Instructions: Parma is a city of yellow and gold. Gold as in wealth. Yellow as in the mustard hue of Parmesan walls. Yellow and gold as in eggs, butter, cheese - and a squash you wont forget.

We met the magnificent zucca on a chilly day a few months ago when we stopped

In at the Gallo dOro, the Golden Rooster restaurant. The Roosters coop was a complex of small rooms and a rambling cellar. The walls were yellow, naturally, and the decor manifested a cool and subtle wit. The nerve center was a bottle-covered counter and a wooden table heaped with cured meats, ready to be sliced for antipasti.

The dark country salami was tasty but a little tough. Better was the local specialty, prosciutto di Parma, Parma ham. Its served with butter. In slices thin as silk, this stuff practically is butter, melting on the tongue in a fine harmony of tastes.

For the pasta course, my companion ordered a Parmesan specialty, tortelli di zucca. This is pasta pockets filled with a sweet local squash, served with sage-seasoned butter, and topped with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (yellow and gold again).

I sought to warm my bones with that old standby, pasta e fagioli, pasta and bean soup, which was more satisfying than such a humble dish has any right to be. The seasonings were familiar yet maddeningly elusive. The waiter, with genuine enthusiasm, explained that what I tasted was garlic, rosemary, and sage, sauteed in butter. It was thick and had much more pasta than large brown beans.

Dont dismiss fresh pasta. The difference, which is significant, lies less in taste than texture. Fresh has a complexity that can only be called toothsome, and that elevates pasta from being a mere vehicle for sauce to equal partner.

Then there was la zucca. This sweet squash, called zucca barucca, is a specialty of the city of Ferrara and served throughout the region of Emilia-Romagna. The little egg pasta pockets filled with squash were among the few foods that have ever, literally, shocked me with goodness. Each pocket exploded with flavor: sweetness hinting of cinnamon, the richness of cheese and butter, the resinous tang of the sage. It was unforgettable.

Zucca is hard to find in this country, but Lynne Rossetto Kasper, whose The Splendid Table is the definitive American cookbook on Emilia-Romagna, recommends substituting butternut squash or pumpkin mellowed with a little sweet potato.

The minutes heaped up into hours and still we lingered. But we had a train to catch and obligations ahead. Yet we went back into the cold without regret, for we had captured some of the finest Parmesan gold. Even if it was only squash.

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