Restaurant – Il Bagnolo Eco Lodge

A story of authentic flavors, such as the Tagliatelle with traditional meat sauce

Preceded by the whisper of those who share a secret known to few and jealously protect, the guests look like having no esitation and their choice is almost immediate: a dish of fresh Tagliatelle with traditional farm meat sauce! A historic and symbolic recipe, in which you find the harmony, the colors, the scents and flavors of the cuisine of all Italian grandmothers. A steaming and convivial invitation telling a long story of careful attitude, a careful attitude starting from the love for the animals living in the inner farm of this lodge at lake Garda, bred in a wide, clean, bright stable, left free to move and graze in the 25 hectares of the property, fed exclusively with selected feed of natural origin to give their meat a genuine flavor and perfect softness, juiciness and consistency. A patient attitude, quietly waiting for the sauce to boil for hours long in a vegetable soup flavoring the carrots, the celery, the onions grown in the vegetable garden of the estate, all fertilized with natural farmyard manure only and pickled up at the right time of the season, in full compliance with the cycles of nature. The vegetable natural flavor is enhanced by the sage, the rosemary, the thyme which grow spontaneously in bushes around the yard. A careful attitude that continues in the keeping of chickens, animals free to roam in the meadows of the estate, which provide eggs with full flavor, to be mixed by hand with selected stone ground flour making the fresh, fragrant home-made pasta. Good and healthy food, made up of skilled cooking and traditional recipes that highlight the naturalness of the ingredients. A cuisine that use only the prized Garda olive oil, marrying the cooking traditions of the lake area with the Italian and French – German influences of grandmas Elisabeth and Bice, whose teachings are still faithful guide in the design of the menu. Il Bagnolo Eco Lodge Restaurant welcomes its spring and summer guests on a terrace overlooking the stunning panorama of lake Garda, while, during the cooler seasons, in the intimacy and warmth of a beautiful dinign room heated by the fireplace. OPEN from mid-March to mid-January; from 1st April to end of October, open every evening except Tuesdays (always open in summer); mid to late March and in November and December, open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; Saturday and Sunday open even for lunch; on holidays always open for both lunch and dinner. CLOSED from mid January to mid March.

IL BAGNOLO TRADITIONAL MEAT SAUCE

Ingredients for 6 people: 350 g shoulder of beef, coarse minced; 100 g fresh pork bacon; 50 g carrots; 50 g celery; 50 g white onion; 200 g tomato sauce or peeled tomatoes; ½ glass dry white wine; ½ glass fresh whole milk; broth; olive oil; butter; two bay leaves; salt and pepper.

To do: slightly fry in a heavy pan the fine chopped bacon. Add 50 g of oil and butter, the fine chopped vegetables and let them go on gently. Put the minced meat in the pan and stir fry until it changes its color. Add the wine and stir gently until it is completely evaporated. Put in the tomato sauce, the bay leaves, cover and simmer slowly for a couple of hours by adding, if necessary, some broth. Half an hour before the end, add the milk. Finally, season the meat sauce with salt and pepper.

The quality of meat of Il Bagnolo Farm

Il Bagnolo Eco Lodge is a farmhouse with an authentic farm, as few can truly claim to be. From the beginning of its activity in the 70s, the farm has chosen to breed cattle for milk and meat. The fresh milk, with its high quality organoleptic characteristics (high fat and protein content), is produced by 25 Brune (a kind of Brown Suisse) cows, an old rare mountain breed, naturally fed (organic, pratically) with daily rations of maize flour, vitamins, hay and alfalfa. The herd is composed also by about fifty dairy calves, young female beef and bullocks, dedicated to the breeding as well as to the production of healthy and genuine meat. Once again, the supply for these animals is completely natural and organic: fresh milk for calves, corn meal and hay for bullocks and beef. At the farm there are also the funny small animals: chickens, laying hens, capons, ducks and guinea fowl. When they are not in their nice wooden house, they can enjoy a wide portion of forest scratching in total freedom. A part of the day is then dedicated to the breeding of rabbits and of a few, selected, pink pigs that are naturally fed with corn meal and vitamins.

The garden vegetables

No forcing, no sophistication, only passion, hard work and a deep respect for the natural cycle of the seasons and the land. A good land, only fertilized with mature manure from cows of the farm. A generous land, which offers every year its delicious fruits: aubergines, zucchini, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, leeks, cucumbers, basil and fragrant herbs. Vegetables, particularly during the spring and summer seasons, have a very important role in the proposals of the restaurant, so they are used to prepare fresh entrées, sauces for pasta or tasty side dishes. In addition, with garden vegetables, the kitchen prepares also gift jars to take away prolonging the pleasure of the palate even at home. Vegetables are processed entirely by hand, with particular times and methods, keeping colors and scents, and they become delicious preserves. Without any thickening agent, antioxidant or chemical preservative, just with the addition of Garda extra virgin olive oil, sugar and white wine vinegar. Even so, Il Bagnolo Eco Lodge is an authentic farmhouse, truly environmentally sustainable.

Cooking and the grandmothers’ legacy…

It’s impossible to describe the aromas of casseroles of Elisabeth and Bice grandmothers, the consistency of meat in the mouth, the scent of long cooking recipes changing with each new ingredient. And it’s thanks to the grandmothers that, at the bottom, nowadays at Il Bagnolo Eco Lodge Restaurant you can taste, in example: homemade cold cuts, cured meat and sausages (salame, coppa, pancetta and bacon, usually accompanied with homemade pickles); the raw ham and the baked ham, from pigs bred at the farm, accompanied with the home mustard peaches; cheese (medium and long aging) produced with raw whole milk of farm cows; fresh pasta, homemade with farm eggs and accompanied by all the traditional farm meat sauces: the classic bolognese, the delicate veal sauce, the rabbit one, the special oxtail sauce and another specialty, the marinated-in-red-wine-beef sauce; the garden vegetables, as entrèes, sauces for pasta or side dishes; the soups, like the traditional 12-vegetable soup or the pasta & fagioli, the tuscan tomato soup or the classic stewed tripe; the farm meat main courses, such as the braised-in-olive-oil-beef or the long roasted shank of beef, the traditional English roastbeef or the special marinated carpaccio (with citrus, peppercorns, juniper and rosemary); and also the tagliata, the fillets and sirloin of beef, the steaks, the Fiorentina, the veal scallops, tartare … and to complete the meal, the mouth-watering cakes of grandma Elisabeth, from the white cake covered in chocolate to the hazelnut cake glazed with Grand Marnier, from the Linzertorte to chocolate & almonds cake or the ricotta one or the traditional, tender apple pie, with so many apples; at the end, the delicious ice cream made directly with the fresh farm milk.