One of the highlight of my recent trip to Lombardy was of course the food. Since I had only a few days there, I can only sing the charms of three places only:
PANZEROTTOS by Luini
Luini is a small place near the Duomo Plaza, which is besieged by locals and tourists all day long (they even have a bouncer to make sure that there is no riot). It was founded in 1888 and has never been so active! Its speciality is the panzerotto.
The panzerotto is basically a diminutive for "panza" which means "belly". So, it's a little belly. It's made out of pizza dough, filled with mozarella, ham, tomato, or whatever... and then fried! It's approximately the size of a big burger but is a thousand times tastier.
Grabbing one or two of those delicacies is a must when you happen to be in Milan, and it will sustain you long enough during your visit, until it's time to go to...
SPONTINI Pizzas
Spontini is... I don't lie... 50 m away from Luini, and probably less! It's a very small place without any chair, where the idea is to get your thick slice of thick pizza at the counter and get the hell out of it to enjoy it while it's still hot. It was founded in 1953 and since then, it's a successful franchise which you can find in Argentina as well as Japan.
I had never seen such thick slices of pizza in my life. And once again, like at Luini, the main motto is: Keep it simple! They have five types of pizzas max and the most popular are of course the Prosciuto and the Margharita ones.
You can admire the employees taking the pizzas out of the oven in the background, then cutting it out in slices in front of you and serving it in record time, and then eat it, standing up, at one of the high table among a crowd of tourists from all around the world.
CANNOLIS
These ones, I enjoyed in Bergamo, north-east of Italy, and more especially in the Citta Alta, at a place called Panificio Tresoldi.
Cannolis come from Sicily. The name means "little tube". The dough is flat and rolled in a hollow tube, which is then filled with a creamy filling with ricotta.
Of course, this is just the original recipe. After that, the imagination is the only limit for all the type of cannolis you can imagine and create.
Photo credits:
Spontini: 1 and 2 (personal photos), 3.