Podere San Faustino
(Parma)

Website: http://www.poderesanfaustino.it/

Tripadvisor: https://bit.ly/2Q6tb6L

Via San Faustino 33, 43036 Fidenza (PR)

Location

Podere San Faustino is an ancient cascina (typical farmhouse in Northern Italy) located near the city of Parma (yes, the one well known for Parmigiano Reggiano and a wonderfully sweet ham), that in recent years has become one of the best restaurants in Parma.

The atmosphere is calm and peaceful, and when you enter you will immediately feel at home, near the bricks of the ancient walls.

Podere San Faustino has a beautiful porch outdoors, so your children can wander with no danger after the meal.

Food

The motto of the restaurant is “My Cooking is my heArt” and you can really feel why this chef has been able to make this one of the best restaurants in Parma.

The menu of the restaurant is seasonal, so we had the chance to taste the autumn one.

I have to admit we were all so hungry that we forgot to take a picture, but as an appetizer, we had a large plate of mixed affettati, including:

• prosciutto ,
• salame ,
• coppa ,
• pancetta stesa ,
• mortadella ,
• strolghino .

Please forgive me for that, but if you will ever taste it… you would understand me.

After that, I went for one of my weaknesses, truffles, and had a dish of black truffle tagliatelle, while my wife a quite complex dish of tagliolini, with a sauce prepared with raw salame, sweet Tropea onion (see at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_onion) and dried tomatoes. Truffle tagliatelle was my favorite one, since I like simple dishes, with few, high-quality ingredients.

Since we were actually full, we chose one dessert that was created by the chef with seasonal ingredients, named Dolcissimo autunno (i.e. super sweet autumn). As you can see in the picture, chestnut cream, persimmon coulis, on a rosemary waffle… creative and delicious at the same time.

Wine and spirits

Since the Podere is located between Parma and Piacenza, the choice was for the king of the wines in the area, a wonderful Gutturnio Superiore “Sinsal”, produced by Torre Fornello winery (www.torrefornello.it/en/winetype/rossi/) over the hillls near Piacenza. Gutturnio Superiore can be produced only as a blend of Barbera (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbera) and Croatina (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatina), in this case, 60% Barbera and 40% Croatina. The result is a still, dry, with a strong body, red wine, magnificent in its intense ruby color.

Definitely a choice I would repeat and recommend, and that you can experience in the comfort of your home here: https://bit.ly/2CSx9Zf .

Service

Gentle, friendly but professional, taking their time to talk to the guests when possible. They know how to make you feel at home.

Price

Podere San Faustino is a classy taverna, serving food and wines of high quality, at a reasonable (not cheap at all) price.

If you are on a trip to Emilia Romagna, after Parma you should definitely visit Bologna and have dinner at Nonna Aurora!