Ai Due Platani: The Trattoria that Keeps True Emilian Cuisine Alive

Like an old photograph, Ai due Platani celebrates the past that accompanies us into the present. The story of a restaurant lost among the fields of the Parma suburbs, where the celebration of tradition knows no end.

Ai Due Platani

The Trattoria

It is an emotion. A strong sensation. A strange feeling of familiarity felt when you open the door of Trattoria ai Due Platani of Parma, in a town called Budellungo in the suburbs of Parma. The name Budellungo can be understood as "long intestine/casing" and may already give you a hint about what you might find when exploring the food here.

Now, might already know that Parma is one of the top food destinations, together with Modena, Bologna, Reggio Emilia, and Mantua, which are all characterized by a typical cuisine from the Po Valley, serving plenty of butter and culatello (cured pork rump), ravioli and gnocco fritto/torta fritta (a flat fried square of bread dough), coppa (cured pork neck), mortadella, salami, and fresh pasta. Not to mention that they are the kings of stuffed pasta here, having given life to a great variety of stuffed pasta types that range from herb tortelli (also called pumpkin tortelli) to anolini, cappelletti and tortellini. But distinctions must be made. One must go one step at a time and realize that not all lasagna is created equal.


I would like to begin, with this story, a series of articles on the "places from the heart" of old and new tradition, those trattorias and restaurants that stand out for carrying on and presenting with respect, expertise, and care the culinary tradition of a land, a set of products, of a cook. Well, the first stop on this journey is here in Parma. As mentioned, in Budellungo. Here the earth is flat. Very flat. And the streets are very straight. It's amazing ...



If that little bit of fog comes along, which is very typical for this region, you feel like you're stepping right into one of those photographs by Luigi Ghirri that have described this land so well and enchanted our minds and hearts. And here, among isolated farmhouses amid vast fields of wheat and corn, under two giant plane trees that give the trattoria its name, we have finally arrived at Trattoria Ai Due Platani. Here, Giancarlo Tavani is the master of this magnificent adventure, together with chef Giampietro Stancari in the kitchen and Mattia Serventi in the dining room.
 

I have been longing to come here for a very long time, and I am so glad I did. Because Giancarlo, Giampietro and everyone else in this place really know how to prepare food, and they truly stand out for doing it well. Not just talk, but the real deal.

The dishes

We start with an incredible selection of cured meats (culatello, coppa, salami, and so on) with Torta fritta (don't you dare to call it "gnocco fritto," at these latitudes, it’s a sensitive topic ), fried polenta to go with a sweet and very good, almost creamy gorgonzola, a multi-coloured giardiniera and flakes of 24-month Parmigiano Reggiano, red onion compote, and baby onions with traditional balsamic vinegar.

Then... we are served a potato velouté with fried egg yolk, sage, and porcini mushroom, which was an extraordinary first course, already worth the trip (Seriously! The MICHELIN Guide must know it well if they gave it the Bib Gourmand award). We continue with a stuffed pasta dish: herb tortelli (also called pumpkin tortelli), a dish which as of today has become my new "tortello of reference" and reference for what is a "good dish" in general (if you want to give it your try, find the recipe here).

We didn't have a main course, but the waiters were fluttering around with trays of braised beef in red wine with crispy polenta, pigeon, guinea fowl, beef tongue with cream of celeriac, spring onions and kale, pork shoulder with apples, baked potatoes served with brandy sauce.

And finally, a sumptuous, unbelievable, wonderful cart bearing a beautiful display of “gelato allo crema” freshly prepared on the spot with a vintage 1964 Carpigiani ice cream machine.

All the ingredients are selected with great care and attention from local producers. So are the wines, some local and some not, some are well-known while others reveal hidden gems. And the one feature that describes the careful, painstaking preciousness of the work these people do every day: the tortelli (and all other stuffed pasta) are "sealed" on the spot, to order, just before they go into the pot to be able to serve an extraordinarily thin pasta that contains a flavor that is wholesome, pristine, and full of depth.

A treasure box of flavor. Just like Trattoria ai Due Platani. The treasure box of immaculate tradition.

In Budellungo, Parma, Emilia, Italia, Mondo.

Address

Trattoria Ai Due Platani

Strada Budellungo, 104/a, 43123 Coloreto PR

Tel. +39 0521 645626

Website