Ten restaurants in the city to taste the dishes of a "people's and court's" cuisine, made of dishes from the Gonzaga era, handed down to the present day. To guide us, the greatest Italian patron: Antonio Santini of the Fisherman of Runate, Mantuan doc
Perhaps not everyone knows that the Mantuan cuisine – identified as that of people and court – in the golden age of the Gonzaga (XV-XVII century) represented a point of reference in Europe: the cooks of the Duchy were the first to know how to combine very simple dishes with elaborate ones, creating a school of gastronomic thought, codified by Bartolomeo Sacchi. His treatise De honesta voluptate et valetudine, published in Venice in 1474, spread throughout all the courts and beyond the great recipes contained an absolute novelty: it taught the use of the resources of the territory, according to the seasons, anticipating concepts that are now usual. The court, thanks to extraordinary cooks such as Bartolomeo Stefani – author in 1662 of The art of cooking well, one of the first sacred texts of Italian cuisine -, prepared sumptuous banquets, using the best of the territory: a remarkable research work on the recipes of that period is due to Gaetano and Sandra Martini, owners of The Swan which remains one of the best places in Mantua city.
The importance of rice
The people lived on soups, but they had their specialties like lard pounded with parsley and garlic, very good with polenta, or risotto to the ‘pilot’, which still today is the testing ground of every Mantuan cook by name or in fact. Nothing to do with the guide because this dish owes its name to the workers involved in rice husking called "pilots": it is Vialone Nano rice cooked by absorption, seasoned with Mantuan salami and parmesan. For the record, the "capital" of this dish is considered Castel d’Ario – village 20 km away from the city and birthplace of the legendary Tazio Nuvolari – where he received (rightly) a De.Co. to defend the recipe.
The legendary Santini pumpkin tortelli
And then we move on to pumpkin tortelli on which every corner of Padania – from Ferrara to Crema – boasts superiority. "It is fun to see that as you proceed from east to west, the component of macaroons and mustard increases," he explains Antonio Santini, great patron of the 3 Michelin stars Dal Pescatore, located in Canneto sull'Oglio, south of Mantua. «While with us the pumpkin and the Parmesan cheese have more weight. Everyone loves our pumpkin tortelli: my wife Nadia has been carrying them on for years, now my son Giovanni (the other, Alberto, joins him in the dining room, ed) does it, and has further perfected the recipe, in pasta and stuffing . They would have liked the Gonzagas, I am convinced of it . The Santini card has other references to the territory such as the freshwater fish that the princes brought from Lake Garda when they did not retrieve it from Oglio and Mincio or from the three internal lakes. «We offer pike in white with sauce or crayfish. Another cult is the risotto with catfish and chive fillets: I am optimistic, in a few years we will return to fish from Oglio .
Agnolini and Sbrisolona
And yet agnolini – the meat ravioli similar to cappelletti – in chicken broth that can become a dish "da principe" if served in a consommé cup and with a dash of Lambrusco in the liquid. And here the dish turns into a literary "sorbìr d'agnoli" … Finally, the symbol of sweet Mantua: la crumble Cake, dry and crumbly cake, made with white flour mixed with corn flour, butter and almonds. It is found throughout the Po Valley but, Santini says with a chuckle, "I didn't see it outside our borders until twenty years ago. Obviously it is very good … . Having said that another historic out of town for Mantua (and others) remainsEmbassy of the Tamani brothers – in Quistello, 30 km from the capital – with its luscious and sumptuous cuisine, in closing we can only return to Runate, fraction of Canneto sull'Oglio, dai Santini who boast the Italian 3-star record (23 years in a row) and receive customers from all over the world: menus (obviously not only of local dishes), cellar (legendary) and hospitality (at the top) are famous everywhere. Also because for the selection of the places in the city we asked for the advice of the "Cardinal" of our restaurant. Mantovano doc, but above all a living example of how excellence is achieved and maintained. Enjoy your meal.
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