Antica Corte Pallavicina

In the lovely glass dining room situated between the main house and kitchen, is a welcoming and comfortable place to settle in and enjoy food that is local, prepared with care and presented with flair. While there are several pri fix offerings, we selected al a carte. We shared the appetizer that is a taste of pig with three selections of locally cured ham. Wonderful!!! Then we shared the tortellini with ricotta and herbs finished in a brown butter. We could have stopped there; what a perfect creamy filling and perfectly cooked pasta. We then had the pepper and cheese risotto and white fish. Both were prepared well. The white fish had anchovies with it and it was a bit fishy– presented interestingly in a rolled and seared presentation. While I would not order this again, it was perfected presented. The chef came out to visit with each table and it was fun to see him standing in front of the large scale painting in the dining room that depicts him as a child with his family in the restaurant kitchen.

I was offended that I was given a menu with no prices while my husband got one with prices. I guess women don’t pay often in Michelin starred European restaurants, but in this case I was in fact paying, and the not so subtle misogyny upset me, and really spoiled the meal. Sometimes the old fashioned way should be reserved for ham. Setting that aside though, we loved the tour of the culatello cellars, and the service was very good. The culatello, obviously, is divine, as was the sparkling white wine, the homemade tortelli and the bean and grain stew and the lovely cheese selection. However I do not recommend the meat courses, they were disappointing. Also, the tasting menu is an insane amount of food, it felt wasteful.

Chef Massimo keeps getting better. It’s been a couple of years but seeing him again reminded me that his balance of modernity in cooking and the deep tradition of culatello production is unrivaled. Every famous restaurant and chef in Italy and then some have culatello reserved from the black pig of Polesine Parmense. This time i went for the grand culatelli tasting menu. Many age variations from 1 year to 4 year ages were all fantastic. The parmesan gnocchi in brodo under puff pastry, rabbit canneloni with snails, poached egg/​potato purée/​asparagus, and frozen raspberry soufflé have really gone to the next level. Staff are warm and take great care of you. The cellar is at about 4 thousand culatelli at various stages in age but that’s what theyre trying to keep. There was a wedding reception going on too. To balance events, the tradition and some superb cooking is really impressive now. I think they deserve their second Michelin star.

We preplanned this as our first stop after leaving the Milan airport for our first night hotel stay and restaurant. We dined here for both lunch and dinner.
Online the hotel showed two different restaurants so we were planning on trying to visit both. They said the other restaurant wasn’t opened and dined us at the main restaurant for lunch. We were a little disappointed because the lunch menu was the same as the dinner menu. We knew we were going to do the tasting menu for dinner so we had to choose options that were not on the menu.
Here is the Lunch review:
For lunch we started with the cutallo tasting of different varieties of aged ham from both the white and black pigs. It was served with bread and pickled vegetables. We were informed to start with the youngest aged ham and work to the oldest. The black pig was the oldest aged at 37 months and was absolutely divine. Each of the hams had wonderful flavors. The sausage that accompanied the tasting was fattier than a typical salami and need spice to it. For the second plate, we each tried the rabbit spaghetti. It was remarkable. The dish reminded me of a better version of carbonara. The rabbit was diced and fried in crispy chunks served with fresh made spaghetti and a light cream based sauce. For the main course, we ordered duck which was served with duck confit, grits cakes and asparagus. The duck was over cooked and chewy. The duck confit was served in a ball form with coating. The ball was extremely dry both inside and out. There wasn’t any sauce or moisture on the inside of the ball and the outside coating was thick and even was dusted With some cornmeal, which made it overall hard to even eat. The best part of the dish was the grit cake which was full of flavor and wonderful soft creamy texture on the inside. For dessert we ordered rhubarb pana cotta and strawberry rice pudding. Both had wonderful flavor and beautiful presentation. Wine pairings were appropriate and their house made rose was very good. Overall lunch rating 3.5
Dinner review:
We were fortunate to dine at the chefs table located inside the kitchen. It was a wonderful experience to see the different stations at work during an entire dinner service. We chose the land and sea tasting.
Amuse: squash blossom filled with ricotta
White Ox Beef tartar with spring vegetables — lacked basic seasoning overall and knife skills on the tartar was inconsistent as some pieces were thick, thin and varied in widths.
Tortinlini– wonderful flavor with beautiful presentation
Gnocchi in Brudo– the gnocchi was soft, seasoned well and perfect texture. It dissolved in your mouth but held its form against the broth. The broth was flavored with saffron, not overpowering and perfect flavor and texture combination with parmesan baked crust.
Fish with fennel– the fennel was absolutely perfect, served both raw, braised and ferns on top. The fish was perfectly cooked and seasoned– only the touch of a fork allowed the glistening fish to be cut.
Lamb– was a disappointing end of the main courses. It was overlooked and slightly dry– begging for more of the au jus that was served with it.
Cheese course– was lovely. They bring over a large cart of the selection of cheeses and allow you to choose which few you would like to try. The Gorgonzola with wine was my absolute favorite.
Overall dinner rating: 4

It was a 95F/​35C kind of summer afternoon when we arrived. Giovanni welcomed us into our beautiful room which was tastefully restored with very intricate details all over the room — I love the free standing tub in the room! We were then whisked away for our cooking lesson with Salvatore, a very professional and technical pasta chef on site. We picked up many hands on techniques from him and more importantly we got to taste all three courses that we made — pasta antica with vegetables and summer truffles (rejoice!), tortelli with ricotta and spinach, and risotto. Note that these are full portion servings and we were stuffed after our cooking lesson.
We came back down to the restaurant for our dinner that night. The dining room is surrounded by floor-​to-​ceiling window which brought in the last bit of warmth from the sunset. Dinner was exceptional and we dove right into the culatelli tasting menu. The culatelli is done to perfection here in true art form. The portions are huge and yes, it was luxurious and a tad excessive. But, if you have one chance to indulge your need for cured meats, I’d say this is the place to do it.
The next morning, we had breakfast in the courtyard. You get servings of various bread, honey, jam, culatelli, cheese, eggs, bacon/​sausage. I asked for fruits and a plate of mixed fruit salad appeared on the table. Yes, the kitchen really makes things happen for the guests. Giovanni then took us on a bike ride through the farm lands to visit the Parmigiano Reggiano factory, to say hi to the black pigs, and to see the offsite culatello process. The bike ride was fun and we caught up with Giovanni while riding by the Po river talking mostly about Anthony Bourdain and chef Michael White’s visit. It’s just a perfect summer morning! We wrapped up our stay with a visit to the ancient cellars in the relais and marvelled at all the aging culatello. This whole experience is the essence of Emilia Romagna and should not be missed.

Deserves every M star. Must tour Culatello cellar and participate in tasting to appreciate this delicacy. The Agnolotti is a must and don’t pass up the cheese tasting. They grow their own vegetables and herbs so add on the 40 herb salad to understand Slow Food. To complete the meal ask for a wine pairing.