01Why the food is like this
Bologna sits on the richest farmland in Italy, between the Po plain and the Apennines, with pigs, wheat, eggs and milk all around it. The kitchen that grew here is built on fresh egg pasta, pork in every form, Parmigiano and slow cooking — which is why the city has been called la Grassa, the fat one, for centuries.
02The city's own
Tortellini in brodo — tiny rings of pasta filled with pork, prosciutto, mortadella and Parmigiano, served in a clear meat broth. The dish of Christmas in Bologna.
Tagliatelle al ragù — wide ribbons of egg pasta with the city's slow meat sauce. Note This is what the rest of the world calls "bolognese". Spaghetti bolognese is not a Bologna dish, and you will not find locals ordering it.
Lasagne verdi — green pasta sheets made with spinach, layered with ragù and béchamel.
Mortadella — the great pink pork sausage studded with cubes of fat, made in and around the city and eaten sliced paper-thin. The English word "bologna" for lunch meat comes from it, distantly.
Balanzoni — big green filled pasta with ricotta and mortadella, named after Dottor Balanzone, the pompous Bolognese doctor of the commedia dell'arte. Crescentine — puffs of fried dough eaten with salumi and soft cheese. Passatelli — strands of breadcrumb, egg and Parmigiano pressed straight into broth.
03Where to see it
The Quadrilatero, behind Piazza Maggiore, is the old market, and almost everything above is on sale in its lanes. Watching fresh pasta being made by hand in a shop window there is part of the city's everyday life, not a show.
04To drink
The local white is Pignoletto, from the hills just south of the city, often lightly sparkling. Lambrusco, the dark fizzy red, comes from the plain around Modena and Reggio Emilia and is drunk here with salumi. From Romagna, to the east, comes Sangiovese.
05Sweets
Zuppa inglese — sponge soaked in the scarlet liqueur alchermes, layered with custard and chocolate custard. At Christmas, certosino, a dense dark cake of honey, candied fruit, almonds and chocolate.
Note This site does not recommend individual restaurants. A guide written at a desk cannot tell you which kitchen is good this season; the Quadrilatero and your own nose can.
