Parma

After four days in Paris, I packed up and headed to Parma, Italy.

I consider Parma – a small city in the Emilia-Romagna region best known for its production of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and Prosciutto di Parma – my second home.  My junior year of university, I studied there for a semester.  I’d opted to live in a homestay with an Italian family and was placed with Marco and Paola, a Parmigiano couple who do not have children of their own but who have hosted multiple Boston College students over the years.  I couldn’t have asked for a more amazing experience.  They are incredibly special people, and over the past six years, they have become two of the most important people in my life.  I love them like my second set of parents.

And I love Parma itself.  The city is small but very affluent, with plenty of windy little streets and colored buildings and cobblestones and unbelievably charming nooks and crannies. Biking is one of the primary ways Parmigiani get around, and the city is small enough that you can get almost anywhere on foot.  Parma was where I first fell in love with Italy, and it will always feel like home. During the year I spent in Firenze, it was so nice to know that Marco and Paola were just a two-hour train ride away and that I could go “home” whenever I needed a break from my life in Firenze.

Risotto with Fresh Figs, Pancetta, and Shaved Parmigiano

Risotto is one of my all-time favorite things to make.  I love the versatility of the dish: once you’ve mastered the basic risotto, you can add whatever ingredients you’d like, based on what is in season or on what you aim to achieve with the final dish.   There are few things as comforting as a big plate of pumpkin risotto on a crisp fall night, but a spring risotto made with fresh peas and fava beans is equally delicious.

Here, I’m taking advantage of fresh figs, which come into season for a short period in the spring and again in the late summer and early fall.  Not only are figs an aesthetically striking fruit, their mild sweetness works well in a mostly savory dish like this risotto, balancing the salty pancetta and nutty parmigiano, and pairing well with the sweet and slightly tangy balsamic reduction.