Being quite unfamiliar with Italian cuisine, it was only about three years ago when I first tasted prosciutto at a local culinary school. I thought it was just dry salted ham, thinly sliced and served only as antipasto. Now I know how wrong I was...
Prosciutto was the first thing I ate as I arrived in Italy on a bright early Sunday morning. I took the Malpensa Express to Milano Centrale train station and barely missed getting a ticket for the next Eurostar Italia train to Firenze - actually the only seat I could buy was for one of the last first-class seats available on the next next train. With more than an hour to spare, I went to a nearby caffeteria to find out what the locals eat for breakfast.
First breakfast upon arriving at Milano -- prosciutto in a cornetto and a cappuccino, consumed while standing at the counter of course, just to save a Euro or two. The prosciutto was a little dry, but what can one expect at a stand-up caffeteria? The barista was noticeably amused as I took out the camera for a photo. I would be too, if a foreign tourist comes to Canada and starts taking pictures of a Tim Hortons donut.
But the best prosciutto I had was two days later at a century-old eatery in Firenze, at the unadorned but famous Trattoria Sostansa.
I'll go into more details about this little eatery on the Bistecca alla Fiorentina page. Anyway it's a small, old, nondescript neighborhood trattoria, inconspicuously hidden inside an old alley in an unremarkable part of downtown Florence. It opens sharply at 19:30 for its first dinner seating. I arrived at 19:00 to find the alley almost empty, and when I came back at 19:35, I was greeted by a full house and was seated at the last available seat, to the disappointment of the party walking in just behind me. Lesson learned: get there around 19:00 and wait.
Look at this beautiful prosciutto and feel the moistness of this succulent meat. This was definitely the best of any cured meat of any nationality that I have ever tasted. It was savory with the right amount of saltiness, cured but moist, chewy but soft. Incredible.
Three days later I had some more prosciutto, this time at a company dinner at Ristorante Le Lance at Fiesole. I didn't take a close-up photo this time. The prosciutto was quite good, but not as wonderful and moist as Sostanza's, and I was distracted by all the other dishes on the table (see full description here).
I also had various pastas and pizzas with prosciutto as toppings, but none would be as memorable as the prosciutto at Trattoria Sostansa.
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