Trattoria da Gianni – Introduction

Bologna is our sort of city. The locals are obsessed with food and especially the dishes that are the subject of this story. The architecture is amazing with beautiful buidlings and towers every way you look. We also like the fact that it is a university town with intense young students enjoying the cafe society here.

Our time in Bologna was both interesting and exciting with our visits to restaurants being a highlight, but our perusal of the shops was just as interesting with every shop display being designed to attract you in.

But we were mainly there to find the best examples of the local food specialities and our first visit was to a small yet vibrant restaurant.

Three local specialties cooked perfectly were the hallmark of our visit to the small and intimate Trattoria da Gianni.

Hidden away down a side alley, this restaurant is well-known to locals with many of the arrivals greeting the waiting staff by name and being shown to favoured tables.

We were lucky enough to score a table with a good view of the kitchen where we could see the methodical and calm progress being made.

We had come here to sample specialties of Bologna and surrounding regions such as passatelli in brodo, tagliatelle with ragu and bollito misto. And we couldn’t have chosen a better place than Tratoria da Gianni!

We are obsessed with the local dish called passatelli in brodo. This extruded breadcrumb-based noodle cum pasta is a key dish of the area. We like the fact that it is soft enough to soak up the flavours of the broth in which it is served while simultaneously clarifying the stock.

Our passatelli in brodo at Gianni saw a flat white bowl filled with the spongy ‘bread’ pasta (passatelli dough is made from breadcrumbs rather than flour) and very good broth. The passatelli performed its duty admirably, swelling as it soaked up the surrounding broth. It was both comforting and delicious.

Bologna is well-known for its delicate tagliatelle and the city has even issued a decree stating the exact dimensions of the true article. In this city the pasta is often topped with a sensible amount of richly flavoured ragu. Enough to moisten the pasta and to provide a flavour hit, but not too much lest it overpower and conquer the main protagonist. At Gianni they did it very well with a small quantity of richly flavoured ragu servicing the silky pasta very well.

We were also able to order bollito misto as well as oven roasted lamb for our main courses at Gianni. The bollito misto was served on a flat plate with the meats (chicken drumstick, slices of brisket, pork, pork sausage) surrounding good mashed potato. The dish was accompanied by three condiments – salsa verde, mustard fruits and a vinegary tomato stew.

We finished the meal with desserts chosen from the display of large serving plates on the nearby bar. The pears poached in white wine and the cassata were both lovely.

The wine we chose to accompany the meat course was a Predappio di Predappio Riserva 2001 made by Giuseppe e Alessandro Nicolucci from Fattoria Casetto dei Mandorli. This powerful and elegant Sangiovese wine is very good value for money and worked well with the style of food served here.

This is a pleasant restaurant with good, efficient service where you can sample the food of Bologna cooked simply and well.

We have also included Trattoria da Gianni in our story on Amazing food and drinks “worth a journey”.

You can read more about Gianni and check their current opening hours here.