Trattoria Lamarta

Map of the drive made (click here to enlarge)

I have a deep enough knowledge of Lake Como, especially, since i live there, on the side of Lecco (the setting of the famous novel by Alessandro Manzoni).
In my childhood i spent a lot of summers at Lake Maggiore, and so, somehow, i know that too.
Lake Garda, instead, was still partially unknown. Yes, i had been near to there, i visited some villages in the southern coast like Sirmione, Desenzano, Peschiera. But, although partially in my region, i have never done a thorough visit.
And so, during the weekend 24th to 26th july, R, myself, Maddie and Mr. Bentley begun to remedy this serious gap with a short holiday at Gargnano.
Of course, two days is not enough to explore the subject, but enough to have an idea about how to plan a longer holiday, not only at the lake, but also in the surrounding mountains.
During those days that area was really hot, so, in order to escape from the heat, and also for the curiosity of exploring the surrounding mountains and finding destinations for any interesting hiking paths for future excursions, on saturday evening we decided to drive into an internal road we found on the map.
We were pleasantly surprised by the truly spectacular scenery on a deserted road (looks so far from the busy tourist destinations of lake Garda!). We drove on hairpin bends rolled around canyons and gorges, coasting also the beautiful little artificial lake Valvestino and crossing it on breathtaking bridges.

The road reaches Lake Idro. To avoid also the touristic crowd of this last one, we went a little over, at Treviso Bresciano. That day we decided not to have dinner because a few hours earlier we had a very big lunch. But at that late hour in the night we were beginning to feel the need of a snack. Then the talented fingers of R began to thumb through the pages of the SlowFood guide, finding a good restaurant just right there, in the hamlet Vico. Trattoria Lamarta.
Here we were warmly welcomed, even though they were almost closing (after nine in the evening, there was no longer anybody). We ordered half a liter of red wine and a plate of cured meat of their production, really delicious. Particularly good were their lardo and prosciutto. The latter, then, I was informed that that was not prosciutto, but cured pork rib.
We chatted for a long time with the nice lady. In particular I was amazed how such a nice restaurant could survive in a place so isolated that it was empty already at nine on Saturday night.
The lady told us how, after three generations, the restaurant is still run. Nothing much has changed. Meals are all prepared from their own produced ingredients (and if they are all like those cured meats, it's worth another visit!). In particular they grow pigs and vegetables, but they also have other animals. The menu can differ from day to day but goes according to season, with no choice allowed. One can eat what is cooked that day, which in fact depends upon the butchered animals and the harvested seasonal vegetables. The lady suggests to call before if one wants to know what will be served for dinner or lunch.

We paid 15 euros. Obviously without any receipt. Given the familiar welcome we received from the lady and her kindness keeping open only for us, i didn't feel like demanding it, so it's disappointing to include also this business in my list of tax evaders.

Trattoria Lamarta
via Tito Speri, 56
Localita' Vico
25070, Treviso Bresciano (BS)
Small pets welcome only in the porch outside.

This blog is against tax dodging

I am a subordinate employee.
And so, regarding income taxes, i pay them.
I have a headache to fill out the modello 730 (the italian tax form) because I want the deductions allowed for having a home loan, and not lose them by having my taxes automatically computed. This operation is not that difficult but, as usual clumsy in bureaucratic stuff, i end up making some errors, that are regularly corrected by the kind girls at the CAAF office (the syndacate section charged to check validity of official documents).
I swear that any error is absolutely unintentional. It wouldn't make any sense in fact to try to be sneaky: the document to attach as a proof of its accuracy is the CUD (a document issued by the employer), and the numbers written on the two forms must be the same.

To tell the truth the accuracy of the data written on the 730 is immediately verifiable only for the incomes for subordinate employment. For instance, i could give private lessons of ancient Greek language, arrange small electricity works, canary petsitting, or teach hang gliding, with regular remuneration, and then i could avoid to declare it as an income. But i don't do any of those activities, believe me.

For sure i don't have the same solidarity feeling as Artemisia, who would like to pay more taxes. Instead i would prefer to pay less. But i am proud to be able to say that i never evade taxes and i am happy to pay till the last penny what is owed, to give my contribution to the community.
I'd only like that also the other members of the same community do the same.
First of all for a social reason. Since the social services are financed by the State through tax revenue, tax evasion means that services are not paid enough (and so performed with worse quality) or, otherwise, that the pressure of taxation increases (obviously for non-evaders).
Moreover, I cannot find a valid reason why, for the same income, whoever is honest will have less money, since he must provide for a part to be paid in taxes.

Italian tax system doesn't allow subordinate employees to evade taxes, while it makes it easy and lightly punished for self-employers and enterpreneurs, for the simple reason that for this last ones it's more difficult to evaluate the income.
Which, of course, doesn't mean that subordinate employees are more honest than the self employers. In fact i know some enterpreneurs that pay till the last cent, while a lot of subordinate employees do not evade only because they don't have the opportunity to, which it's far from a moral acquittal.

The ricevuta fiscale.

The taxation for a commercial business is computed on the base of the sales proceeds, or, in other words, the sum of the money coming from the sale of the products or services commercialized, in the period of one year.
The ricevuta fiscale [receipt for fiscal purposes] is an official document that is issued by the business that contains the total amount paid by the customer, the detail of all the products or services bought, the particulars of the business itself along with a progressive number and the date that unequivocally identify that receipt.
It is double-copied and written (by hand or automatically, in the form of a scontrino fiscale, by the registratore di cassa [a particular calculator/printer]). One copy is given to the customer and the other is kept by the dealer. The set of all the ricevute fiscali issued in one year is so a good enough documentation for computing the sales proceeds.

The most obvious way to evade the taxes, so, is not to issue the receipt at all, after a sale.

I don't believe that the customer should play the role of the inspector. But the receipt, that is a proof of the purchase, is the warranty that the taxes due for that good are paid, and it is a right of the consumer to control that it actually happens.
It's obvious that when a dealer does not give the receipt, in that moment he is evading his taxes. And that is a crime.
After a sale, it's normal that a dealer actually gives the good that was paid by the customer ("I'm not a cheater!"). On the other side, the customer for sure pays the good he bought ("I'm not a thief!"). I cannot understand why they feel it is allowed to pass over the receipt.

I don't know about you, but so often it happens to me that the shopkeeper "forgets" to issue the receipt.
Being that i pay my taxes, this "forgetting" irritates me so much, and when it happens, i expressly ask for a receipt. At that point they issue it, some times with an arrogant reaction. Rarely it happened that they kept refusing.
I believe that, unfortunately, the main part of consumers do not have the same "ball-breaking" nature, and at the end, for each demanded receipt, a lot of others are lost in the guilty oblivion.

I don't believe that there is a particular category of business to point the finger towards. As Maurice in his post notices, if the statistics say that the restaurants are the most impudent tax evaders, that doesn't mean that one can accuse each restaurateur to evade taxes. For example, the only one time we had dinner at Maurice's, the receipt was regularily issued. To say that the restaurant dealers are dishonest is injust towards the honest ones.

And it's just for this reason that, in my opinion, the dishonest ones should be identified. As Maurice says, "Tirate fuori i nomi e non sparate a casaccio sul mucchio" ["Quote the names and don't shoot on the mass"]. No sooner said than done. Today i start a new survey on this blog that reports the commercial business that evade the taxes. Or, atleast, that try to, when it's my turn to pay the bill. The list will appear on a proper section in the right column.

Disclaimer: I'd like to make clear that this report has nothing to do with the quality of the products.

One has to start from somewhere, and so, incidentally, it happens that the first tax evader of the list is the famous Pasticceria Vassalli, Via S. Carlo 84/86 - 25087 Salò (Brescia). R. and i entered last friday morning in the shop. We had a slice of ricotta pie, a "fruit basket" (almond-chocolate wafer filled with fruit and custard), two shakerati, two glasses of mineral water and a small pack of lemon cookies. The lady (i think she's the owner), using the registratore di cassa as a support to write on the notepad, performed the sum by hand and accepted our payment of the bill with credit card. Only after the transaction, when she was already greeting us, i demanded and obtained the receipt.

La Formaggeria

Pagliettina

The word "tourism" recalls, besides a rest at the seaside or in the mountain, visits to museums.
Everywhere one happens to be one can find a museum about a particular subject, with the purpose to atone in a display of cultural engagement, every possible concession to laziness and enjoyment, almost it was about a guilt.
Naturally one cannot generalize, but sometimes really really think a museum is only an excuse to give oneself airs of intellectuality, while it's not really needed.
And maybe it's almost as if one justifies some museums, like for example the

Goat tomino

torture instruments in San Gimignano, just to mention one.
Torture instruments!
Shouldn't one be a kind of maniac to visit such a museum?
And what about some fetishism for the visitor of the museum of Umbrella at Gignese?

It obviously depends on the location of the holiday. I am not saying for sure that the Uffizi wouldn't deserve to be visited if one is in Florence, or the same for the Vatican Museums in Rome, or the Louvre in Paris. But to me, in general, museum is kind of boring, i have to admit in a guilty tone.
In general when we are in holiday we prefer to spend our energies in the methodical research of an authentic osteria, a genuine trattoria, an artisan cheese farm. And so, during our holiday in the Cuneo area some times ago (here the excursions), we ended up shopping at La Formaggeria, in Torre Pellice.
Visiting a shop like that one must conclude that, from the cultural point of view, it's not something really different from a museum. Philosophy of Bruna Magnano, that runs the shop, is to refuse commercial mass products and to offer instead niche quality, linked to the territory, trying to divulge the tradition, preserving it from the homologation imposed by the outside world.

Pecorino in must

Ricotta in hay

I believe that this is the right goal of a museum. The only difference is that a museum reminds me of a "moldy" smell, while La Formaggeria, instead, it welcomes the visitor with an attractive scent.

The counter exposes dozens of cheeses from that area, besides other products: fresh pasta, olive oils, various type of preserves... Among our purchases there are the cheese shown in these photos:
- Pagliettina, smooth cheese of mixed cow, goat and sheep milk, strong and acidulous taste
- Aged Goat Tomino, demi-strong, intense and resolute savour
- Pecorino aged in grape must, demi-strong, resolute notes of flavor coming from the must that colors the surface of the crust
- Ricotta aged in hay, demi-strong, salted, taste and smell of hay

La Formaggeria Di Magnano Bruna
Via Arnaud, 6, 10066 Torre Pellice (TO)

Une Gourmandise

A chef, to be a real a chef, must mobilize all the five senses.

Muriel Barbery

A course must be a joy for the sight, for the smell, for the taste, of course, but also for the touch, that so often drive the choices of the chef and has its role in the gastronomic celebration. The hearing doesn't seem to carry a lot of weight, but it's true that the act of eating is not marked of silence nor of row, because any sound that interefere with the tasting favours or hampers it: in this way the meal reveal itself definitely synaesthetic.

Uncooked tomato, eaten when just picked up from the garden, is the horn of plenty of the simple sensations, a cascade that swarms in one's mouth gathering every pleasure. The resistance of the tight skin just as much as it's enough, the tissues that melt in mouth, the liquid rich of seeds that pours at the corners of our lips and that we wipe out with no fear to make dirty our fingers, that little succulent sphere that pour in us rivers of nature: here is tomato, here is the adventure.

The real sashimi is crisp, yet it melts on one's tongue. It invites to a slow and flexuous mastication that doesn't have the purpose to change the nature of the aliment, but only to savour the aerial "soft-flabby-ness". Yes, soft-flabby-ness: Not softness, nor flabbyness, because sashimi, velvet powder similar to silk, brings in itself a few of both and, in the extraordinary alchemy of its gauzy essence, keeps a milky density that clouds don't have.

The point is not to eat nor to live, it is to know why. In the name of the father, of the son and of the cream puff, amen. I die.

(Extracts from Muriel Barbery, "Estasi Culinarie", the Italian translation of "Une Gourmandise", translation to English by me - here the Italian version)

Uhm... "crisp"?

Eros Buratti and the art of preservation of milk

Upon exit from the shop and checking the receipt, R and i commented that the bill, after all, was less than what we expected, given the amount and quality of the purchases.
"Over here, it's well-spent!" whispered a girl with Indian or Pakistani features just moments before, with the knowing tone of one who probably

La Casera cheese shelf

is a regular customer of La Casera herself. She was responding to my witty jest that emphasized worry for an expensive bill, humor that i thought appropriate to the friendly climate of the shop.

Besides cheese and cured meats, the shop also has a little section for salt. While Eros, the storekeeper, passionately described to us the experience of tasting salt from various origins, i was thinking to the contradiction between the criteria of ecologic shopping and the purchase of a can of salt coming from Himalaya, rather than South Africa. But, come on! When will it ever happen again to be able to compare salt from Ibiza with the Hawaiian one? And so we added those two containers to our shopping bag.
I am quite ignorant in this matter. Up until now, to me salt was just salt. NaCl. It's not that sodium chloride could ever have different organoleptic peculiarities if it comes from South American mines instead of Sicilian saltworks. Eros told me that the differences in taste are not given by the chemical substance itself, but by its impurities that every kind of salt has.

Could be...
Anyway i was already fully satisfied by the more interesting subject of cheese. "Taste this last, please" goes Eros, handing me a teaspoon with some fresh goat cheese.
Delicious! so much that i asked him to add some of it to the basket. In the mean time R was involved by a woman (Eros' mother?) in buying an exquisite slice of Matera bread, displayed on a counter at the end of the shop.
Fortunately these last two purchases were made at the end, after a list of items that were already carefully prepared before, selecting from the products listed on La Casera's website. It's really difficult, in fact, to choose real-time among hundreds of available cheeses (mainly from Piedmont, but also from other Italian regions, and some foreign ones).

Cheese!

The fresh goat cheese, together with a slice of pecorino siciliano ai pistacchi di Bronte (a token gift for the large purchase) were the worthy completion of our shopping list that included three cow milk cheeses (Toma del Maccagn, Raschera semistagionata, Tella Alto Adige), one sheep (Canestrato di Castel del Monte) and one goat (Ubriaco al Traminer). Any choice we inquired about was followed by a qualified comment from Eros.
As a choice criterium we took into account the difficulty of being able to find those cheeses (a more famous pecorino di Pienza, for example, is easy to find also in the regular shopping centers).

"You're in the right place" answered Eros, amused, showing up from the back-shop when, to break the ice, right in front of the display shelves, i said "Goodmorning, by chance do you have cheese over here?"
A moment before, in front of the shop window, i dwelt upon the thought of the many surprising forms developed in the centuries of the need to preserve the milk nutritive properties.

Indeed we were really in the right place.

---

In the picture of the cheese plate, starting from the yellow one on the top, clockwise: Bagoss (cow milk, Lombardy), Ubriaco al Traminer (goat, Veneto), Canestrato di Castel del Monte - presidio SlowFood (sheep, Abruzzo), Pecorino siciliano DOP ai pistacchi di Bronte (sheep, Sicily), Toma del Maccagn - presidio SlowFood (cow, Piedmont), goat fresh cheese (Piedmont), Graukase (cow, Alto Adige), Vezzena - presidio SlowFood (cow, Trentino), Raschera semistagionata DOP (cow, Piedmont). In the center, Tella Alto Adige (cow).
Bagoss was bought in a grocery shop, Graukase and Vezzena at the Christmas markets in Merano (Trentino Alto Adige), the others are all from Eros' shop.

La Casera
Piazza Ranzoni, 19
28921 Verbania Intra
http://www.formaggidieros.it

Good morning!

A new working day is gonna start. Still not completely awake, i go to open the door to the terrace/garden and i let the dogs out for any kind of answer to the call of Nature, and i put the coffeepot on. I go back to the bathroom and i finally get awake with some cold water on my face. When i go back in the kitchen the coffee is ready.

Today's breakfast

Some of my blogger friends know that i am under a diet, but the breakfast, it's known, is the most important meal of the day, so, there i am to set a healty plate to start the day in the best way.

Here it is my breakfast for today: one peach, a kiwi, some corn flakes, some yogurt, a cup of coffee (i like it black with no sugar) and a couple of toasted bread. Sometimes i add also a glass of fruit juice, a few of milk, a slice of cake or a couple of cookies.
Obviously the type of fruit depends upon the availability of the fridge and the season: cantaloup, plums, apricots are common variations. It will be more difficult to find some alternative during the winter.

Considering that since few times ago i couldn't swallow anything else than the cup of coffee, this is a big qualitative leap, isn't it?

What do you like to eat for breakfast?

Osteria Burligo

Among the restaurant we choose from the SlowFood guide, rarely it happens to visit one a second time.
On one side we like infact to try new restaurants, in order to taste different cookings, on the other side often it happens to choose restaurants situated very far from home, or because we are so attracted by the description to decide to drive alos several kilometers, or because it happens more often to go to the restaurant when we are on holiday.

An exception is Osteria Burligo. It is enough close to home, but that's not for sure the main reason we visited it for the third time.
Burligo, a village of Palazzago, is enough close to Bergamo, but somehow far from the main roads: impossible to go there by chance. If one arrives till here, it's because he really wants to come.
The environment is very simple. There is an entrance hall where there is the bar, and the main dining room, where there are about ten tables. More than that, in the good season one can also take a seat outside on the terrace. It's in front of the road, but it is pleasant because the road is never busy, and there is a nice view on the front mountain side.
This time we sit in the dining room.
Norma usually is in the kitchen, while the guests are welcome by Felice, excellent host, apart from being a great wine expert.

Synthesi
Aglianico del Vulture
by Paternoster

The cooking is extremely simple, and the elegance of the flavors is given mostly by the quality of the ingredients and the masterly matches. Speaking about simplicity, in a previous visit of ours i was impressed by a salad of caulifleurs and broccoletti, steamed and arranged on the plate like a crown, on which there was a sauce of olive oil and anchoves. Minimalist, but terrific.
This time we had only one hors-d'oeuvre made of a steamed bell-pepper divided in four and pealed, with a sauce of capers and tuna, very tasty.
As first plates we had tagliolini d'ortica (with nettle in the dough), with pancetta (pork underbelly) and sheep ricotta, excellent, very delicate, and lasagnette with salami paste (unfortunately they were out of lasagnette, so they substituted them with more tagliolini d'ortica), a more definite flavor given by the ragu of salami meat.
Then we shared a second plate: boiled tongue with sweet-and-sour vegetables, very good that too.
The wine selection is well furnished. We chose an Aglianico del Vulture "Synthesi" by Paternoster, which well matched to the courses.
One dessert (strawberries and gelato) and one coffee completed our dinner.
58 euros.

Osteria Burligo
Via Burligo 12,
Burligo, Palazzago (BG)

Ten perfect matches

Maurice's and Laura's blogs made my mouth water. So, even if i was not explicitly invited, i go on participating to the meme titled "Ten perfect matches", that is the list of ten perfect gastronomical pairing.

I decided to choose pairings that do not require any cooking preparation, but are served in their simplicity, so that the tastiness is not hidden by the skill of the chef. No offense so to my favorite cheff (my wife), if i don't include in this list any plate she made.
The theory wants that pairing foods one promotes the choice within the same territory, and i think that this is a good way. Nevertheless in this list there are matches of products coming from far apart... they look anyway to me perfect.

There are my ten choices.

1. Spicey gorgonzola with grapes ambrosia (a kind of syrup) and Passito from Pantelleria Salvatore Murana.
2. Tuscan bread with some extra virgin olive oil and some grain of coarse salt with Chianti Classico.
3. Walnut bread with Chevre and a glass of Alsacian Gewürztraminer.
4. 99% fondant Lindt chocolate with Barolo Chinato.
5. A slice of toasted wholemeal bread with parcially melted Brie, a slice of Speck Alto Adige and a Chimay White Cap.
6. Slice of Munster with cumin seeds and Bonne Esperance beer.
7. Raw breton oyster with Guinness just tapped off (with also the clover drawn on the foam).
8. Pienza Pecorino aged in walnut leaves with Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Marina Cvetic.
9. Bruschetta (toasted bread) with melted Bagoss and a slice of Colonnata Lard with Masi Campofiorin.
10. Tuna sashimi with soy sauce and wasabi and a glass of Greco di Tufo Feudi di San Gregorio.
11. Epoisses spread on still warmish baguette with Chateauneuf du Pape.

Oops... i listed eleven. I should delete one, but i cannot decide which one... well... i'd better stop thinking, otherwise i will end up adding some more.

There we are. Now i should "pass" the meme to other people. I virtually pass to anyone stop by reading this blog. If you accept it, please link this blog and put a comment, so i link yours back and we don't break the chain.

Here the friends that cought the ball:
Mistral

Trattoria Da Giusy

Climbing from Ponte di Legno towards Tonale Pass, there is soon the turn into the road to Gavia Pass, and after few kilometers the turn to Localita' Pezzo, and here, after some hairpin bends uphill, you arrive to the center of the village, where the restaurant Da Giusy is well signaled.
The environment is very familiar, a young man and a girl wait at the table, children of Mrs. Giusy, who works in the kitchen. The place looks more like an alpine refuge than a restaurant, infact they serve really simple traditional courses, with full and sincere tastes. The typical cooking exalts the flavors of this area, the portions are very generous.
My wife and I were satisfied by a plate of gnocchetti "Buongustaio" (kind of pasta) with vegetables and pancetta, an orzotto (risotto made out of barleycorn instead of rice) with porcini mashrooms: not bad indeed, a wonderful horse steak, huge and very tasty, with spinach, and a simple fresh salad. Water and half a liter of Valtellina Superiore loose red wine washed down the meal, ending up with a good expresso coffee. All this for 40.75 euros. It was not possible to go out without honoring the offer to taste the digestive, choosen among a large set of bottles of homemade liqueurs (excellent the Genepy), "And if the police stops you..." says the waiter at my concern about the alcoholic rate in my breath, "...tell them that you had dinner at Giusy's, and they won't give you any ticket!"

Trattoria Da Giusy
Via Ercavallo, 39
Localita' Pezzo
25056, Ponte di Legno (Bs).
Dogs not allowed.
Suggested by SlowFood.