In San Patrignano the Squisito Food Lab was born to promote professional training and self-sufficiency of the community
Exquisite Food Lab is the new agri-food of the San Patrignano community, which created the dairy, the oven and the butchery. Inaugurated this morning in the presence of the authorities and the 150 young people currently in training in the three workshops and created thanks to the support of Generali, the Alexander Bodini Foundation and the Pesenti foundation, it is a fundamental structure for improving professional training activities aimed at young people. along the way and at the same time contribute in an even more important way to the self-sufficiency of the community.
“It is a dream come true – explains Roberto Bezzi, of the San Patrignano agricultural cooperative – It finally sees the growth of a fundamental project for the growth of our children and for the survival of the community itself. A new structure still awaits us to welcome and be able to form more requests for commitment, because we get to involve about 250 young people, 100 more than those involved. An increase that over time will lead us to increase the production and sales of many products, managing to increase the self-sufficiency of the community and continuing to be a staple for the many young people who will ask us for help ”.
Dr. Letizia Moratti, co-founder of the San Patrignano Foundation, also underscored the importance of the project: “The inauguration of Squisito Food Lab has a very important value, but also different meanings. Gian Marco who was the first to have the intuition of a laboratory which is a unique place to give children a more functional and beautiful place where they can carry out their practical learning path. Secondly, Squiso Food Lab will favor an increasingly qualified training thanks to the masters who will come to know the most modern production techniques. Finally, thanks to the expansion of three strategic sectors (dairy, bakery and butchery-butchery) it will make it possible to increase the sale of its products, sustainability and therefore improve its economy “.
The growth of the space for the three laboratories is definitely important, with the butchery going from 200 to 700 m2, the dairy from 400 to 900 and the oven which doubles from 350 to 700. “Do not forget that in addition to having larger spaces , young people have at their disposal the most modern technologies and equipment that will allow them to improve the quality of the products even more – underlines Bezzi – Products that will still maintain their artisan connotation, children of a zero-kilometer supply chain and of the passion of our children “.
“I thank all those who contributed to this project – concluded the president of the San Patrignano Foundation, Carlo Pesenti before the unveiling of the plates – I reiterate to the children what the real mission of Squisito Food Lab is: yes, to bring the extraordinary products of their hands in the world. But the real purpose is to bring the world back into their hands ”.
San Patrignano community
San Patrignano is the largest rehabilitation community for drug addicted girls and boys in Europe and hosts over 1000 boys. For all of them and their families the recovery path is completely free. From 1978 to today, San Patrignano has welcomed over 26,000 people, offering them a home, health and legal assistance, the opportunity to study, learn a job and fully reintegrate into society at the end of the recovery process. According to a research conducted by the University of Bologna, which monitored a group of former guests of the community five years after their reintegration into society, 72% of children who successfully complete the path do not fall back into the problem of drug addiction. In addition to this, the Community has long been involved in addiction prevention projects, so much so that it meets over 50,000 students a year.
The three laboratories
Oven
The oven laboratory now employs 72 young people. The products are the result of an in-depth research among the best Italian flour mills and their encounter with the mother yeasts that the children nourish and refresh every day: from here are born most of its products, from breads of all kinds, to panettone and doves for anniversaries. This without ever forgetting the territoriality, therefore the queen of Romagna, the piadina, also declined in the versions with olive oil and wholemeal, up to that with ancient grains, the daughter of a further project to recover the grains once present in Romagna . The latest production figures speak of an exponential growth, for an annual total of over 490,000 kilograms of bread, breadsticks, biscuits, sweets and wraps. About 1320 kg baked every day.
Dairy
In the dairy, in which 48 young people are employed, all the quality of the community supply chain emerges, given that here the products come largely from cow’s milk from the San Patrignano farms. Every day, after a journey of less than 300 meters, the freshly milked milk is processed by the cheesemakers. This is how fresh cheeses are born, such as the typical squacquerone of Romagna, aged and refined for which not only cow’s milk is used, but also sheep and goat’s milk from rescued farms. This is the origin of our Pecorino aged on natural wood boards and Ca’prino aged in pit. Annually there are about 2 million liters of processed milk, transformed into 248 thousand kg of cow’s milk cheeses, 30 thousand of sheep’s milk and 6,150 of goat’s milk.
Norcineria
The same attention is paid to the supply chain in the production of cured meats. The pigs reared in the community are slaughtered outside and the meat processed with care by the boys of the butchery, at the moment 25. The raw ham is the result of a phase of delicate salting, of a slow maturing process for at least 18 months and a accurate greasing. The local salami, on the other hand, is prepared according to ancient traditions, obtained from the best trimmings of ham, loin and bacon seasoned with salt, pepper and wine, stuffed into natural “gentile” gut and aged in a natural environment for at least 2 months. highly artisanal product the same rolled pancetta, where the meat is processed dry with salt, pepper and spices, then rolled and subsequently tied in rope by hand and aged for at least 4 months. This is how products with the aromas of the past are born. Every year there are about 1000 pigs reared from which 22,200 kg of cured meats are obtained, to which are added almost 2000 kg of mora romagnola salami, a slow food presidium present within the community.