Perhaps not everyone knows that the most important district for the production of tomatoes for sauces and pulp is found in Emilia, and that is why the local Institutions have decided to dedicate a museum to the “Red Gold” near the City of Parma. The Museum is inserted into the Food Museums Circuit (www.museidelcibo.it) which are already present on the territory and are dedicated to Prosciutto and deli meats (Langhirano), to Salami (Felino) and to Parmesan Cheese (Soragna).

The inaugural cutting of the ribbon is scheduled for Saturday, September 25: starting a 10:00 a.m. there will be a convention entitled “The Tomato in Parma: history, entrepreneurialism, and taste” with lectures by Tullio Gregory, Director of the Italian Treccani Encyclopedia Institute, and Giorgio Calabrese, nutritionist, Davide Paolini, a gastronomic journalist, and Giancarlo Gonizzi, Coordinator of the Food Museums. The inauguration includes a guided tour of the Museum at 12:30 a.m.. In the afternoon, from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. the Museum will be open to the public for free, and there will be free guided tours starting every hour. In addition to all this, during the same hours, science workshops for children will be held thanks to the collaboration of the Googol association.

The museum is organized in seven theme sections, starting with the history of tomato and its arrival in Europe in ‘500 and its following diffusion. Then a second section deals with the development of the processing industry in Parma, and the third section shows the development of production technologies. The fourth section deals with the theme of the finished product and of its packaging, the fifth is dedicated to the development of the mechanical industry, and the sixth narrates the protagonists of factory work. The culture of the “World of Tomato”, with advertisement, citations and paintings, closes the tour.

Organized into eight sections, the visiting route starts with the region, with a description of Parma agriculture, and then goes on to the section dedicated to pig breeds and to the salt section, which tells the history of this very important food preservation tool that, thanks to the Salsomaggiore wells, favoured the development over time of the art of salami and cured meat production. The fourth room is dedicated to pork butchery and, in addition to numerous historical documents about the slaughter of pigs over the centuries, houses a wide range of ancient pork butchery objects. The remaining sections concentrate on the Parma region’s other local salamis and cured meats, on gastronomy, on ham processing techniques and on the Parma Ham Consortium, which guarantees the quality of this extraordinary product that is known and highly regarded throughout the world, on the region and on agri-food production. Info and bookings: www.museidelcibo.it

Museo del Prosciutto e dei salumi di Parma (Parma Ham, salami and cured meat museum)
C/o Ex Foro Boario – Via Bocchialini, 7 – Langhirano (PR)

Open to the public:
From 1 March to 8 December
Saturday, Sunday and public holidays: 10:00 – 18:00
From Monday to Friday: by booking for groups
From December to February
Open only by booking for groups

Ticket price:
Full € 4.00
Reduced € 3.00 groups (minimum 15 persons), adults aged over 65 years,
promotion of visitors to Torrechiara Castle at the weekend, agreements
Reduced for compulsory schools € 3.00 schools and children aged from 6 to 12 years
Free: disabled people and their attendants, group and student tour leaders, journalists, children under 6 years
Tasting of Parma Ham
Full € 3.00
Reduced € 2.00 (children up to 12 years)

Visitors also have the possibility of a tasting of local Parma products to be accompanied by a selection of Colli di Parma wines at the Prosciutteria (ham shop) of the Museum.

Guided visits
For groups of a maximum of 25 people: € 20.00 in addition to the entrance ticket. Booking is compulsory.

Museum Shop
During the Museum’s opening hours, publications, objects for the table and the region’s local products can be purchased from the Museum Shop situated in the exhibition rooms.

Information and Bookings (compulsory for groups and schools):
Museo del Prosciutto (Ham Museum): Tel. +39-0521.864324  Fax. ++39-0521.821139
e-mail: prenotazioni.prosciutto@museidelcibo.it
WEB: www.museidelcibo.it

300 gr of flour
1 kg of potatoes
Salt
1 egg

Potatoes dumplings

Preparation:

Wash the potatoes without peeling them, put them in a pot with salted water and let they boil. Still warm, peel them, mash and put them on a well floured work surface.

Add a pinch of salt and flour and knead until all dough is compact but still soft. Now add 1 egg and continue to knead until the dough becomes compact and without lumps.

Then, divide the dough into many strands of the thickness of 2-3 cm and begin to cut your dumplings placing them on a floured surface.
Finally, crush each dumpling on a fork, pressing a bit, to obtain the classical striped form.

Let your dumplings rest  for 15 minutes, then cook them in a pot with enough salted water and drain them when they rise to the surface.
Prepare the seasoning that you like and serve.

500 gr of sea mullets
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
Cooking salt
2-3 sprigs of parsley
Table salt
Black pepper

Mullets baked in foil

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 200 ° C.

Carefully wash the mullets, remove the entrails and scale.

Put into each belly one drop of olive oil, a slice of garlic and a few grains of cooking salt. Wash the parsley, select the leaves and chop finely.

Cut two sheets of aluminum foil of 20×20 cm. Arrange on each aluminium foil a drop of oil and brush, then lay out the fish and another drop of olive oil, togheter with a handful of chopped parsley, a pinch of salt and grated black pepper.
Close the wrappers using another aluminium foil to overlap, sealing the edges, but without compressing the content, so it doesn’t attack.

Put in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Then open the wrappers and serve.

2 kg of mussels
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 /2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
Pepper
Parsley

Impepata di cozze

Preparation:

Clean and debeard (1) the mussels. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan with the garlic and add the mussels (2-3).

Cover the pan with a lid (4) and cook the mussels over high heat for a few minutes until they open. Towards the end of cooking, add plenty of black pepper (5) and if you prefer the chopped parsley. Shake the pot with the lid tightly closed to mix togheter the pepper and the sauce of mussels. Take your impepata from the pan and serve hot!

500 gr of clams
Chopped parsley
1 clove of garlic
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Pepper
160 gr of spaghetti
Salt

Spaghetti with clams

Preparation:

Wash the clams under running water and put them in a large saucepan. Cook on a high heat, waiting until they open (usually takes 5-7 minutes). Stir occasionally. When they are ready, shell them, leaving some whole for decorating at the end and filter the cooking liquid.

Wash the parsley and chop finely together with the peeled garlic clove. Fry lightly the oil and the mince being careful that the garlic does not burn. Add the clams and mix thoroughly. Add 2 tablespoons of cooking liquid, and let it flavor for a few minutes, add grated pepper, turn off the heat and cover.

Boil pasta in abundant salted water and just before drain it, add half ladle of cooking water into the pan of sauce, then turn on the fire. Pan-fry the strained pasta to high heat for a few minutes, stirring frequently.

Serve immediately with a drop of olive oil as a condiment and garnish with parsley leaves.

400 gr of spaghetti pasta
500 gr of tomato pulp
150 gr of black olives
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon of capers
4 desalted anchovy fillets
Extra virgin olive oil
Oregano
Parsley
Chilli pepper
Salt

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

Preparation:

Fry lightly garlic and chilli. Add tomato pulp, olives cut into small pieces, crushed anchovy fillets and capers (washed and desalted) and salt.

Cook for 25 minutes and before switching off add oregano and chopped parsley.

Boil the spaghetti and flavour with the prepared sauce.

Flour
400 gr of mozzarella
16 slices of sandwich bread or pancarrè
A pinch of salt
100 ml of milk
Extra virgin olive oil
Pepper

Preparation:

Take the slices of bread or pancarrè cutting the dark edges (1). Cut the mozzarella into slices not too thin (up to 1 cm) and place them on 8 slices of bread (2), preventing they escape from the edges, then cover with the other remaining 8 slices (3), and press.

Cut diagonally (4) the sandwich of bread and mozzarella, obtaining from each of these two triangles (5). Put the flour on a plate and beat the 3 eggs into a bowl with milk, salt and ground pepper (6).

Pass the triangles in the flour (7), paying particular attention to cover well also the side edges, and then generously in the egg mixture (8-9). Repeat the process until the ingredients finish.

Heat oil in a pan (or turn a fryer), and when it is hot, dip the sandwiches (10), making them brown evenly on both sides (11). When they are ready, put them to drain on paper towels (12) and then serve them still warm, salted on surface.

For shortcrust pastry:

200 gr of flour
120 gr of butter
70 gr of sugar
1 egg yolk
A pinch of salt
Lemon peel

For stuffing:

500 gr of ricotta cheese
150 gr of sugar
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
Lemon peel
6 sheets of gelatin

Ricotta cheese Tortino

Pastry preparation:

Sift the flour and form a fountain in the middle. Pour the egg yolk, sugar, salt and lemon peel then put the cold butter in flakes. Starting from the center quickly knead until you obtain a smooth paste and let it rest in refrigerator for two hours.

Turn on the oven. On floured pastry board, roll out the dough into two disks of 26 cm in diameter.

Cook in oven on buttered plate (or use the greaseproof paper) at 190 ° for 10-12 minutes.

Divide one of the disks still hot into 12 equal parts and let it cool.

Ricotta custer preparation:

Mix the ricotta cheese with caster sugar, vanilla sugar, juice and lemon peel.

Heat the white wine and dissolve the gelatine sheets previously soaked in cold water.

Whip the cream and add gelatine and cream into the mixture of ricotta cheese.

Put the whole disk of dough into a mold, by covering the board with greaseproof paper, and pour the ricotta cream.

300 gr of wheat flour
150 gr of butter
100 gr of sugar
1 small glass of grappa
1 pinch of bicarbonate of soda
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon of honey
70 gr of shelled almonds
A pinch of salt

Fregoloti cake

Preparation:

Whip the butter with sugar and add the egg yolk, honey, salt and grappa, always stirring.

Then add the flour previously sifted, bicarbonate and the ground almonds.

Place the dough at flakes in a buttered cake pan and bake in preheated oven at 150 degrees for about 45-50 minutes.

To prevent this sweet crumbles, it is recommended to cut while it’s still lukewarm.