Day trips and gourmet picnics: welcome Spring!

Are you ready for some day trips and outdoor excursions? In Northern Italy, winter has given a chilly final push, and the pleasant and crisp temperatures typical of this incoming season are still just a desire that grows stronger by the day. Down in Southern Italy, on the other hand, the sun, light, air, and scents of spring have already arrived, bringing a big smile and a joy for life that characterizes our southern friends. But we, who write from the plains and hills of Northern Italy, will soon get there too.

The period of rebirth is therefore approaching, the moment to return to nature, to a lively contact with the elements that surround us. It’s the time when daylight saving time finally arrives, on Sunday, March 25, extending our days and giving us an extra hour of light in the evening. The spring equinox has already arrived, and Easter is just around the corner, along with the much-loved Monday after Easter.

We are all more inclined to partake in classic picnics with family or friends, bicycle rides and marathons in the city begin, and children look for spaces to play and shout at the top of their lungs. Their parents, on the other hand, enjoy turning lunches into a true gourmet tasting moment and, for this reason, they dedicate themselves to the preparation and selection of simple yet tasty products and dishes. The more “avant-garde” parents often manage to propose creativity and flavors that you wouldn’t expect: cured meats, special breads, gourmet cheeses, typical meats to eat raw or grilled, vegetables in a thousand sauces, grilled burgers, wines to enjoy fresh and fruity, delicious and scrumptious sweets.

The tradition of outdoor tasting is a practice that has never ceased but logically has undergone great changes. Today, in fact, it is more social and millennial. Modern packaging and the ease of use of various foods invite us to set up flowering meadows with delicacies and specialties. We at Spaghetti e Mandolino suggest a series of inputs and tips to gift yourself pleasant moments of aromas and flavors for slow living.

The outdoor excursion and gourmet picnics

I am a child of the outdoor excursions of the Eighties, and I remember my dad's car filled with baskets and picnic baskets. Even mom never forgot the broth with tortellini, a solution that is really hard to conceive today. I remember how happy we were to taste the classic Sunday flavors and experience them in bucolic settings, on flowering meadows, among the underbrush filled with pine needles and along our Lake Garda. We were all involved: some spreading the tablecloths on the grass, others finely preparing the uncle's soppressa, and some slicing fresh bread fragrant with sourdough. I remember the fruit salads, the salads, grandma's pickles, the smiles, the joy that pulled us into role-playing games or, more simply, into a series of kicks toward improbable goals to score.

In a nice picnic, first of all, an excellent bread is a must. The real one, though! A Homemade Bread from the Rosa Maria Vittoria bakery in Cercepiccola, Molise, for example, that smells of sourdough, which can be sliced, with its beautiful crunchy crust that lends itself to being filled or stuffed with cured meats.

To make your outdoor excursion even more superb, we recommend the superb cured meats from Pavoncelli. Then a good soppressa in its various forms. From the succulent Cordivino aged in Amarone DOCG by Corrado Benedetti to the Lardo di Colonnata IGP sliced by hand, as thin as possible. And why not a spiced pancetta for the picnic version? A nice Salame Mantovano from the Salumificio Pedrazzoli, drier and tastier, a slice of Cicciolata from the Salumificio Angelico, or a spread of Flavored Ground Lard to indulge in the pleasure of pork. Lastly, to make everything spicier, a nice Spicy Spianata for the picnic.

If you want to try some ancient and regional flavors: on a nice slice of Homemade Bread, a good slice of Porchetta alla Romana fits perfectly, and why not, a spicy Ventricina. Easy to carry in the basket are the various organic savory creams from Fontana BIO: with red radicchio, asparagus, topinambur, and zucchini.

Perfect for bringing a piece of Vesuvius outdoors and creatively accompanying your cured meats, try the Napoli Purple Eggplant in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the Vesuvius Cornetto Pepper, the San Pasquale Zucchini of Vesuvius from Sapori Vesuviani. For those who love strong flavors, instead, a nice cream of Black Garlic from Voghiera by Nero Fermento to spread on bread with some sun-dried cherry tomatoes in Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a slice of Lardo d’Arnad.

If you want to have fun with friends with unique and rare products, extraordinarily typical and regional, it could be a great idea to propose a nice selection of Rustic Casciatelli to pair with some good Pink Pepper Aged Loin.

Good fun is essential, and good food makes for even more fun. Welcome spring!

Bernardo Pasquali