Ferrara - Trattoria da Noemi

After exploring Ferrara for a bit and then a short nap, we awoke hungry. Since it was Easter Monday, a holiday, we were lucky to have been able to get reservations for dinner. Our B&B was right outside the city walls, so we left a bit early and just enjoyed sitting alongside Ex Chiesa Di San Romano, which was now the Cathedral Museum, facing Piazza Trento e Trieste. It was a beautiful night!

It seems that much of the crowd we saw during the day had left.

Soon enough, dinner time had arrived. Ferrara itself is an ancient city, the first recordings of a settlement in the area was in the 6th Century BC. Thus the city, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has city walls and warrens of alleyways. Down one of these is Trattoria da Noemi. There was quite a line in place when we arrived and folks were being turned away. Like I said, we were lucky to have gone earlier in the day and snag some reservations. The only thing we had really eaten for the whole day was some salumi, so we were starved.

The Missus ordered the Fiori di Zucca fritti ripieni di mozzarella - fried squash blossom stuffed with mozzarella to start.

These looked fairly dense, but were surprisingly light, the breading nice and crisp. The cheese added a bit of density to things and just the slightest bit of milky acidity.

You know what I ordered as my primi, right?

Yep, Culatello of course! This was Culatello di Zebello, so tender, almost sweet, with a touch of milkiness. In case you don't know what part of the pig is used for this...think of the name...."culo". The torta fritta here was light and crisp, a perfect match for the piece of....ahem, you get it right?

We had noticed an entire section of "special" pasta on the menu. Can you guess what was special about these?

The Missus ordered the Fagottini ripieni di faraona al tartufo. These tender "little bundles" were filled with Guinea fowl, which was quite mild, we expected something more gamey. The hand made pasta was quite tender. And this is the way pasta is in Emilia-Romagna, it shines on it's own, not drenched in sauce and in this case, topped with fragrant black truffle. All the ingredients shine.

I had wanted to try pasta al zucca (pasta stuffed with pumpkin), so I ordered the Cappellacci di zucca burro e salvia al tartufo. Stuffed pasta in the shape of a "hat".

Of course I got it topped with truffle. The pasta is finished in sage butter; which wasn't enough to balance out the sweetness of the pumpkin....this was just too sweet for us. The pasta was quite tender, with the slightest pull.

We had enjoyed our meal with a couple of glasses of wine.

The meal was enjoyable and we attempted to make reservations for lunch the next day, but the place was booked solid.

Trattoria da Noemi
Via Ragno 31
44100 Ferrara, Italy

We awoke the next morning and had a light breakfast. We went back to our room to relax until check-out time. Our train didn't leave until after 4pm and we didn't have to do anything other than return out rental car. The folks running the B&B kindly allowed us to park our car in their lot after we checked out. We decided to take another walk around the city.

Things were fairly quiet. We just wandered the various alleyways and streets taking in the charming cobbled streets and warrens that circled the town.

Things started picking up as the clocked edged toward eleven. Many places were closed; I guess to recover from the Easter rush, all the other were booked, and even take out panini places had an hour wait....for paninis to go!

We decided that lunch just wasn't in the cards for us and just decided to return the rental car. When determining our route and timing for the rental car return, I noticed that our rental office in Ferrara was just a ten minute walk to the train station.

The woman at the rental office was so warm and friendly!

As I walked back out to the street, I noticed this place next to the rental office.

We got a couple of Americanos and shared a sandwich to kill some time. What was really interesting were the three guys sitting on the other side of the al fresco "palette", they had obviously gone thru a couple of beers each. One of the guys had that "glow" if you know what I mean....his face was bright red. He finished beer number who knows.....got up...shook his friends hands....and got into a delivery van and drove off! Sheesh....

We got up, returned our cups and saucers.....and took the short walk to Ferrara Train Station.

We'd had a fun time in Ferrara. I'd randomly picked Ferrara because of an extra day we had between cities and noticing how close the rental car office was to the train station. Part of this was driven by some dinner reservations and other things. Ferrara entertained us and exceeded our expectations. We just might return some day.....though I'm going to make sure it's not around a holiday!

Next stop....Modena!

Comments

[Derek R]

Is there anywhere that does shaved black truffles over pasta locally? I get jealous every time I see them and have not actually got to try it for myself.

[kat]

such a pretty city

[Kirk]

All the truffles I've had here; except for special "dinners" have been grated, not shaved Derek. You can buy black truffles from Whole Foods and Bristol Farms. I've even bough it from Nijiya:

http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/2015/06/we-interrupt-our-scheduled-post-for-a-wagyu-locomoco-with-veal-porcini-pan-sauce-and-shaved-truffle.html

Quite beautiful Kat!

[Soo]

I love the look of those buildings!

[Kirk]

It's quite beautiful Soo!

[Junichi]

Love it when the ingredients shine on their own!

[Kirk]

It is a beautiful thing Junichi!