Discovering the cuisine of Piedmont

Cuisine of Piedmont proposes an infinite series of first courses really delicious. To start, we suggest the typical Christmas dish, agnolotti. It is a sort of stuffed pasta with a mix of diverse type of meat and paired with broth, with butter and sage, or with a sauce of roasted meat. Typical of Langhe are also “tajarin”, it means fresh pasta called tagliolini prepared with truffle or offal ragu. Then, there is “panissa” a rice made with beans, wine, pork rind of which there is a version in Vercelli and of Novara. Try also the cornmeal mush of Piedmont, cooked with wheat flour, fontina, milk and cream.

Among the different dishes of Piedmont there is the tasty boiled meat prepared with five different cuts of beef meat and served with a side dish of boiled potatoes with green sauce. Another particular type of meat is the Albese raw meat, a kind of carpaccio made of thin slices of raw veal covered with lemon, garlic, salt and pepper.
“Lepre in civet” is another dish that comes from Langhe a braised meat obtained after a slow maceration. Also the famous “vitello tonnato” (veal with a tuna sauce), a dish of cold meat served with a tuna sauce and capers. The cuisine of Piedmont offers important second courses such as “agliata verde”, “pollo alla Marengo”, Barolo braised meat, fonduta, batsoà or “pollo alla babi”.

The popular “bagna cauda” plays an important role in the Piedmontese cuisine. The name of the dish in Italian means “hot sauce” and it is a speciality spread all over Piedmont. It is a sauce, generally paired with other main courses and it is often cooked during winter and autumn. It is obtained preparing a hot mix of garlic, anchovies and oil served in a terracotta pan called dian.

Today, Italy is one of the main exporters of truffle in the world and one of the most renowned regions for the production of this product is Piedmont, above all in the provinces of Asti and Turin. Famous is the mythic white Alba truffle, one of the most precious truffle for sale. Each year, the international fair of Alba truffle is held here, attended by people from all over the world to buy even few grams of this tuber. Truffle is often used in the cuisine of Piedmont to enrich dishes of pasta or to prepare tasty sauces.

Together with Tuscany, also Piedmont, is famous as a great wine region. On the hills of Piedmont of Langhe, there are exceptional wines as Barolo, Dolcetto, Barbera, Nebbiolo, Barbaresco, Gattinara, Roero, Griognolino. Among the white there are Moscato d’Asti, Roero Arneis, Langhe Chardonnay, Colli Tortonesi Cortese, Langhe Favorita and much more.
The indisputable king of oenology of Piedmont is its Spumante, a sparkling wine where the most spread is Asti Spumante. Finally, many of this wines are used in the cuisine of Piedmont, not only to pair a meal but also to create risotto and second courses with meat with a unique taste.

The cuisine of Piedmont gives us unique desserts and confectionery. Think about the delicious “baci di dama”, pastry with hazelnuts stuffed with chocolate. Really tasty is also bonet, an ancient pudding made with eggs, milk, liqueur, chocolate and amaretto. Try absolutely “canestrelli”, biscuits of wafer stuffed with chocolate and hazelnuts. Talking about hazelnuts, Piedmont is a great producer of this fruit, used to produce the famous Gianduia chocolate. Thanks to this dough it is possible to produce then, great “gianduiotti”, the typical chocolate of Piedmont.

Imagine source: divinediversion.files.wordpress.com, dolcevitadiaries.com, www.formaggiokitchen.com