History and regional soils
Since Mont Blanc, the Aosta Valley is the only officially French-speaking region in Italy. Among the quality cheeses are fontina, with its pale yellow and delicate paste, very popular in cooking where it melts particularly well, or toma di Gressoney, made from cow's milk, as well as salignon, a kind of very fatty ricotta cheese flavoured with caraway seeds or paprika. As for cold meats, you can enjoy coppa al ginepro, lard d'arnad, pancetta steccata, black pudding from Valle d'Aosta or motsetta
, a dried meat prepared with pork, lamb, beef or even chamois.The motsetta is also common in Piedmont. The thick forests are perfect for mushrooms and in particular the white truffles of Alba, adored by gastronomes. Initially created for the son of the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel II, who had difficulty digesting the crumb of bread, the crunchy breadsticks soon invaded the bakeries of Turin and then the rest of Italy in the 19th century. They can be wrapped with slices of crudo di Cuneo (raw ham). Among the most popular cheeses are the creamy and powerful castelmagno,ossolano, toma Piemontese or gorgonzola
, which is also produced in Lombardy.Lombardy's cuisine shares some products with its Piedmontese neighbour. The cows give quality milk, which allows the region to produce highly prized cheeses such as mascarpone, casera and taleggio, a square cheese with a soft, melting paste. Arborio rice, which is used in many risotto recipes, and veal, which is a very popular meat in Lombardy, should not be forgotten. Cured meats are of course varied in the Lombardy Alps and one can enjoy bresaola or slinzega, two types of dried meat - pork, horse, game, beef - originating in the Valtellina region. Luganega
, a cooking sausage, is also present in Trentino.Trentino-Alto Adige and Trentino-South Tyrol have a decidedly Germanic profile, to the extent that German is the mother tongue of almost two-thirds of the inhabitants of South Tyrol. The influence of nearby Austria and German-speaking Switzerland is very clear, resulting in a typical mountain cuisine based on potatoes, sauerkraut and buckwheat. Sausages such as würstel (Viennese sausage), speck (smoked ham) or kaminwurzen (smoked salami), as well as cheeses such asalmkaese with its crumbly, slightly spicy paste, are part of the vesper
, a peasant meal eaten on the run. The region is known for its many varieties of apples, which are used to make Austrian-style desserts such as strudel.To the east, Veneto shares the Dolomites with Trentino-Alto Adige. While the cuisine on the plains is based on the lagoon of Venice with an abundance of fish and seafood, the mountains of this region offer a very different gastronomic landscape. For example,asagio
is produced here, a very fragrant cheese with a firm and slightly crumbly paste. Polenta is common here, as are bread dumplings in sauce. Friuli-Venezia Giulia is separated from Austria and Slovenia by the Alps and was under Austro-Hungarian rule for several centuries, until 1918 for its capital Trieste. The influences from Central Europe are undeniable. It is impossible not to mention the prosciutto San Daniele produced in these mountains, matured for at least 10 months. Discover also the pitina, a meatball made of goat, sheep or chamois meat rolled in corn and smoked. Pestat di Fagagna is a sausage made only of bacon and vegetables, used as a seasoning. The most emblematic of the region's cheeses is montasio, while in Friuli you can find blecs, a diamond-shaped pasta made with buckwheat flour.The gastronomy of the Italian Alps
Soups include zuppa di crauti, a sauerkraut soup with bacon, or zuppa di Valpelline - a speciality of Valle d'Aosta - made with bread, cabbage, bacon and melted fontina. Minestra d'orzo
is a soup made of hulled barley with carrots, celery and bacon.Polenta is very popular. Firm or creamy, with cheese or butter, it is a wonderful accompaniment to dishes with sauce. In the high mountains, buckwheat replaces corn to prepare polenta nera, which is garnished with anchovies. As an appetizer, people sometimes eat smacafam, a buckwheat flan with onion and sausage rings. Gnocchi di polenta are also made and served with butter and grated cheese. Rice from the Po Valley is also very popular. The delicate risotto alla piemontese is prepared with beef stock, white wine and grana padano cheese. In Milan, a touch of saffron is added. In the Valle d'Aosta they serve tortino di riso alla valdostana
, a hearty rice gratin with parmesan and diced beef tongue.In the Dolomites they prepare casunziei, half-moon ravioli filled with ricotta cheese and vegetables (radish, turnip, cabbage, mushrooms). Canederli come from the same region. Inspired by the German knödel, these dumplings made of bread, chopped onion and bacon are poached in a broth. In Friuli they make frico con patate, a thick potato and montasio cake. Cheese lovers will love a fonduta valdostana
, a fondue of fontina from the Aosta Valley, sometimes with a few slices of truffle. The region's abundant forests are perfect for hunting, and lepre in civet or hare civet, simmered for a long time in red wine and vegetables, is a classic. The carbonade all'uso aostano is a beef stew with onion and red wine. In the same region, you will discover the costoletta alla valdostana, which is very similar to our cordon-bleu, but with veal. Another classic is the escalope alla milanese or cotolette alla milanese, a reminder of the culinary mix of this region. On the other side of the Alps, we enjoy the Viennese schnitzel or Wiener s chnitzel - which is more or less identical - and which is still being debated as to whether the Lombards or the Austrians came up with the idea first. Gulasch alla tirolese is a beef stew with paprika typical of the Tyrol, a region that was for a long time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.Dolci e caffè
The desserts are made up of biscuits or pastries, such as panettone with candied fruit and colomba di Pasqua with Lombardy almonds or Venetian pandoro with icing sugar. Torcetti are shortbread rings with honey from Valle d'Aosta. Prezniz, a Friulian snail-shaped cake made of puff pastry, is filled with dried fruit, chocolate and various spices.
There are many desserts such as tiramisù from Veneto or panna cotta from Piedmont, accompanied by a red fruit coulis. The sabayon(zabaione), an egg and wine mousse, as well as the spoon biscuits or savoiardi, also come from Piedmont. The city of Turin is considered the Italian capital of chocolate and is the birthplace of the sublime gianduja, a cocoa-hazelnut cream, similar to Nutella. The Ferrero company was founded in the region. This paste is used to make gianduiotto, a melt-in-the-mouth chocolate bite, and the delicious torta gianduia.
In the German-speaking regions of Trentino-Alto Adige, strudel or fritelle de mele (apple fritters) are served. And don't forget the kirchtagskrapfen, a crispy fried turnover filled with poppy seeds and jam. Finally, the zelten is a more or less dense cake, richly filled with dried fruit, flavoured with grappa and served at Christmas.
Coffee in Italy is a real institution. In fact, it was a native of Piedmont, Alfonso Bialetti, born in Omegna on the shores of Lake Orta, who created the famous Moka Express, which has sold nearly 200 million copies since its creation in 1933. In addition to espresso, macchiato and cappuccino, in Turin you can try the marocchino, a mini-cappuccino with cocoa powder.
Between wines and beers
Despite a sometimes harsh climate, the sunny valleys of the Italian Alps offer the right conditions to produce quality wines. In Piedmont, for example, the vineyards of Valli Ossolane and Valsusa (barbera and dolcetto) flourish for lovers of reds. The Valle d'Aosta is not to be outdone, either, with red wines (gamay, müller-thurgan, petit rouge, pinot noir) or whites (chardonnay, moncenise, morgex, pinot gris). Trentino-Alto Adige offers its share of reds (marzemino, merlot; guncina, caldaro) and whites (nosiola, vernaccia; sylvaner, terlano, traminer), which are quite honourable. In the Lombardy Alps we can mention the Valtellina rosso, rosato and bianco. In the Veneto region you can discover the bardolino produced between Verona and Lake Garda. Lovers of sweet white wines will be pleased to discover the Colli Orientali del Friuli Picolit, produced in Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Northern Italy is also home to the powerful grappa, a grape marc brandy with an average strength of 42°, named after Bassano del Grappa in the Veneto region. Vermouth - a type of wine mutated by the addition of brandy -, with a strength of 16-18°, originates in the Turin region. Beer production in this part of the country is well established. The Forst brewery in Merano in South Tyrol was founded in 1857, but some breweries - now defunct - are thought to have started brewing as early as the 10th century. Among the local beers are Forst, of course, but also Peroni, Splügen, Dreher, Poretti, Menabrea, Nastro Azzurro, Wührer and Birra Moretti.
