Cooking and Cuisine of Piemonte and Val d'Aosta

[hathor]

I will have to wait at least a week to do this as I want to use the ingredients from the area and the local importer hasn't begun orders yet. One thing I have learn't the hard way is that some regional recipes are not worth making without specific ingredients, often the more simple dishes are actually the most difficult to produce.

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ain't it the truth...ain't it the truth brother! Sometimes I can rationalize it that its even more Italian if I use a locally available subsitute. And sometimes I just remember the flavors and wait.

[FoodMan]

Sounds great so far! If it is not too much to ask and since many of us might not be that familiar with Piedmont (or is it just me), can someone post a list of some recipe names and ingredients typical in Piedmont?

I will be doing some research as well but a quick "reference" will be very much appreciated.

For next month, I say we stay in the North for the winter. So any northern region is fine. Maybe for the summer we can gravitate towards the south.

[Pontormo]

See series of entries above that include bibliography in English (Kevin's) and Italian as well as links to Eden's recipe here on eGullet and two of many, many that I found on google after plugging in the name of the dish photographed above. The entry in English includes recipes for a complete meal.

I have not tried a keyword search on Piedmontese food yet, but I imagine that there is a wealth of online sources. My public library has the book by Kramer, so I am crossing my fingers once I log out, hoping it is on the shelves.

Also see advice about Swiss Cook's blog and see this forum, too, for a thread on a week in this region.

My guess is that you'll need a good, authentic Fontina (see my links above for specfications) and Savoy cabbage. Wines from the region would be ideal.

I know some of you would shoot darts with your eyes, but I do wish we were having a colder winter with more than one light snowfall to get me into the mood.

Edited January 6, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[FoodMan]

Found this which is very helpful. The site also has the same summary for all other regions.

So Bagna Cauda, bollito misto, fonduta, agnolotti and Vitello tonatto among many others.

Any one up for Tapulone ?

[hathor]

I"ll bite. What's Tapulone?

edited because I cannot spell, or proofread.

Edited January 6, 2006 by hathor (log)

[FoodMan]

I"ll bite. What's Tapulone?

edited because I cannot spell, or proofread.

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From the link above

"Tapulone is a stew of donkey meat served around Novara"

[Nathan P.]

I need another week of dining austerity before I can add to this thread but thought I would share another recipe list I just found. Was doing some research on a bottle of Barbaresco I have and found some specific recipes of Langhe. You have to click on the link at bottom right. Also, anyone have an old mule they are not using . Glad I reread the thread to see this is a dual region month since 90% of the Piemonte recipes I have started with get a big white truffle! I think I am going to tackle a large Piemontese Agnolotti from Bugialli On Pasta that involves an outer filling of rice and an inner meat stuffing somewhere closer to the end of the month.

I also have a strong preference to stay North until the weather warms up. I suspect the Europeans would mostly agree but any Southern Hemisphere folk here? I also like April's idea to tackle the Regions that Kevin didn't touch on in his thread.

[Pontormo]

Actually, what I SHOULD have said more graciously above is that Elie and I are probably not alone in being new to the cooking of Piedmont. Thus, the topic fits the didactic aims of eGullet very nicely, indeed. As Kevin suggested in his introductory post, sharing knowledge would be of benefit to us all, so it would be nice if posts here provide some of the information we learn as we try recipes.

I am sorry that I will not be able to document my research visually...not until later in the year. However, I will try to find photos on line or provide extra background material.

BTW: I got my wish. The temperature is dropping.

And if you haven't seen the story about McDonald's and a victorious Apulian baker in Food & Media, do check out the heart-warming thread.

[FoodMan]

since 90% of the Piemonte recipes I have started with get a big white truffle!  I

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Yeah, maybe Jeffrey Steingarten's recipe (from his 1st book) for the egg pasta made with 20 egg yolks and tons of white truffle is very appropriate this month.

[Kevin72]

"Tapulone is a stew of donkey meat served around Novara"

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Hopefully, that's not what Balic has on backorder . . .

[Pontormo]

since 90% of the Piemonte recipes I have started with get a big white truffle!  I

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Yeah, maybe Jeffrey Steingarten's recipe (from his 1st book) for the egg pasta made with 20 egg yolks and tons of white truffle is very appropriate this month.

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Could we apply for an emergency egullet scholarship?

[Nathan P.]

All this Valpellinentze talk has been making me hungry so I decided to try this dish tonight since it seemed fairly straightforward. Three grocery stores later I could still not find a Savoy cabbage . I decided to buy a Napa cabbage which looked like it had gotten a bit of sun and supplement that with some black kale to give it a bit more game. Other ingredients were pain de campagne from a local bakery (wheat, whole wheat, Rye), the cabbage, butter, pancetta, fontina and roasted chicken stock.

For recipes I followed the techniques from the Culinaria Italy book and from Negrin's Rustico which I found online at the publisher.

I pre-cooked the cabbage in boiling water, toasted the bread in the oven to bring out flavor and mimic staleness, and sauteed the pancetta before layering it all up. Unfortunately, my gratin dish was a bit short for the thickness of bread so I am hopping that everything will sink as it cooks.

Well no sinking but it looks tasty enough in a rustic way. This spent around 25 min at 450'.

Here it is with a portion taken out so you can see the liquid ratio that I achieved.

Very tasty and I would do again but in a slightly deeper pan and with more cabbage. So what will happen with the leftovers? I am guessing it will congeal overnight- can it be fried in butter or pork fat?

[Adam Balic]

Hey, nice looking dish. I'm guessing that it is not a dish that generate good left overs though.

That black kale looks very similar (OK identical) to cavalo nero, which is a very common winter veg in Tuscany.

[Adam Balic]

"Tapulone is a stew of donkey meat served around Novara"

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Hopefully, that's not what Balic has on backorder . . .

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Nope, I fisnished all my French donkey meat a while ago.

[Kevin72]

All this Valpellinentze talk has been making me hungry so I decided to try this dish tonight since it seemed fairly straightforward.  Three grocery stores later I could still not find a Savoy cabbage  .  I decided to buy a Napa cabbage which looked like it had gotten a bit of sun and supplement that with some black kale to give it a bit more game.  Other ingredients were pain de campagne from a local bakery (wheat, whole wheat,  Rye), the cabbage, butter, pancetta, fontina and roasted chicken stock.

For recipes I followed the techniques from the Culinaria Italy book and from Negrin's Rustico which I found online at the publisher.

I pre-cooked the cabbage in boiling water, toasted the bread in the oven to bring out flavor and mimic staleness, and sauteed the pancetta before layering it all up.  Unfortunately, my gratin dish was a bit short for the thickness of bread so I am hopping that everything will sink as it cooks.

Well no sinking but it looks tasty enough in a rustic way.  This spent around 25 min at 450'.

Here it is with a portion taken out so you can see the liquid ratio that I achieved. 

Very tasty and I would do again but in a slightly deeper pan and with more cabbage.  So what will happen with the leftovers?  I am guessing it will congeal overnight- can it be fried in butter or pork fat?

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This is off to a great start! I'm almost inclined not to cook and just sit back and watch everyone else's contributions! And frying it sounds like a good idea.

[Kevin72]

That black kale looks very similar (OK identical) to cavalo nero, which is a very common winter veg in Tuscany.

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I've seen it called at least five different things between three stores I find it at here in Dallas: black kale, Tuscan kale, cavolo nero, lacinto kale, dinosaur kale.

[hathor]

Piemonte 101

Hopefully, better late than never. I dug up some of my ital.cook notes on Piemonte to create a rough overview of the region. As with all things Italian, this is subject to change, discussion and revision…without notice!

When you try to understand regional Italian cooking, or regional anywhere cooking, it is important to understand first the geography and then the history of the area. Borders may have changed, the Roman Empire rises and falls but the mountains, seas and plains remain fairly constant.

Here is a map that will give you a geographical orientation: Piemonte Click on no. 1.

Piemonte borders on France and Switzerland, and is protected by the Alps in the north and west, and by the Apennine mountain range and the Ligurian sea in the south. Nice and the French Riviera were part of Piemonte for centuries and was Piemonte’s sea access.

What this means is that the region is naturally divided into three areas: plains, hills and mountains.

In the plains, grains are grown: wheat, corn, rice. Think: pasta, polenta, risotto.

A word about rice. Italy is the largest producer of rice in Europe and has been grown in the provinces of Novara, Biella e Vercelli since around 1500. The original Japanese strain has been replaced by Arborio, Carnaroli, Vialone rice. The key to making risotto is to choose one of these Italian strains of rice as these rices will absorb flavors and liquid indefinetly, whereas the Asian variety of rices will only absorb enough liquid to be cooked. The most highly valued rice for making risotto is the Carnaroli variety.

In northern and central Italy, where soft wheat is grown and there are lots of chickens, egg pasta is made. Piemonte is known for ‘tajarin’ pasta which is superfine and traditionally served with a chicken liver sauce. Also a specialty are the stuffed pastas like ravioli and agnolotti.

Polenta in its simplest form is yellow corn meal boiled in water. Many times it is served in place of a pasta with a ragu type sauce over it, or served along side meat or fish dishes.

The plains also provide a rich abundance of vegetables. Corn meal is also used in more rustic cakes and cookies.

The Piemontese breed of cattle come from the hills and plains and are known for their milk and meat which is typically boiled and served in such dishes as bolitto misto or vitello tonnato. Or served raw, tartare style as in insalata di carne cruda. The city of Bra is home to the famous and tasty, blood red Bra beef sausage, which originally was created either by or for the Jewish population of Bra who could not eat a pork sausage. It is delicious eaten raw or cooked.

As you go from the plains to the hills, you fine more pork meat, lamb and cinghiale or wild boar.

With regard to fish, there are plenty of fresh water trout and white fish that show up simply fried or cooked with rice. In the southernmost part of Piemonte you will find the salted, preserved fishes such as anchovies or baccala`. Here is the home of bagna cauda, a warm garlic and anchovy based dip for vegetables.

In the mountains, you will find the cheeses, mostly cows milk cheeses such as Castelmagno, Raschera, Bra, Tomino del Melle, Toma della Val di Susa, Toma Piemontese. There are also sheep cheeses such as Murazzano and the mild goat cheese Robiola di Roccaverano.

The mountains are also home to potatoes that are especially good for gnocchi.

And what’s missing from this list of regional ingredients? Two major food groups: wine and truffles.

The plains area is where the famed, fabulous and mightily expensive “tartufo bianco d’alba’ comes from. I’m not even going to start discussing this truffle. Here is a whole thread dedicated to truffles. Suffice to say, if you are lucky enough to have tasted these truffles, you will understand the cultish obsession with them.

In the hills, the nebbiolo grape is cultivated and gives us the squabbling twin wines Barolo and Barbaresco. I don’t have my wine notes with me, but one wine used to be classified with the other, and they squabbled and broke the wines into two distinct regions. Someone with more wine knowledge than can explain this much better than I can. Other famous wines are Barbera, Dolcetto, Nebbiolo and Asti Spumante and my favorite after dinner desert wine: Moscato d’Asti.

What this means is that the region has an overwhelming abundance of natural ingredients from the sea to the mountains. Which makes it a logical place for Slow Food to be founded and headquartered, don’t you think?

edited because I had trouble linking the truffle thread!

Edited January 7, 2006 by hathor (log)

[Pontormo]

The photographs do look great!

I managed to retrieve the book by Matt Kramer which is quite interesting. Are others using this volume?

It looks as if Molto Italiano is also relevant since Batali includes several recipes for sformato, a type of savory flan I would like to try eventually. I just wish we had cardoons, a vegetable I don't recall ever seeing in the United States even though they are apparently grown in California.

Since I have roasted beef stock in the freezer and love soup, this week I will be making palline di carne con le mele in brodo, in this case, with meatballs made from ground veal.

I was intrigued by the combination of meat, garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano and grated, chopped apples in addition to the usual egg and milk (no bread). After the palline are browned, wine is added to the pan for flavor, and allowed to evaporate. Once the meatballs simmer briefly in the stock, the soup is served simply with a dusting of more cheese.

One thing I'd like to know is why beef and chicken stocks are interchangeable in so many recipes in this book. I believe Marcella Hazan has a number of recipes that are equally flexible.

The major exception in Kramer's book is in the series of recipes for risotto which all call for chicken stock, of course. Since the risotto and Gorgonzola of this region are both two of my favorite things, it looks as if I will have to make a chicken stock next weekend. (Dolce is recommended instead of picante.)

While shopping yesterday, I spoke to the Kevin who heads the cheese department at the Whole Foods store that I tend to use, a really knowledgeable man and a kind soul. He promised to order some cheeses from Piemonte that he doesn't normally stock.

I was pleased to find the Fontina di Val d'Aosta that is recommended in the recipes I linked to this thread yesterday. According to Matt Kramer, Val d'Aosta was once incorporated into the region we are exploring, so its cheese and version of the Swiss fondue appear in the fonduta of Piedmont. However, he also says that at least at the time of his publication (1997), there was no legal distinction between the artisanal Fontina Valdostana made on farms and the industrial version that is also made from raw milk. (Implied: high cost not always justified.)

He claims that using the cheaper Fontal produced from pasteurized milk does not affect the taste, and recommends it instead. Perhaps eGullet members may wish to put on a bow tie and compare on their own.

As far as speculations above go, I wonder if Adam Balic has ordered white truffles to make us all gasp.

[Pontormo]

Wow! Thanks, hathor, for the concise and comprehensive overview!

[Adam Balic]

I was flicking through a French regional cookbook and found a description of a dish which is very similar to Valpellinentze. It is from Cantal and is called "Soupe aux choux et au fromage de Cantal". This is described as a cabbage, potato and bacon soup with layers of rye bread and and Cantal cheese. I wonder how wide spread this dish now.

[Nathan P.]

Yeah it is called Dinosaur Kale most of the time here in Northern California though the good market staff will know it as lacinato or cavalo nero for their food geek customers. It is available 365 days a year where I am. Good stuff and I liked the way it blended with the much milder napa cabbage.

Good info on Piemonte coming in. So we have butter to cook in from the cows but I have also seen mention of lard. Anyone have any insights into the breakdown here or its micro-regionality?

[hathor]

Nathan: where there are pigs this is lard. When the farmer has pig fat to hand, that's what gets used. So I'm assuming that lard starts to show up in the hills and mountain regions of Piemonte. Then again with pork being so important in all of Italy that may be too narrow of an assumption.

[Nathan P.]

Nathan: where there are pigs this is lard.  When the farmer has pig fat to hand, that's what gets used.  So I'm assuming that lard starts to show up in the hills and mountain regions of Piemonte.  Then again with pork being so important in all of Italy that may be too narrow of an assumption.

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That is what I was guessing. Could historicaly be some seaonality to this as well due to milk production.

In case anyone is curious, yes you can fry your bread soup if it soaks up all the broth. Sort of like a soggy grilled cheese sandwich with a frico under it. Don't know if this has any real history, but it seems likely to me that at some point in time someone in the Aosta Valleyhad a bit of leftover Valpellinentze and tossed it in a pan with some butter to heat up!

Edited January 7, 2006 by Nathan P. (log)

[Eden]

Nathan, that fried zeupa looks incredibly good! And your version was much prettier than mine (cheese on top rather than bread is much more aesthetic!) I must try the variant with pancetta when I go for round three.

Tonight we finally had time for the carbonade. I used a recipe from La Cucina Italiana Jan 2001, and I'm not really happy with it. Not that the final product isn't tasty, but I don't think it's right. The instructions weren't as clear as I'd like in various parts (what to do with the onions for example, they ended up very undercooked) and my final product was just not as dark as I'd expect from my understanding of the dish. What I really need for this is a field trip to the Val d'aosta to try the dish as it should be so I'm not relying as much on the printed recipe

Here's my un-carboned beef cooked in red wine:

We also made round two of the zeupa, probably a bit closer to the original recipe. There was no wine in the broth this time, and the store had restocked on savoy cabbage which I have to say was a real improvement. The texture added some extra body to the dish, but again no nasty cabbagey/sulferous flavors, so still a winner.

[Kevin72]

Great writeup Hathor! You covered just about anything I'd want to say and more.

Pontormo, I'm using Kramer's book for my main reference. I like it quite a bit as well. The veal patties with grated apples caught my eye too!

I'm guessing the reason chicken and beef broths are interchangeable is because Italian cooking calls for you to use meat as opposed to bones (though, as I write, this, there's a pot of duck and chicken carcasses simmering away for this month's stock needs). The flavor is a little more delicate, though that's not the right word, compared to French stocks.