Like many North Americans I grew-up eating lasagna. I recalled how my grandmother, who hailed from Genoa, would explain that lasagna was the name of a pasta, not a dish. Her style of preparing lasagna was to boil the pasta, then layer it with a Tucco sauce (dialect) and Parmigiano–Reggiano cheese, with no baking in the oven.

Bologna is a medium-size, very authentic Italian city and its inhabitants are famous for enjoying life and having fine-tuned the art of living well. People of Bologna go out a lot to eat in restaurants, especially to enjoy the local gastronomic tradition, and to drink good wine in one of the many old Osterias of the historical center.

My dreams had been colored by my upcoming trip to Bologna. Nestled in north central Italy in the region of Emilia-Romagna, Bologna has long been considered the gastronomic capital of Italy. With the moniker of ‘La Grassa’ (the fat one), it is the birthplace of Mortadella di Bologna, Tagliatelle al ragù, Tortellini en brodo, Lasagne alla Bolognese and so much more. Nearby …