Flavors of Northern Italy: Day 5

Wednesday 10/6: Desserts + De Tarczal Winery + Malcesine + Lake Dinner

The morning began with a shorter cooking class after breakfast, this time to focus on dessert. We learned how to make sbrisolona, a crumb cake that’s a traditional dish from the Mantova area, and a chocolate “sausage,” which has nothing to do with meat but gets its name because it looks sort of like a sausage once it’s completed thanks to the cookie crumbles interspersed with chocolate cream shaped into a long cylinder that is refrigerated for several hours and thinly sliced before serving. The sbrisolona was finished baking by the end of class, so we could take our individual portions back to our rooms to cool before setting off for the rest of the day. And Cinzia had also made a special strawberry “tiramisu” for us to enjoy before we set off for our next activity.

Our second family winery tour was at De Tarczal in the Trentino region, which is up by the northern edge of Lago di Garda and quite close to Germany, as indicated by the fact that the highway signs started to have both Italian and German indications on them.The weather was chilly and a bit rainy, but we were mostly inside as we got a tour of the winery and explanation about the production process from Elena, one of the sisters of the family that runs the winery and the adjacent restaurant.

The production here focuses on whites due to the climate and includes a relatively rare offering of a nongrafted chardonnay from a particular vineyard whose soil is resistant to phylloxera, which is why the vines can grow without being grafted onto American vines rootstock. We enjoyed an initial tasting of three wines and then headed to the restaurant for lunch, which included several more wines to pair with each course. In this area, the local government has stricter COVID regulations and doesn’t allow more than six people at a single table, so our group was split between two tables in the same room.

After lunch, we headed south along the eastern edge of Lago de Garda and stopped for some free time and strolling in the charming little lakeside town of Malcesine. Mr. E and I wandered through the cobblestone streets and admired the view from the windy shoreline.

The rain that had been threatening all day finally started falling as we drove back to Borgo. Luckily, it had subsided a bit by the time we were meeting up for dinner, so Mr. E and I decided to brave the trek through the vineyard amidst the drops rather than make the short trip via van with the rest of the group. The meal tonight was a “lake dinner” that featured all seafood dishes. Perfect for me! We started with lightly fried filleted sardines followed by trout with vegetables and capers in a light sauce, corgone with pasta, and fried pike on a skewer. And we finished up with a lemon granita-ish sorbetto that was a lovely and light finish to the meal.