LINI 910 | Food & Wine

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I F ● -H- ● ANYONE MA K E S A S ARCA S T I C COMMEN T a b o u t S a n t a L u c i a lonighi, Iwill have to kill them," Alicia Uni says cheerfully as she folds the pasta wrapper of atortelli. This will come as a familiar sentiment to anyone with joung children who's ever tried to keep loose-lipped relatives from inadvertently (or inlcn- tionally) revealing that Santa Claus is... Well. You know, Here in Kmllla-Romagna, Instead of afat fellow with awhite beard, the tradition is that Santa Lucia, tiding adonkey and accompanied by her escort Castaldo, visits homes the night before December i3, bringing presents for children to find the next morning. One tortelli neatly folded around Its filllng-a mix of butternut squash,Parmigiano,crushedamaretticookies,andnutmeg-she moves on to the next, and the next, and the next. Midstream, her daughlers-Alba. 12.A?.zurTa, 10. andAlena. 8-show up to help; It takes alot of tortelli to feed 12 people.And of course the tortelli have to be right. There's no more critical an audience than one's own family. "Il’s all about the proportions of the ingredients In the illllng," Alicia explains, fingers moving deftly. "In Mantova. they are more aromatic. Correggio abit sweeter, plusevery family has their own recipe, too, from grandmother to mother on down." Every year, the entire Uni fanjily gets together on the night before Santa Lucia Day for aholiday feast. There Is alwuys but¬ ternut squash tortelli: there Is always bollito misto with brisket, chicken, and cotechino sausage slowly simmered to tenderness; always erbazzone Reggiano, the crisp, savory spinach pie that's typical of the region, always fiaky fruit-and-nut-lillcd cookies to finish the meal. The world round, family holiday dinners are rituals as much as they are celebrations. To go with the Unis' dinner, also as alwa>-s. there will be plenty of their own Uni 910 laimbrusco. The dinner is held at their winery, just outside the Emilia-Romagna town of Correggio, wliere for over 100 years now the family has made some of the best Lambrusttjs thereare. To some people, it might come as asurprise that there is good Lambnisco. The wine's image has long battled against the impression that it’s aslightly sweet, innocuous, fizzy pink drink. (Try googling "Riunite on ice, that's nice!" if you wunt to travel back in time to when this problem all started.) But tradi¬ tional Lambnisco Is diy and crisp, an excellent foil for the rich food of Emilia-Romagna. Alicia's father, Fablo, who makes the Uni wines, says, “Ifyou drlnka glass of 15% alcohol wine, j-ou get drunk on one glass. With Lambrusco, you can drink more glasses-quality with quanlity!-and not fed bad. Balance and drinkablllty is our goal. And that the day after, ytm feelgood." Fabio Uni has also long been absolutely firm about making top-qualliy Lambnisco. Me and his siblings. Massimo and Anita, bought out the rest of their family’s interests in the winery years ago, at atime, Alicia Lini sa>'s, ‘when the entire Lam¬ brusco market was for 'red Coke.” The first years were tough.

"My dad and uncle and aunt were always reaching into tiicir pockets," the three of them trying to sustain abelief in quality Lambnisco against what was essentially atidal wave of industri¬ ally produced sugary fizz. Alicia, who iiad finished abusiness school degree and gone into the family trade, confronted her father at one point. "After three or four years trying to sell our wine. Icameback tomydadatids;iid, ‘Nooneunderstandsyour quality. You have to make something easier for the market. Our competitors are killing us.” She laughs, "lie said, 'OK. you go work for Pnida or Max Mara then If you don’t understand what we're doing.' And my brother's joke Is that 1applied, but no one hired me. so Istayed at the wineryl" Brothers are like that. Wlien her lirother. Aiessio. arrives that evening, he greets her with. "Alicia! You look so beautiful for SOI” She is. in fact, 41. It's clear they're used to giving each other ahard time, in an alfectionate way. Soon, the rest of the family arrives, everyone gathering in abottle-lined room off the main winery, drinking glasses of rose' Limbrusco poured from magnums, chilled down in apunch bowl full of ice cubes into which holly berries and leaves have been frozen. The talk Is of llie mundane-the kids' schools, how traffic has changed, whether anew painting of Alicia’s great-grandmother looks too slcm-and the less so; COVID has cast apall over much of theyear, asEmilia-Romagnawasoneof the regionshardest hit in Italy. But no one in the family got the virus, and because the Italian government considers winemaking avital industry, pro¬ ductionnever stopped. ("Our teamwas alreadyworkingmeters away from each other even before the pandemic." Alicia says, “soevenafter havingadoptedeverysafetymeasure, everything we do was still viable.’) Soon it’s time for dinner. Alicia’s brother and her cousin Alberto pop the corks on bottles of the winery’s nonvinlage Ijbrusca ros^ and Its 2006 Metodo Classico Rosso, the family's top wine. There wall be the nutty-creamy, llj^tiy sweet buitermii squash tortelU: falling-apart brisket: succulent chicken: savory, fatty rounds ofcoiechino sausage, each bite accompanied by a salsa verde tangy with comichons and capers; and more. But first, at each place, there lies afir twig and holly leaf tied to a Utile paper tag. On one side it says in red pen, "Santa Lucia ti portera ..." and on the other, what the saint wilt bring each guest this >«ar: union, harmony, money, perseverance, ambi¬ tion, low. satisfaction, truth, creativity, energj'. Alicia gets truth. Her cousinAlberto gets creativity, which provokes laughter; he works with logistics and sales for the winery. Her mother, money. “I will?" she says, archly, "Well, where is it?" Andherfather,Fabio.getsperseverance."Sosad."Aliciasays, gising him ahug. “UTien all you want is to relax and have aholi¬ day." But. hardworking winemaker to the core, he just shrugs and pours himself another glass of the family’s wine. c a n

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