Forlimpopoli. The very name puts a spring in my step. Imagine peeling paint, fresh fruit and vegetable markets, the sing-song of Italian voices and the chiming of church bells. Imagine that and you’re halfway to joining us in this small village in northeast Emilia-Romagna. But there’s something else that puts this spot between Ravenna and Rimini on the map: Casa Artusi, a museum and cooking school dedicated to the oldest food blogger in the world. One Pellegrino Artusi.
Artusi compiled the first ever book of Italian recipes, travelling the length and breadth of this newly formed nation and consolidating tradition into a bible of gastronomy. By the final edition it included over 790 recipes, each peppered with advice and salted with amusing anecdotes. But Artusi himself was not a chef, a restaurateur, nor even a farmer. He was a scientist and businessman, and one with a lot of time and money on his hands. And, as you might expect, his approach was methodical and meticulous.