AUNTIE PASTA: Turin's Culinary Gold

TURIN, Italy – With the sky still an early morning pink, crates of dark green artichokes, yellow pears and fragrant fennel are stacked wily nily, cluttering the streets as fruit and vegetable vendors at Turin’s great food market, Porta Palazzo set up their market stalls for the day. Nearby, brawny butchers in white coats and blood stained aprons, pull large beef hindquarters and pork carcasses from the back of rumbling refrigerated trucks and hang them on large hooks behind their counters in the immense glass and wrought iron market building.

Porto Palazzo Market

But even before the butchers start to sharpen their knives and price cards are stuck into the produce boxes, local chefs are on the prowl, menu ideas running through their minds. How many crates of Swiss chard do you have? Never mind, how about these beets, will you have more tomorrow? The day’s menu depends on what they choose. The only thing certain is that the food they’ll prepare is unlike any you have ever eaten in Italy.

Just ask Turin native Chef Roberto Donna of Washington, D.C.’s four-star Galileo restaurant (more about Chef Donna in the March 11, 2010 Auntie Pasta: Bruciolo) He knows first-hand how creative the chefs in his hometown can be. He’ll also tell you that with such incredibly voluptuous and seductive ingredients as white truffles, porcini mushrooms, Piedmont beef, fresh brook trout, and an abundance of game, no one is ever really surprised when first time visitors can barely keep from swooning at the dinner table.



The Vast Selection Boggles the Mind

In part it’s the luck of the location. Turin is in the extreme northwest corner of Italy, in the province of Piedmont. But while Piedmont, home of the Slow Food movement, has become a Mecca for food lovers, Turin seems to hover below the radar line. As gourmands track elusive white truffles in Alba and frolic through the vineyards of Montferrato, the tables of Turin are largely ignored.

Turinese cuisine is not like the food in any other part of Italy. For one, chefs tend to reach for butter and lard rather than olive oil. Olive oil has only been used in local cooking since the 1950’s, brought north by southerners who immigrated to Turin to work in the automobile industry. And more than in any other part of Italy, local dishes incorporate a variety of savory sauces.

Truffles Big and Small, Black and White

Another difference is that appetizers play a much larger role here than in other parts of Italy, both in the size of the portions and in their sheer creativity. In Chef Donna’s cookbook, ‘Cooking in Piedmont’, he presents twenty-six recipes for appetizers including such non-appetizer sounding dishes as rabbit salad, stuffed roasted peppers, veal tongue in a spicy red sauce, a duck liver flan and spicy polenta served with fried quail eggs.

Probably the best known Piedmontese appetizers are bagna cauda –literally a hot bath -of oil, garlic, anchovies and butter served as a dipping sauce for winter vegetables, and fonduta (from the French fondre, to melt) a fondue of creamy Fontina cheese flavored with white truffles. Truffles are used extensively in Turinese cooking, and when they are in season – between November and February – they are liberally showered over just about everything.

Ravioli del Plin

In a traditional Italian meal, appetizers are followed by a primo, usually pasta. Two of Turin’s most popular dishes are tajarin, golden egg noodles served with melted butter and a shaving of white truffles, and Chef Donna’s favorite, ravioli del plin, (del plin means to pinch in Turinese dialect) often served with a reduced veal stock and a veil of grated parmesan cheese. It is interesting that the Turinese prefer fresh egg pastas, rather than pastasciutta, dried pasta, that is so popular throughout the rest of Italy

The best rice in Italy, some say the world, grows in the wide flat lands between Milan and Turin so in addition to pasta you’ll find rich and creamy risotto, riso all piemontese, rice served with meat sauce, and riso e ceci, a rice and chick pea dish on menus. Other non-pasta choices are chestnut flour gnocchi served with a fonduta di Castelmagno (Castelmagno is a town southwest of Turin that is famous for its cheese), or baccalà (salted cod), served with saffron flavored polenta. And then, as the Italians say, Coraggio! – courage! It’s time to move on to the main course.

Bollito Misto

The city’s signature dish is bollito misto, a mix of boiled meats served with three sauces: bagnet verd, a parsley sauce spiced up with anchovy, garlic and olive oil; bagnet ross, crushed tomatoes, garlic and hot peppers, and saussa d’avije, a mustard sauce sweetened with honey and crushed nuts. In the past, traditionalists insisted that bollito misto contain seven vegetables, seven types of meat, and seven types of ornamenti, i.e. tongue, tail and dangly bits, but today the more exotic dangly bits are slowly being eased out. On the menu at least once a week in most Turin restaurants, the boiled meat dish is served from a rolling stainless steel cart, each meat kept warm in its own broth filled compartment, and you can ask for the meats that you want.

Other classics include brasato al Barolo, Piedmont beef slowly braised in Barolo wine, and finanziera, a stew of cock’s crests, chicken livers, veal, peas and porcini mushrooms. In the fall and winter, you’ll find venison, roe deer (a small European deer), quail and even tagliata di renna, slices of reindeer meat, on some menu, along with beef and veal, free range poultry and freshly caught fish instead of fish farm fish.

Elegant Dining in Turin

In a country where no culinary rock has been left unturned, it’s nice to know that there is still a small corner where you can find new taste experiences. The food in Turin may just change the way you look at Italian food forever.

In next week’s Auntie Pasta post you’ll find a preview of what’s on the menu at some of Turin’s restaurants, and some insider tips by Chef Donna as to the best Turinese dishes to try.

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LIFE: This Italian Life

SARONNO, Italy - As I sat on my balcony this week with my feet up, sipping lemonade, I started thinking about the things I love about living in Italy. I realized it wasn’t one big thing that captured my heart, but many little things. If you think about it, it’s never the big things that draw people to something. I mean did you ever hear anyone say they pulled up stakes and moved here because of the Coliseum in Rome, or that they simply couldn’t bear to live another day without the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Me neither.

Trevi Fountain, Rome

Maybe it started when I lived in Rome. Every Saturday I would leave my apartment on the Via della Vite, cross Via del Tritone and go up Via della Stamperia to a small street market near the Trevi Fountain. At a certain point I would be greeted by a John Hamm look alike who would smile and bow ever so slightly and say: “Buon Giorno Contessa.” With no real language skills I would stammer something back and continue on my way, but I ask you, who would not want to start their day like that?

I love the way Italians live with their art.

“Oh this, yes, well yes it is a 16th century bla bla bla.” And then the conversation about where to go for pizza continues for there are many incredible masterpieces stuck here, there and everywhere that are a normal part of everyday life.

A Green Grocer in Puglia

I love my green grocer when she tells someone looking for zucchini in January to come back in April. Of course you can find zucchini in January but zucchini grown who knows where and tasting like who knows what.

I love the fact that Italian orthopedic surgeons go to Africa every year and perform hundreds of operations on little African kids, free of charge and they don’t tell anybody about it. I love that there are still church missions in this world staffed by Italians giving their all in the name of humanity.

I love the way hospital patients drift down to the hospital bar in their pj’s for a coffee or a grappa and a smoke. I love the fact that hospitals want your friends and relatives to be with you and help you when you are sick. After all, what are friends and relatives for?

Friends Forever

And speaking of friends, the day my friends Tracy and Daniele got married in Savona there was a wicked storm and the road to the restaurant where the reception was to be held was closed. That meant no reception and that would never do. We talked the barman into opening the bar in the Savona City Hall, selling us some champagne, giving us glasses and throwing in some nibbles. Instant party. Try that in NYC.

I love the shiny brass name plates on the buildings. You rarely see names scribbled on scraps of paper stuck between two pieces of plastic to indicate this month’s occupant is….

I love the absolute differences between the sexes. I love the way Italian men look at women – even if it is a little unnerving at times. I love the way Italian women start talking faster and pull, ever so slightly on their husband’s arm whenever a pretty girl walks by. He can look, but why make it easy for him.

One Way to Keep His Attention

I love the bars, the big bars, the little mom and pop bars, especially the old historic bars in the center of most cities. To sit and have a coffee in the Café’ San Carlo in Torino, or Covo in Milan is to be part of the drama being played out in those places at that time.

I love the sense of history that seeps through your shoes as walk down the streets. Quarto dei Mille? Oh, it’s called that because that is where Garibaldi set off for Sicily with his band of one thousand Red Shirts in his drive to unify Italy.

I love the names of the streets. Via Gabriele D’Annunzio, Vicolo Simon Boccanegra, Piazza Camillo di Cavour. It’s like walking around in a history book. Piazza Savonarola? Oh yeah, he’s the 15th Dominican friar and prophet of doom that they burned after they hung him back in 1498.”

I love the fact that Italians make up the rules as they go along. I remember forgetting my passport on a trip up to Switzerland and reporting it to the Italian police when they came on board the train in the border town of Chiasso. “Signora,” they said, “you are leaving Italy, that is a problem for the Swiss border guards.”

Don't Worry, Be Happy

“Yes,” I said, “but on Sunday, when I have to come back? I have to go to work on Monday.”

“Ah, Signora, you worry too much. Just sit down, be calm and pretend we never had this conversation.”

So I did. I continued up to Switzerland, had a great time with my friends, came back into Italy, no passport, no hassle, no problem.

Yes there have been problems over the years, mostly having to do with trying to get a work visa, but there was never any doubt in my mind that I had made the right choice. I knew from the beginning I was in the right place, and while this isn’t a new list, it is still all true.

A version of this article was published in The Informer Magazine, No. 103.

AUNTIE PASTA: If You Can Make it There

SARONNO, Italy - The date to mark on your calendar is August 31, 2010. The place: New York. The event: Eataly, New York is opening at 200 Fifth Avenue, between 23rd and 24th Street in downtown Manhattan. It’s no small deal. Oscar Farinetti and his partners have invested over 25 million dollars in the project. No one is worried about their investment, however, as Farinetti is the guy who conceived and developed the now very successful idea of Eataly.

Oscar Farinetti on 5th Ave. NYC in front of entrance to Eataly

Within the 5,000 square meters of sprawling store space you’ll be able to buy the best food Italy has to offer. You’ll find Piedmontese beef raised under the watchful eye of veterinarian Sergio Capaldo. Capaldo hovers over his herds like an Italian mamma, making sure they are always well fed, comfortable and happy, three elements Italians believe makes for better tasting meat.

Super Star Pastry Chef Luca Monersino

You’ll also find fresh fish, specialty cold meats like San Daniele ham from Parma, loads of vegetables, all types of bread, artisan pastas and rice from Italy’s rice belt, honest to goodness Parmesan from Parma and other wonderful Italian cheeses, creamy, delicious gelato, a dazzling array of chocolate from the Master chocolate makers of Torino, and a pastry shop managed by Luca Montersino, the ex Executive Director of the Etoile Institute of Culinary Arts, and the youngest superstar on the Italian pastry planet.

To go along with your pastries you can sip coffee at the Lavazza coffee bar. And if you need something more substantial you’ll find food counters scattered throughout the shop where you can rest your feet and restore your spirit.  But that’s not all. There will be no less than six restaurants, and the restaurant on the top floor is part of the famous Mario Batali chain of restaurants which includes Babba and Del Posto, both in New York City. Also on the top floor you’ll find a fully stocked wine cellar and a birreria where you will be able to buy not only beer made by Matterino (Teo) Musso, Italy’s premier artisan beer maker, but specialty beers from around the world. And did I mention the bookstore? That’s in there somewhere too.

When Only the Best Will Do - Choose Italian

I’m happy that Italian food is enjoying such success outside of Italy. For one thing it lets people taste genuine Italian food products instead of Parmesan cheese made in Wisconsin, or horrors of all horrors, Spanish and Tunisian olive oil sold as “Made in Italy”.

The Wonderful World of Eataly in Torino

And once you’ve tasted the real thing, and I'm not just talking Italian olive oil, you’ll understand why I could easily move bed into Eataly in Torino and live out the rest of my days eating my way up and down the aisles and gleefully writing the food page of this blog.

First Torino, now New York, what I want to know is what's wrong with Milan? I know this is not a major center for haute cuisine, but still and all we do cook and eat. Okay, I admit it. I’m jealous. I want a big, impressive, massive Eataly of my own and I have the ideal spot, right here in little old Saronno. Farinetti, call me.