Region

Piedmont

Piedmont has the most formal, French-influenced cooking in Italy: hand-chopped raw beef, tiny pinched agnolotti, bagna càuda, wine-braised beef, and the white truffle of Alba. Above all of it sit the Langhe hills and their wines, Barolo and Barbaresco.

The name means at the foot of the mountains. The Alps enclose Piedmont on three sides, from Monviso to Monte Rosa, leaving the Po plain in the middle (with the rice paddies of Vercelli and Novara) and, to the south-east, the hills of the Langhe, Roero and Monferrato, made a UNESCO site in 2014. Turin was the Savoy capital and then the first capital of unified Italy, and the food shows it: butter rather than oil, structured sauces, French-school pastry, chocolate (gianduia was created in 1865 by stretching scarce cocoa with local hazelnuts), and the invention of both vermouth and the aperitivo hour.

Beef here is close to a religion. The Piedmontese breed carries a double-muscling mutation that makes the meat exceptionally lean and tender, which is why it is eaten raw: carne cruda all'albese is hand-chopped with a knife and dressed only with oil, lemon and salt. The counterpart is bollito misto, seven boiled cuts and seven trimmings served with a rank of sauces: parsley bagnet, tomato bagnet, and cognà, a grape-must chutney. Vitello tonnato, a Piedmontese invention, is cold veal under a tuna, anchovy and caper sauce, and in the older version contains no mayonnaise at all.

The white truffle of Alba cannot be farmed. It is hunted at night with dogs in a band of woodland across the Langhe and Roero, and its price moves weekly depending on how much rain fell in August. It is shaved raw over tajarin (very thin egg noodles made with up to forty yolks per kilo of flour) or over a fried egg. Around it are the Tonda Gentile hazelnuts of the Alta Langa, planted where grapes would not ripen, and the cheeses: Castelmagno aged in Val Grana caves, Bra, Raschera, Toma, and Robiola di Roccaverano, one of Italy's few protected pure goat cheeses.

Wine organises everything else. Nebbiolo makes Barolo across eleven communes and Barbaresco across three, both capable of ageing for decades; Barbera is the everyday red of Asti and Monferrato; Dolcetto ripens earlier and is drunk young. The whites are Gavi and Erbaluce, the sweet wine is Moscato d'Asti, and there is now a serious traditional-method sparkling in the Alta Langa. Bagna càuda, meanwhile, is a trade-route fossil: garlic, oil and salted anchovies, in a region with no coast, carried over the Maritime Alps from Liguria along the old salt roads.

Piedmont · PIE

PIE

Signature dishes

Vitello tonnato (cold veal in tuna and caper sauce)
Carne cruda all'albese (hand-chopped raw beef)
Agnolotti del plin (tiny pinched filled pasta)
Tajarin al tartufo (thin egg noodles with white truffle)
Bagna càuda (warm garlic and anchovy dip for vegetables)
Brasato al Barolo (beef braised in red wine)
Bollito misto (seven boiled cuts with sauces)
Bonet (baked chocolate and amaretti custard)

Foods from here

PATAgnolottiAgnolotti are Piedmont's stuffed pasta: thin egg dough around a filling of roasted meat, not ricotta…SweetsAmarettiAmaretti are flourless almond cookies whose bitter edge comes from apricot kernels, not almonds. The…DOPBaroloBarolo is one hundred per cent Nebbiolo from eleven villages in the Langhe hills of Piedmont, aged a…SweetsBonetBonet is the baked custard of Piedmont's Langhe hills: eggs, milk, bitter cocoa, crushed amaretti an…Cured meatsPiedmontese Fattened OxBue grasso is a castrated Piedmontese ox, fattened slowly for three or four years to well over a tho…DOPCastelmagnoCastelmagno DOP is a crumbly, sharp alpine cheese made in just three villages of the Valle Grana in …Oil and preservesGiardinieraGiardiniera means two very different jars. In Italy it is a mild mix of vegetables pickled in wine v…DOPGorgonzolaGorgonzola DOP is Italy's blue cheese, made from pasteurised cow's milk in Lombardy and Piedmont. It…DOPGrana PadanoGrana Padano DOP is a hard, cooked cow's milk cheese from the Po Valley, aged a minimum of nine mont…Pasta and breadGrissiniGrissini are Turin's breadsticks: bread reduced to almost pure crust, dried in the oven until it sna…IGPPiedmont HazelnutNocciola Piemonte IGP is a single cultivar, the Tonda Gentile Trilobata of the Langhe hills: round, …DOPOssolanoOssolano DOP comes from the Ossola valleys, the most alpine corner of Piedmont, wedged between Switz…DOPRascheraRaschera is one of very few Italian cheeses made in two shapes, square and round: the square one exi…Vegetables and fruitCarnaroli RiceCarnaroli is the risotto rice with the highest amylose content: it sheds enough starch to build a cr…CheeseRobiolaRobiola is a family of soft young cheeses from north-west Italy rather than a single cheese. The one…Cured meatsSalsiccia di BraSalsiccia di Bra is the only Italian sausage made from veal instead of pork. The butchers of Bra obt…Pasta and breadTajarinTajarin are the Piedmontese answer to tagliolini: hand-cut egg noodles barely a millimetre and a hal…Vegetables and fruitWhite truffleThe Italian white truffle, Tuber magnatum Pico, is the most expensive edible fungus on earth: 2,000 …PATTesta in CassettaTesta in cassetta is pig's head simmered until tender, boned while hot, seasoned with spices and pre…DOPToma PiemonteseIn Piedmont, toma is not a cheese: it is a category. Dozens of different valley cheeses go by that n…

Cities

City guideTurinTurin eats like a former royal capital: veal in tuna sauce, tiny pinched agnolotti, hot anchovy-and-…

When to go

From mid-October to early December, Alba holds its international white truffle fair, which coincides with the Nebbiolo harvest and open cellars across the Langhe. September brings the Douja d'Or wine fair at Asti, and late summer the pepper fair at Carmagnola and the hazelnut festival at Cortemilia. Bagna càuda is autumn and winter food, because it needs the pale cardoon of Nizza Monferrato, which is only cut after the first frosts. In December, Carrù runs its fat-ox fair, the market that opens boiled-meat season. Spring means Cherasco snails, Santena asparagus and the first goat robiole.

Frequently asked

What is Piedmont known for?

Piedmont, in Italy's north-west corner below the Alps, is known for the white truffle of Alba, for Barolo and Barbaresco, and for the most formal cooking in the country: hand-chopped raw beef, tiny pinched agnolotti and vitello tonnato. Turin invented both vermouth and the aperitivo hour.

When is white truffle season in Alba?

Mid-October to early December, which is when Alba runs its international truffle fair. White truffle cannot be farmed: it is hunted at night with dogs in woodland across the Langhe and Roero, and the price moves week by week depending on how much rain fell the previous August.

Is it safe to eat raw beef in Piedmont?

It is the local speciality. Carne cruda all'albese uses Piedmontese cattle, a breed carrying a double-muscling mutation that makes the meat very lean, hand-chopped with a knife and dressed only with oil, lemon and salt. Order it somewhere that butchers locally, and eat it the day it is served.

What is the difference between Barolo and Barbaresco?

Both are made from Nebbiolo in neighbouring parts of the Langhe. Barolo covers eleven communes, Barbaresco three, and Barbaresco is generally a little lighter in frame, with shorter minimum ageing before release. Both can last decades. Barbera, by contrast, is the everyday red, softer and ready sooner.

What food should I bring home from Piedmont?

Tonda Gentile hazelnuts from the Alta Langa, or gianduia paste, created in 1865 by stretching scarce cocoa with those same nuts. Add a jar of cognà, the grape-must chutney served with boiled meats, a wedge of Castelmagno, and a bottle of Barbera if Barolo is beyond the budget.