Translucent slices of candied pear glistening in syrup on a small spoon beside a craggy chunk of aged grana cheese and thin slices of salame on a wooden board

Casa Forcello Guide: A Mantuan Pharmacist's Pear Mostarda

Casa Forcello mostarda is made near Mantua by Le Tamerici, a small company founded by a pharmacist named Paola Calciolari, and sold in the United States under the Casa Forcello name. Its pear mostarda (shop Casa Forcello Pear Mostarda) is three ingredients long: pears, sugar and mustard flavoring. Mostarda sounds like mustard and looks like fruit in syrup, and it is both, candied fruit in a sugar syrup made hot with a few drops of mustard essence. In Lombardy it is traditionally served with boiled meats and with aged cheeses such as Grana Padano.

Who makes it

Paola Calciolari trained in pharmacy and chose food instead. According to a profile in the Gazzetta di Mantova, she started a cultural association and cooking school in Pietole in 1991, then began making mostarde. She drew on her roots in San Benedetto Po and the Mantuan tradition, using local pumpkin, pears, white watermelon and Campanina apples. Le Tamerici is based at her mother's old property at San Biagio, beside Corte Forcello, the farmstead whose name the export brand shares, and the company runs its laboratory and event space there. The address today is Via Romana Zuccona 208, San Biagio di Bagnolo San Vito, in the province of Mantua.

The same profile puts the team at six or seven people. It notes that Le Tamerici chooses to buy its produce rather than farm it, and that about a third of production is exported, where the traditional mostarde do especially well. Forever Cheese, the American importer, describes Calciolari working from her grandmother's recipes and calls the process labor-intensive. The company holds IFS and BRC certifications, two international food-safety and quality standards.

How the pears become mostarda

Le Tamerici describes a three-step method. The fruit is picked at the right moment, cleaned by hand and sliced thin. The slices sit in sugar syrup for several days until, in the producer's words, an osmotic balance is reached and the fruit releases all the water contained in its fibers. Only then do a few drops of mustard essence go into the syrup. The company states that it works without preservatives, additives, thickeners or antioxidants, using its processing methods to keep color and flavor.

That last step is what separates mostarda from jam. There is no mustard seed in the jar, only mustard flavoring, and Forever Cheese describes the result as spicy-sweet. The producer calls the pear version's heat measured. Mustard made from the seed itself is the subject of the Dijon Mustard guide.

The pear behind it

The order on the label matters. Under EU labeling law, ingredients are listed in descending order of weight, so pears are the largest single component and the mustard flavoring the smallest. The pears are Williams, grown in the Mantuan area protected as Pera Mantovana IGP.

The Pera Mantovana IGP covers six pear varieties, Williams among them, grown in municipalities across the province. The Italian quality-foods foundation Qualivita traces pear growing there to the fifteenth century, with several pear varieties recorded in the orchard of a large estate at San Giacomo delle Segnate by 1475, and names mostarda as a typical Mantuan use of the pear.

Four Le Tamerici mostarde side by side

Le Tamerici's range runs to more than a dozen fruits and vegetables, including the Campanina, an old Mantuan apple variety, and a white watermelon whose cultivation Calciolari encouraged. Four from the producer's own product pages:

Pear Pear Riserva Speciale Campanina apple White watermelon
Ingredients as listed Pears, sugar, mustard flavoring Pears, lemons, sugar, mustard flavoring Campanina apples, sugar, mustard flavoring White watermelon, sugar, lemon juice, mustard flavoring
What sets it apart Williams pears from the IGP area; the classic Larger hand-cut slices, candied lemon Small, hard, slightly sour heirloom apple Green-rind, white-fleshed watermelon found by chance by a Viadana farmer; herby
Producer cheese pairing Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, aged pecorino, Gorgonzola, Fontina Same as the pear Parmigiano, Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano Grana Padano, Parmigiano Reggiano, Castelmagno
Producer cured-meat pairing Prosciutto di Parma, mortadella, coppa, Mantuan salame Prosciutto di Parma, mortadella, Felino salame Culatello, coppa, San Daniele Lardo, bacon, soppressa veneta

The pattern holds across all four: the producer pairs them with aged cheeses and cured pork, and for the Campanina apple it notes that the mostarda suits fatty meats and mature cheeses. The Jam, Preserves, Marmalade and Fruit Butter guide sets out how the sweeter members of the family differ from one another.

How far one jar goes

The Casa Forcello pear mostarda jar (shop Casa Forcello Pear Mostarda) is 4.9 ounces, about 139 grams. Mostarda is served in small amounts. The serving sizes below are working assumptions for a cheese board, not producer figures, and the arithmetic is simple division.

Serving per person Roughly Servings per 139 g jar
5 g One thin slice with syrup About 27
10 g Two slices, a small spoonful About 13
15 g A generous spoonful, the main condiment on the board About 9

For a board of eight, one jar is enough at the middle serving with some to spare. The Cheese Plate Math guide covers the cheese side of the same calculation.

How to use it

Start with the producer's own list. On a board, set the pear mostarda beside a wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano and slices of salame or mortadella. With a bollito, the Italian plate of mixed boiled meats, it is the traditional Lombard condiment, and the producer adds roast veal and roast beef. Le Tamerici also suggests beef carpaccio and smoked swordfish, and, less expected, chocolate ice cream.

It cooks, too. The producer suggests it as a sauce for pecorino ravioli and as an ingredient in Gorgonzola risotto. Chopped fine, it goes into the pumpkin filling of Mantua's tortelli di zucca, for which Qualivita calls mostarda an essential base. For a dressing, try whisking a spoonful of the syrup into a vinaigrette, and the Vinaigrette Ratio guide gives the proportions.

Mantua against Cremona

Cremona makes mostarda too, in a different shape. Mantuan mostarda is fruit cut into thin slices, and Cremona's is mixed fruit, whole or in pieces.

The Ambrosian Pantry is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, where visitors can ask staff questions in the shop, and products ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com.

Sources & Further Reading

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