A TYPICAL MENU Some recipes for typical Piedmontese dishes

To keep our traditional flavours and gastronomic suggestions unchanged, we rely on the vivid memories of our Piedmontese grandparents. We spied on Clelia, Maria, Rina and Gianni in order to reveal and hand down the secrets and curiosities of their delicious dishes.

ANTIPAST (STARTERS)

If "well begun is half done"... the starters of the typical Turin meals are a promise of future delights for every palate. The large variety of dishes doesn't fear any comparison with all the other regional traditions: stuffed peppers (with bagna caôda, of course), raw meat salad, Russian salad, anchovies and ox-tongue in parsley sauce, meat and vegetables soused in vinegar, small omelettes, friciulin (small pieces of fried, sweet semolina), pork, donkey and goose salami, "tomini al verde" (fresh cheese in parsley sauce) and "vitello tonnato" (beef in mayonnaise sauce flavoured with tuna, capers and anchovies) just to mention a few examples.

Tomin Eletric for 4 people
Recipe by grandfather Gianni

. 8 small tomini, a particular kind of fresh cheese similar to cottage cheese
. parsley (a handful according to need)
. 1 clove of garlic
. 1 spoonful of vinegar
. extra-virgin olive oil (but according to the old recipe walnut oil should be used)
. salt and pepper
. 1 piece of chilli pepper Season the cheese with a little vinegar and a sprinkle of ground pepper.

Prepare the parsley sauce by chopping the parsley, the garlic and the chilli pepper; add a scant spoonful of tomato sauce and half a glass of oil, then add salt and pepper. Once the ingredients are well blended, pour the sauce over the tomini and let the dish stand for 24 hours, so that the cheese can absorb the delicate, but tasty flavour of the sauce.

The term eletric is referred to the hot aftertaste that the sauce leaves on the palate: the traditional definition tomin fort (strong), that points out the importance of the chilli pepper and the garlic, was replaced by tomin eletric at the beginning of the 20th century, when gas lighting was substituted by electric light.

Vitel tuné for 4 people
Recipe by grandmother Luisa

. 800 grams of silverside veal
. 2-3 hard boiled eggs
. 10 capers
. 5 fillets of anchovies
. 200 grams of tuna fish
. 1 carrot, 1 celery stick, 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic
. oil and balsamic vinegar

Boil the meat with the carrot, onion, celery, laurel, rosemary and cloves for about 3-4 hours so that it is fully flavoured. To make it even tastier you can add an anchovy cut into small pieces. In the meantime, prepare the sauce. Chop the hard boiled eggs, the anchovies, capers and tuna and thin them out with some oil. You will obtain a creamy sauce (a sort of enriched mayonnaise), which can be made softer by adding a little meat stock. Finally, before putting the sauce on the delicate slices of veal, pour a little balsamic vinegar to emphasize the taste.

THE KNIFE TEST

"Watch the cooking - informs Granny Luisa - the meat has neither to flake under the pressure of the knife nor be too tough, the slices have to be thin but, at the same time, firm".

BAGNA CAÔDA: A SEASONAL RITUAL

The symbol dish of the Piedmontese cuisine is eaten in a real seasonal ritual: the table companions sit around a special bowl, the diàn or padlòt,with a biova (the typical Piedmontese roll of bread) in one hand and a glass of good wine in the other, better if a full-bodied Barbera. As its name suggests (bagna caôda means hot sauce), it is necessary that its temperature is constantly kept very high. The scionfietta, a sort of heater put under the diàn (the bowl), enables it to remain constantly hot.
As an alternative,each table companion can taste the sauce using a small individual container heated by a candle, the scionfetìn, but this way of eating it is against the convivial aspect of the dish.

Bagna Caôda for 4-5 people
Recipe by all the grandparents

. 200 grams of salted anchovies (about 12)
. 3-4 cloves of garlic
. 200-250 grams of olive oil
. 40 grams of butter
. plenty of vegetables

In an earthenware pot add the oil, to be heated slowly, then add a mixture of chopped anchovies and garlic, until you obtain a liquid but not homogeneous sauce (be careful, don't let it fry!). Garlic is the basic ingredient of this recipe, but often its intense flavour is only for "tough men", as General Alfonso La Marmora said.
To prevent digestive problems, it is possible, during the preparation, to remove the "core" of the garlic and soak the cloves in cold water, or better, boil them in milk.The vegetables are the most enjoyable aspect of the dish. You can choose from the renowned cardoon grown in the area of Nizza Monferrato, the typical topinambur, turnips, potatoes, peppers, Savoy cabbages, carrots; but you can also use eggs and rennet apples.
The fresh vegetables, which can be either cut into thin strips or boiled, are arranged in dishes from which the guests help themselves and dip them directly into the sauce, in a lively and friendly atmosphere. The grand finale poses a further challenge for your stomach. Each guest should have a fresh egg in the bottom of the container which is then scrambled in order to mop the tasty leftovers of the sauce up with the other guests.

NEVER USE IT AS A SHOVEL

Our esteemed experts unanimously suggest: "There are no turns or strict rules to observe when you eat bagna caoda together, apart from one: dip only one piece of vegetable at a time and, above all, don't use it as a shovel ("mai fare palòt") to collect only the dense part of the sauce, leaving the remaining oil to the others!"

PINCHED AGNOLOTTI

The "agnolotti", typical of the Asti area, owe their name (plin) to the pinch made by three fingers (thumb, forefinger and middle finger) on the thin layer of homemade pasta in order to close the stuffing inside it, originally a compound made with leftovers of festive meals.

Plin agnolotti in gravy for 4 people
Recipe by grandmother Rina

. 500 grams of roast veal
. 500 grams of roast pork
. 2 rabbit legs
. celery, onions, laurel, rosemary and garlic
. 500 grams of spinach
. 1 nutmeg
. 3 eggs

Starting from the stuffing (coumàut), roast the meat with the vegetables and the stock, adding white wine in order to flavour the sauce that will be used afterwards to season the pasta. Cool the meat and mince it together with the spinach, previously cooked in butter, the eggs and a nutmeg. In the meantime prepare the dough with flour, eggs, oil and salt; roll it out and cut it into long, thin strips; then put the stuffing on them at regular intervals, close them with the plin technique and separate the pasta squares with a pastry wheel.

Gran fritto misto alla piemontese for 4-5 people
Recipe by grandfather Gianni

. Meat: sliced veal, sausages, lamb or kid chops, veal or pork liver, lamb giblets, veal kidney, frogs, brains, pig's trotters and beef marrow.
. Vegetables,fruits and sweet ingredients: aubergines, courgettes, courgette flowers, mushrooms, apples, macaroons, pieces of semolina pudding.
. Coating: flour, eggs, milk,bread-crumbs and salt.

The birth of this rich dish is connected to the saying, typical of rural people: "Dal crin as campa via gniente" ("don't waste any part of the pig").
In fact the fritura mescia (a fried dish) was originally prepared when the pig was butchered. This dish was suitable for festive meals and was based on black puddings, lungs (fricassà bianca) and liver (fricassà neira). New ingredients have been added over the years.
After cleaning and cutting the meat and the vegetables, and after softening the macaroons in some milk, you are ready for the coating. Since the ingredients have to be covered with flour, and some of them also put in a batter (made of flour,milk and egg) or in bread-crumbs, you have to check the cooking time and the oil temperature carefully.
Fry in olive oil, that you can enrich using some butter. The golden brown colour will show you the right cooking point.

FEW PIECES AT A TIME

From his seat at the head of the table, grandfather Gianni recommends: "the secret of a good fritto misto is to serve it very hot, bringing a few pieces at a time repeatedly, so that the meal is longer and each course is tasted more intensely". Another "trick" of our grannies, consists in using a traditional iron frying pan, according to tradition.

Boiled meat
Recipe by greatgrandmother Clelia

The secret consists in simmering 14 different cuts of meat using 4 different pots: one for the beef, one for the pork, one for the calf's head, tail and tongue and the fourth for the loin. The most typical sauce used is bagnet verd a green sauce prepared by chopping parsley, anchovies, capers and garlic, of course. These ingredients are finally amalgamated using a hard-boiled egg.

THE MAGNIFICENT 7

Number 7 is often present in the recipe of "bollito".You have to use seven prime cuts of meat (the inner part of hindquarters, brisket, rump,"scaramella", "tenerone", "cappello del prete" and "copertina di petto") and seven cheaper ones (1 calf's head, 1 calf's tail, 1 ox's tongue, 1 pig's trotter, 1 "cotechino" - a kind of big boiled pork sausage - 1 small hen and 1 loin of pork) garnished with 7 traditional sauces

Bonêt for 4 people
Recipe by grandmother Maria

. 4 eggs
. 1 tablespoonful of sugar for each egg
. 1 cup of milk for each egg (or 2, it depends on how thick you want the mixture)
. 2 tablespoonfuls of dark cocoa powder
. 15 Piedmontese crushed macaroons
. the peel of half a lemon
. 1 small glass of rum (a "cicchet" in the local dialect)

Heat the 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar in a bun tin - the traditional one is made of aluminium - until it browns, thus forming caramel and let it cool. In the meantime, beat the 4 egg whites in a bowl (grilèt) and add the yolks. Then add the remaining ingredients. Pour the mixture into the bun tin and cover with a normal lid: grandmother Maria says that in this way the mixture cooks faster. Now cook it in a bain-marie, putting the bun tin in a pot with little water, so that it won't overboil. Now overturn the bun tin on a dish and serve cool. Advice for people with a sweet tooth: taste it with plenty of caramel.

THE FORK TEST

Our grandparents didn't pay attention to the cooking time, but they used a very effective "empiric" method: they would prick the bonêt with a fork and if this was dry when removed, their "bonêt" was ready. The result is a bun-shaped blancmange.

...BREAD-STICKS INCLUDED

These crunchy bread sticks - according to the legend - were born at the court of the Savoys. They say the court baker, Antonio Brunero, invented them on the order of His Majesty's doctor. It was the year 1684 and Vittorio Amedeo, one of the children of the Savoy family and future king, didn't enjoy good health.A light and digestible type of bread was needed. So the "ghersino", a smaller "ghersa" (long and thin bread), was created.
There are two famous types, "stirato" and "rubatà" (hand rolled). The recipe is easy: water, flour, oil and yeast.