[June 2025] In Carpi, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, my husband started searching online for lunch spots.
He usually checks TripAdvisor.
However, he had a hard time finding a restaurant open at lunchtime.
In Italy, restaurants often offer inexpensive special menus only for working people at lunchtime, so if you want a proper meal, you’ll need to check this as well.
So I asked the AI, which found a few options, and we were able to make a reservation at a place called Trattoria Il Torchietto.
When we got there, it turned out to be a restaurant in the countryside, quite far from the centre of Carpi.
However, it seemed popular, as it was already quite crowded, so we were shown to a table in a corner, in a hallway-like space.
At best, it was a private space, like a private room.
For starters, we ordered Battuta al Tartufo, steak tartare, and shared it between the two of us.
The steak tartare was topped with a generous amount of summer truffle.
Summer truffles are apparently lighter in flavour and cheaper than winter truffles, which was perfect for me.
Normally, truffles have a strong, medicinal taste that I’m not a big fan of, but these had a mild flavour that I really enjoyed.
They paired well with the meat.
The portions were also generous, so my husband and I were able to share them without any problems.
For our main courses, I was going to order lamb and my husband pork, but the waitress warned us, “The pork is big like a elephant ear, so you had better share it between two of you.”
Elephant’s ear (orecchia d’elefante) is usually the nickname for cotoletta alla Milanese, and the pork here was exactly that shape—huge.
It’s basically a pork version of a cotoletta, but it was quite thick and substantial, making it truly too much for even for the big eaters like us to eat alone.
Even splitting it between two people, we were still super full.
Since the pork is deep-fried, it’s similar to tonkatsu, but without the breadcrumbs, it’s closer to a cotoletta.
Perhaps the cut of meat is different, too.
And with a half-litre of Sangiovese to go with it, the bill came to €60.
I loved the tartare starter so much that I’d be willing to travel all the way there just to eat it.
