But do yourselves a favour, don't eat that infamous mostarda.

I have to disagree. True cremonese mostarda is the best of its sort,
though it is a bit difficult to find really good one in Milan.

Besides being eaten with bollito (boiled meat), it is one of the main
ingredient of "tortelli di zucca" (the other is of course pumpkin, i.e.
zucca). There are different schools about the way they do it in Cremona
and Mantova (I believe the mostarda in Mantova is made with mashed
apples, while in Cremona they use whole fruits), while the best
pumpkins come from Mantova.

Just spent Saturday morning preparing some 200 tortelli. Actually the
pumpkin was cooked (whole, once "excavated" removing the seeds) in the
oven for 2-3 hours on Friday. Then the interior was mixed with minced
mostarda and amaretto crumbs and let lie for the night. Saturday we made
some 800 g of fresh pasta (500 g flour and 4 eggs) , and filled the
tortelli (like ravioli, size a bit larger, closed in plain triangular
shape), "blanked" them (passed in boiling water for 1 min) then frozen
the majority.

To be served with molten butter and sage, and sprinkled with crumbled
amaretti.

The best mostarda is the one made with mandarines (although for unknown
reasons the one with only cherries is more expensive), sharp-hot enough
to go "up through the nose". To be eaten with lot of bread.