Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Wine and Food of the Giro 2022 Stage 10: Pescara to Jesi

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Where are we? Heading from Abruzzo to the Marche.

Pescara: From the Giro: The first thing we invite you to do when you arrive in the city is to climb the Ponte del Mare, a light jewel placed where the Pescara river embraces the sea. This is how “the surprise of green, rich Pescara, which at times has the color of malachite … and you feel the sea light of all things” opens to the eye. It is often defined as brand new but its oldest part has its roots in the foundations of the sixteenth-century fortress that presided over the river. Its most recent part, born in 1806 around the chapel containing a miraculous image of the Virgin of which today remains the high Baroque bell tower, stretches north of Pescara in the narrow and fertile strip of land between the hills and the protected sea, on the background, from “those mountains that cannot be ignored, monumental and free” which are the Gran Sasso and the Majella. A land of great character, “where you seem to arrive suddenly, crossing the steep gorges and the wide plateaus of the Apennines”, a land of furious aspirations and disarming sensuality which fed the poetry of Gabriele d’Annunzio and acute and cutting reflection of Ennio Flaiano, today Pescara continues to grow, innovative and enterprising as a gateway to the Adriatic.

The food: A rich variety of typical products and characteristic receipts build the gastronomic tradition of Pescara. Cardone’s broth is a must in all Christmas’ menus
Besides the traditional maccheroni alla chitarra, a remarkable unique receipt is pasta alla mugnaia, formerly known as molinara due to the water mills scattered on the Fino river’s bank since the Middle Ages, producing the flour that, mixed with water, was the only one ingredient of this receipt.
Within the sea planet, the delicious fish broth is the top tier. In the kingdom of meat dishes, sheep meat arrosticini, commonly known as rustell, conquer the highest rank.
Speaking of cheese, a special mention goes to Farindola’s pecorino. Already famous in Roman times (Pliny the Elder considered it to be one of the most delicious cheeses ever served at the Emperor’s table). It risked to disappear around the end of the last century, due to the mass migrations after the Great War. The preparation is an exclusive prerogative of women, who pass the tradition on, safeguarding the memory of a cheese which is prepared with pork’s rennet, which makes it tasty, rich and unique in Italy (and, perhaps all over the world).
The bean Tondino del Tavo, with its rounded shape, takes the name of the valley where it is cultivated, and it is considered to be the wealth of the whole community.
Pipindun e ove is a very special side dish, as well as the cipollata. Olive groves covering the hills around Pescara ensure the production of a prestigious oil, an important added value of any single receipt. It is ideal to taste it on a slice of bread!
As for the desserts, a primacy of honor is to be recognized to Parrozzo. Originally a poor dish whose name was pan rozzo, it was prepared with corn flour to imitate the presence of eggs, cooked in a wood fired oven. Only in 1920 the baker Luigi D’Amico enriched it by adding eggs, almond flour and citrus flavor, covered it all with chocolate to evoke the image of a slightly burnt bread from a wood fired oven, and gave it its characteristic hemispherical shape. That is how Parrozzo was born, a simple yet fine sweet, “chiù doce de qualunqua cosa ddòce” as Gabriele d’Annunzio wrote and as still nowadays reads on its package box.

Jesi: The Giro says: Jesi (40,000 inhabitants) situated partly on a plain and partly on a hillock to the left of the Esino river, half way from the Adriatic Sea and the Marche Apennines. Jesi is the most important city in the river Esino valley, embracing about 20 hamlets. UNESCO has defined it as an ‘exemplar city’ thanks to the exceptional preservation of its oldest memories. Jesi was the birthplace of illustrious figures such as the Swabian Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen, the humanist Angelo Colocci and the composer Giovan Battista Pergolesi, but over the centuries it has also been home to important names who have left a valuable cultural heritage such as the Siena-born architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini and the Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto.
Jesi’s extraordinary sports vocation is recognised at international level, making it the world’s most medalled city (23 medals) in the history of the Olympics. There have been great champions from Jesi, both in fencing, such as Valentina Vezzali, Giovanna Trillini, Stefano Cerioni and Elisa Di Francisca, and in football, first and foremost Roberto Mancini, coach of the Italian national football team.

The food: Sitting at table and trying the local food … no better way to appreciate the local culture. The flagship pasta dish is a regional version of baked lasagne, the vincisgrassi. Once called “princisgras”, it is made from a 1784 recipe by renowned, Macerata-born chef, Antonio Nebbia. Another local specialty are passatelli, a soft pasta made with parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, eggs and nutmeg, that can be eaten in broth or as pasta, with sauce. As a second course, the porchetta, roast suckling pig, is popular in all of Central Italy. In the Marche, though, rabbit is also prepared this way, ‘in porchetta’, stuffed with wild fennel and bits of pork rind. Other regional favourites are the coniglio in potacchio, roast rabbit seasoned with garlic, sage and rosemary, and the oca arrostita, roast goose, traditionally eaten at harvest time. Specialty bakery products are both sweet and savoury. Early in the year, there are Carnival treats. This area of the Marche is known for the castagnole, small balls of sweet dough, fried, then dusted with confectioner’s sugar, and the cicerchiata, named for the shape of the small chickling pea and made from tiny balls of hand rolled dough, drizzled with honey. The bakery treats for the Feast of St. Joseph are maritozzi. They are like a sweet bread, baked in small oval shapes and decorated with a sugar icing. The pizza al formaggio was always served for breakfast after the Easter mass. This cheese bread is traditionally eaten with home-made salami and an omelette made with a mix of spring herbs. Harvest season is the time for cakes and biscuits ‘al mosto’. In November the fave dei morti are made, a round, slightly flattened biscuit with almonds. The cavallucci or “little horses” biscuits are traditionally made in wintertime. Thick and rich, these treats are stuffed with ‘sapa’, Rum or Marsala, coffee, walnuts, almonds, chocolate, candied fruit, raisins and dried figs. A special delight: the lonza di fico, a dried fig log, with walnuts, almonds and sapa, a sweet, boiled grape-must syrup.




The stage: Will the sprinters hang on? Quite possibly, which may explain the small break.
As they rode, Ewan and Cavendish were both dropped, with Ewan going early and solo.
Today the peloton would pass through the hometown of Michele Scarponi, the former rider who had been tragically killed on the bike. His parrot, who often joined him on training rides, was roadside, though there was some talk it was actually Lewis the parrot shown on tv. Parrotgate to come.

Forty kilometers to go and the gap was around 1:30.

A bit over thirty kilometers to go and the action began. A small group got away, but they would not get a lot of time. Solo at the lead, De Marchi. His gap would continue to shrink. Twenty one kilometers to go and he was caught. There was an interesting mix of gc riders and those wanting the stage win at the front.
As Covi and others attacked, Demare was off the back of a shrinking group. Lots of attacks were taking place, including one by Yates and eventually, Carapaz. Getting a small gap. Hugh Carthy.
Girmay! One of the favorites on the day takes the first stage for Eritrea, making him the first black African rider to win a grand tour stage.




The wine:  Claudio Morelli, Colli Pesaresi Sangiovese
From Dig. 
From the importer:  Claudio Morelli is a wine-grower in the little coast town of Fano, south of Pesaro, in the Marche. He makes a number of wines typical of the area, including several made of the vivid, fresh white wine grape called Bianchello di Metauro (or Biancame, according to Ian d’Agata). His Terrazze bottling is brilliant, an excellent dry aperitivo or complement to seafood. We also import two red wines, a Sangiovese and a rare red called Vernaccia Rossa.

Pure Sangiovese from a single vineyard near the coast, at around 100 meters above sea level. The soil is tuff (limestone) and sand, the vines were planted in the 1970s (older vines give deeper flavor), and the site is very well ventilated by a variety of different breezes including some that come directly off the Adriatic. The grapes are harvested at some point between the end of September and the end of October, depending on the vintage; they are de-stemmed, crushed, and fermented in stainless steel tanks. After a total of about two weeks of maceration the wine is pressed off the skins and aged in stainless steel for about 12 months.


The food: Cavallucci from Visit Tuscany
220 g plain flour
115 g sugar
15 g honey
70 g chopped nuts
40 of candied orange and citron
80 ml of water
5 g of ammonia for cakes
1 teaspoon aniseed
4 g of mixed spices (nutmeg, coriander, cinnamon)
Icing sugar

Mix the flour with the chopped walnuts, candied fruit, ammonia, spices and the aniseeds finely crushed.
In a saucepan, melt the sugar and honey with the water, bringing it to 120 °C; once dissolved, let it boil for a few minutes. Combine this with the flour mixture.
Knead quickly and create a long dough sausage with a diameter of 5 cm, cut into cylinders about 3 cm tall.
Shape them with your hands. Make a slight furrow on top, pressing with your thumb, and arrange your biscuits on a pan lined with baking paper.
Bake at 130 °C for about 15 minutes. Do not worry if, once baked, they seem even softer: they will solidify slowly.
Wait a few hours before eating.
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