, crostoli and the fritole of Carnival. Rich is also the production of cheese and  sausages. The Monte Veronese is certainly the most important, but there are many other type of cheese produced in the malghe della Lessinia (mountain huts), as well as typical cold cuts, like the soppressa all’aglio. Last but not least the production of oil, from Garda lake to Valpolicella: both productions are certified DOP 

The stage: And this is how the race ends, with a time trial around Verona. The stage should not be long enough for major changes, but you never know.
Our early leaders:


 
Ciccone safely through, the winner of the our King of the Mountain competition.


 
Our final rider of the day:


 
Ahead, Roglic in at 9th. Would he end up back on the podium? He would need 24 seconds over Landa. And, yes, with Landa in, Roglic had gotten back on the third step of the podium.
Nibali in at 22:30. His second spot was confirmed. Meanwhile on the hot seat, Chad Haga has realized that he would be the stage winner. Bravo!
Carapaz in, with a slower time than Nibali, but he had a large enough gap going in to take the race. Congratulations to him.

The stage:


 

 The race: 

1Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Movistar Team90:01:47 
2Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida0:01:05 
3Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma0:02:30 
4Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team0:02:38 
5Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo0:05:43 
6Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe0:06:56 
7Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team0:07:26 
8Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott0:07:49 
9Pavel Sivakov (Rus) Team Ineos0:08:56 
10Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin0:12:14 
11Hugh John Carthy (GBr) EF Education First0:16:36 
12Joe Dombrowski (USA) EF Education First0:20:12 
13Valentin Madouas (Fra) Groupama-FDJ0:21:59 
14Davide Formolo (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe0:22:38 
15Jan Polanc (Slo) UAE Team Emirates  
16Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo0:27:19 
17Mikel Nieve (Spa) Mitchelton-Scott0:27:46 
18Tanel Kangert (Est) EF Education First0:30:11 
19Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida0:33:40 
20Fausto Masnada (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec0:34:52
 
The wine: Pra Valpolicella Morandina
From the importer: The Prà winery, although only started in the early 1980’s, has come to be not only one of the top producers in the Soave appellation, but also one of the most important and visionary white wine makers in all of Italy (now expanding into red wine as well)! The winery is run by Graziano Prà, whose family owned their vineyards for generations but never commercialized the wines in bottles. The vineyards are situated in the heart of the appellation, in Monteforte D’Alpone. Besides Soave, the winery also produces Valpolicella and Amarone from a vineyard that he purchased and planted in 2001, and whose truly remarkable results are only now being discovered.
The Prà holdings consist of 30 HA in Soave and 7 HA in Valpolicella. Graziano was always a big believer in natural viticulture and its positive effect on the wines and has farmed organically since the outset. he is now getting his “official” certification in Soave (in transition as of 2018), and the Valpolicella estate is already fully certified. All grapes are harvested by hand both in Soave and Valpolicella.
The terroir in Monteforte d’Alpone in Soave features classic, very black, volcanic soils which help to impart an underlying power and minerality to the wines. As Ian D’Agata of Vinous points out, “Prà is especially adept at ensuring the wines also showcase a remarkable degree of finesse.”  Much of the plantings were done in the late 70’s, so the average vine age is quite high, especially for the region. Additionally, Graziano was one of the first to see the higher potential of certain sub-parcels in the appellation – for both complexity and ageability – and began producing vineyard-designated wines in Soave early on before it became popular in the region among the better producers. His single-parcel,  Monte Grande, in fact was first produced in 1988, and he has since added two other special “Garganega Selection” Soaves, Staforte and Colle Sant’Antonio, each with its own unique formula both in the vineyards and the cellar.

The food: Pandoro

500g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
5g salt
125g caster sugar
10g dried active yeast
finely grated zest of 1 orange
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
150g softened butter, plus extra for greasing
100ml warm milk
2 medium eggs,
2 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla paste

Grease a 500g pandoro mold with butter. Place the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the salt and caster sugar to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other side. Add the orange and lemon zest, softened butter, eggs, egg yolks, vanilla and milk. Start on a slow speed and mix together to form a wet sticky dough.
Increase the speed on the mixer and mix for 10 minutes. The dough should now be a thicker consistency and adhere to the dough hook. If the dough is dropping from the dough hook mix for a further 5 minutes or until the correct consistency is achieved.
Lightly dust a work surface with flour and gently knead the dough. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and leave to prove until doubled in size. This can take 4 hours, for best results leave overnight.
Tip the risen dough onto a lightly floured surface and fold in on its self a few times to knock out the air. Shape into a ball and place in the prepared tin, gently pressing into the corners of the tin. Cover and leave to rise until it comes to the top of the tin, this can take 1 ½ - 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350F. Uncover the pandoro and bake for 35 – 40 minutes. Insert a skewer and test to see the cake is cooked through.
Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out and cool on a wire rack. Before serving, trim the base so it will sit flat on a serving plate and slice into thick horizontal slices. Rotate the slices and dust heavily with icing sugar.  


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