Celli's Bottega della Carne in Novafeltria

About us: IL PAESE DEI GHIOTTONI

CHIANINA VALLEY

In the high Montefeltro, in Badia Tedalda , in Sistino, where it is spoken Tuscan dialect, there have always been some bovines of Chianina breed. It is a  white strong animal used for Chianina beef steak. It is one of the three white coat  breeds   still grazing in the Central Apennines.  The other two are the Marchigiana and the Romagnola.
Then came the marketing.
The television showed us bulky butchers from Tuscany swearing the goodness of Chianina breed.
If you ate Marchigiana  breed meat you were like a beggar , while the foreign breeds were appropriate for supermarkets.
Then in the course of time, the Montefeltro especially  the Marecchia Valley,  stole this primacy to the Chiana Valley. In fact, most of the Italian Chianina cows come from the Montefeltro , since  they were born here and partly  grow up here too.
Some small breeders believed it could be an interesting  trade outlet.  There is a big cattle farming at the  Fontetto's farm of Ponte Santa Maria Maddalena,   which invested on Chianina  and  french Limousine cattle breed.
Chianina breed can't  adapt to  modernity, it needs  adequate  feedings, grazing land and     a direct relationship mother-veal. It has a natural production cycle  which is slower than the one of  other European and   international bovines.


However,   we sat at  the table of  one of the most  important restaurants of the territory , we ordered beef asking where  it come from. Even if we were interest in knowing the name of the butcher  it was confessed that meat came from Argentina.
Certainly in the Pampa bovines are not worse than the Montefeltro ones, but it is a very long way to get to the steak's valley.



MARCHIGIANA  CATTLE BREED STEAK

Even if Chianina is a fashion and good meat , the original bovine from the Montefeltro is the one  of  Marchigiana cattle breed .
Chianina and Marchigiana come from the same family they are both white coated , they need freedom and healthy feeding and have aptitude for  steak
It  is a very good meat, which might challenge all the other steaks including  Dario Cecchini's , the Pasdaran of t-bone steak with his  butchery in Panzano in    Chianti.

We would  like to propose Domenico Celli , a less media butcher  but not less capable.
In Domenico Celli's butchery in   Novafeltria it is sold uniquely Marchigiana cattle breed meat, including the ox of the Montefeltro.
His meat  not only  comes  from a uniquely breed, but also by the  uniquely  farming of Pietro Grazia in Perticara , with the cattle grazing in the area where  there was the mine , among Perticara, Maiano, Miniera and Ugrigno.
The sulphur mine is an other part of history.
These are places of rare beauty,  you can wander through the sinuous mountains, the forest “calanchi”(gullies) and remote towns, to then arriving at S. Agata Feltria , under the Fregoso fortress.
We have moved on from little villages, often empty and forgiven, thinking that knowing and appreciating the better meat  helps to enhance the local agricultural productions, preventing mountain  depopulation and may be to live better.
The transition from thought to action is easy:  just cook the steak over hot coals for a few minutes, rare and seasoned with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper and a little extra virgin olive oil.
On the occasion, in spite of Chianina meat,  we could import  from the Chianti area some good bottles, then we need only three glasses  to tell  the truth: the challenge among butchers might   finish with joint winners , with the same number of empty bottles under the table and satisfied diners.
Anyway , in my opinion, Marchigiana meat is always the best.  


Written excerpt  from “Il paese dei ghiottoni” of Michele Marziani , Guido Tommasi Editor, Milan 2012