via NYTimes
Recently, I was back in Milan very briefly for a special occasion. More specifically, I was in Cusago, a municipality in the Province of Milan, about 11 km away –to the west- from the central commune of Milan itself.
From the couple of hours I spent there, what I have gathered about Cusago is that it is a less hectic commune than Milan, and that it is more like the countryside with a variety of farm houses turned either into local locandas / trattorias (restaurants) cooking home-cooked, authentic meals; or beauty farms –not spas-, offering solitude and health treatments to their clients. There are also many storage houses, as well as large logistic companies. Thus, it is a half industrial half solitary, silent commune.
There is an interesting concept of tourism in Italy, called agritourism. This is not specifically, going to a spa resort to spend a couple of nights to be massaged and cocooned. Agritourism is going back to the land itself: staying in a farm house, eating fresh seasonal and organic food, maybe plowing the land and getting away from it all. As a niche concept, agritourism, does has in it a “gastro” side; and, perhaps in many occasions, it may well be considered to be a type of gastronomy tourism. Both beauty farms and hospitable farm houses in Cusago fit well into this type of tourism.
The official definition of agritourism and where it is most popular can be found in the Wikipedia Encylopedia:
“Agritourism is a style of vacation that normally takes place on a farm or ranch. This may include the chance to help with farming and ranching tasks during the visit. Agritourism is considered to be a niche or uniquely adapted form of tourism and is often practiced in wine growing regions such as Australia, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and North America. Tourists engage in farm activities ranging from picking fruit or feeding animals, or planting crops.”
Cusago is definitely not “the” place in Italy for agritourism, but it is a nice example. Check out agrotourismo for many other places and forms of agritourism in Italy.
My Cusago experience was limited to an exceptional lunch only. No plowing, no sowing and no cooking. I was taken to a nice farm house off the road: A large house with a nice garden and a vast area of green surrounding its boundaries. Inside was very cozy with friendly staff headshaking as yes or no to indicate whether your pick off the menu is ideal or not. For instance, one of my companions, despite how hard he demanded, was “kindly” deprived of a plate of mozzarella –apparently, the mozzarella was already a day old and no longer fresh enough to be put out for service. We were offered instead a huge plate of antipasti of mixed salumis each: smoked prosciutto, some speck and more salumi –a term that is usually not heard outside of Italy, referring to preserved products made of pork (usually), like salami, but has also been preserved in salt (and spices) and not encased before aging.
Adhering to the fact that we are going to be eating more later that day for dinner as well, I would have wanted to stop there after the salumi platter, but I was piqued by an antipasti on the menu: profiteroles with dried speck and cheese sauce –more or less (Profitterols alla Fonduta con Speck Croccante). It was a very interesting and delicious dish. Profiteroles had the same shape and appearance as their dessert counterpart does in France, but were filled with a cheesy, béchamel sauce and served with another cheesy, neon yellow sauce with pieces of dried speck.
The rest of the table proceeded with the penne with wine sauce and raw ham (Pennette al Crudo e Barbera), and no one dared order the dessert, although that also looked fabulous from a far, inside the dessert carrier.
The name of the restaurant was Ristorante Torre Dei Gelsi and is actually located in Cisliano, approximately 10 minutes away from both Cusago and Milan. The restaurant was founded in 1989 with the intention to provide a gastronomical ‘get-away’ place for those living in the center of Milan. In the meantime, the business developed to include supervision and hosting of banquets, wedding ceremonies, conventions and business events. There are in fact, aside from the daily menu, a variety of different menus for these purposes.
Via Cascina Manzola, 20080 Cisliano (MI)
Tel. +39(0)290119825
You will find on Donuz, everything that is unique to where we have been and where you would want to be. Be it food, be it lodging, be it a special feet massage, a bottle of wine, a person… Be it for 7 days, a day, a week, 36 hours or a single moment. On Donuz, is everything, you will need to make your holidays special. We hope you share with us your experiences.
Fri, Jan 29, 2010
Milan, Uncategorized