Thursday, May 13, 2021

Wine and Food of the Giro 2021 Stage 6: Grotte di Frasassi to Ascoli Piceno

Where are we? In the Marche.
Grotte di Frasassi: The village of Genga is a small medieval castle built on the rock located in the heart of the Marche, along the pre-Appennine band a stone’s throw from the city of Fabriano in the province of Ancona. Recognized as the birthplace of Pope Leo XII (1760-1829), Genga owes its national and international notoriety to Frasassi Caves, destination every year of hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world. Inserted within the Gola della Rossa and Frasassi Regional Natural Park, its territory immersed in nature is a popular destination for hikers, climbers, speleologists and bikers.
Ascoli Piceno lies at the confluence of the Tronto and Castellano rivers. The ancient centre of the Picenes (early inhabitants of the Adriatic coast), it was conquered in the 3rd century BC by the Romans, who knew it as Asculum Picenum. 

Giro Specialities: 
Grotte di Frasassi: Genga is known throughout Italy for its long tradition of salami factories and norcinerie: a past ritual carried out today by the Salumificio di Genga.
Among the most appreciated gastronomic typicalities, in addition to the great variety of sausages and cold cuts, there is certainly porchetta cooked according to the ancient recipes handed down from generation to generation. Flavors of the time that can be tasted in the many trattorias and restaurants present in the area, where you can also taste dishes based on fine truffle, very widespread in the Genga and Fabriano area and based on game, including wild boar.
The traditional peasant cuisine is represented in particular by handmade pasta: right in Genga you can taste the typical pincinelle, a particular type of handmade pasta similar to rolled noodles. When it comes to homemade pasta, in the tradition of the Marche hinterland, the famous vincisgrassi present on the menu of many local inns can certainly not be ignored: a tasty variant of baked pasta or lasagna with origin dating back to the late 1700s seasoned with a rich meat sauce and served especially during the holidays or during Sunday family lunches.
Other delicacies to count are certainly the crescia, a typical focaccia cooked under the grill accompanied by cured meats, wild herbs or pork fats, the ciauscolo, a sausage typical of the peasant tradition, the snails and polenta, a dish often accompanied by wild boar sauce and protagonist of the Autumn Festival held in Genga at the end of October.
As for desserts, among the excellences of local gastronomy there is certainly the cicerchiata, a carnival dessert typical of the area and now widespread throughout the regional territory. The name cicerchiata has medieval origin and derives from the words “pile of cicerchie”, legumes similar to peas or chickpeas covered with honey. Another typical dessert of the local tradition also wrapped in an abundant dose of honey are castagnole, bullets of sweet fried pasta, which in fact constitute one of the tastiest specialties in the area. Finally, to include the crescia fojata, a thin puff pastry, stuffed with apples and dried fruit and rolled on itself.
The stage: This is a fun profile, at least for the viewers. Well, it would have been, but for the picture break up. Bad weather challenges riders, but also tv helicopters and the ability to transmit from motorbikes. But, hey, nice cave: Not starting today, after yesterday's crashes: Landa (who DNFed), Dombrowski, Sivakov and Bidard.
Without being able to see the race at all, it was hard to know what was going on. Luckily, the Giro social media team had an update:
With a fixed camera at the kom point, we had a brief glimpse of riders! Now in the lead in that category: Bouchard.  We don't see it happen, but there was a split in the peloton, with De Marchi struggling under pressure from the Ineos team.
Pictures!
Fifty seven kilometers to go and the gap to the Ineos led bunch was under two minutes. De Marchi was about 1:40 further behind. Somedays professional riding looks like a pleasant, if demanding career. Today, was not one of those days. It simply looked miserable.
Speaking of miserable, this was still to come:

And then we had a rider taken out by a race car: Just above nine kilometers from the finish and Ganna finally pulled off from the front of the peloton. The gap to the break was around two minutes.
Five kilometers to go and the gap to the front was down to 1:36. A reminder that that group was Cataldo, Mollema and Mader. Surging forward from that group was Mader. With three kilometers to go, the gap was down to one minute. Launching from the peloton was Martinez. Next up was Bernal and that would cause a reaction from the bunch. One kilometer and it was 30 seconds to Mader.
Hanging on for the win: Mader. Next in Bernal.








The wine: 2018 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Superiore “Capovolto”
Back to Kermit Lynch for a wine that was just joyful. They tell me that: The La Marca di San Michele estate in Cupramontana is run by the sibling team of Alessandro Bonci, Beatrice Bonci, and Daniela Quaresima. They are light years ahead of most of their neighbors in growing their six hectares of Verdicchio vines entirely organically, vinifying with minimal SO2, aging some cuvées in large botte, and bottling unfiltered. Cupramontana is the historical birthplace of Verdicchio production in Le Marche–the region’s first vineyards were registered in the land office here in 1471. Camaldolite monks began viticulture here many centuries earlier in 1186, in the area of San Michele, a rural frazione bordering Cupramontana. La Marca refers to a “border district.” All of these rural territories were united to form the region of “Le Marche,” the only Italian region that takes the plural.

The food: Vincisgrassi because why not a baked pasta? Recipe here.  
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)