A TERRITORY IS DISCOVERED ON THE PLATE AND IN THE GLASS

From mountain to table

“The chef who comes out of the kitchen and tells you not about the technique he used for a dish, but where the product came from, messes you up a bit and, at the very least, generates in his guests at least some reflections.” To tell you about Canavese eno-gastronomic we take our cue from the words of a young chef from the valleys of Cuneo, Juri Chiotti.

Our cuisine draws, as much as possible, from local raw materials from small farmers, small cattle and pig farmers: neither agriculture nor animal husbandry is intensive here.

Tome, tomini and butter between tradition and authenticity

From the mountain pastures come the tomes, more or less matured. The herds leave their barn in early June and return in early October: 4 months in which the cattle graze grasses they find at high altitude, transferring distinctive flavors and aromas into the milk. Added to this is the skill of a Valchiusella cheese refiner who knows how to make each cheese unique and enhance each producer.

From the lowland farms, on the other hand, comes the milk to make the traditional tomini cheese, fresh and creamy, and the butter used in our typical pastries, which, you will notice, is not skimped on. Some goat cheese is also present on our tables.

Peasant traditions to enjoy

Vegetables are grown just about everywhere, and some are the very basic ingredient for our typical dishes: bagna caoda, for example, which should be enjoyed with raw and boiled vegetables, such as cabbage, cauliflower, fennel, peppers, potatoes, ciapinabò (Jerusalem artichokes); tofeja, which uses beans (the original one uses the piattella canavesana from Cortereggio, a Slow Food presidium); capunet, which uses savoy cabbage leaves to make meat-filled rolls (the best savoy cabbages are grown in Montalto Dora, where a dedicated festival is also held in November).

The flours produced are mainly corn, from the varieties of Ancient Piedmontese Corn grown in the lowland countryside and ground by local mills: they are the basis for cooking polenta, making galette and the typical “paste ‘d melia.”

It is with these premises that we then take you by the throat, with desserts, for example: Nocciolini from Chivasso, torcetti from Aglié, Torta 900 from Ivrea, canestrelli from Borgofranco, Montanaro and Tonengo from Mazzé, Biscotti della Duchessa from San Giorgio, soft amaretti from Castellamonte.

Flavors of lake, land and cellar

Before moving on to the wines, which are essential to accompany what we have described so far, let us tell you a little more about our freshwater fish, meats, and sausages.

Whitefish from Lake Viverone, salmon trout from the Orco Valley are the ingredients for dishes with delicate flavors; Piedmontese beef for roasts and braised meats; and, finally, our “salampatata”: do you prefer a cookbook description, or do you want to start imagining it spread on warm bread croutons? Or, after a light drying, sliced on a cutting board? Or, again, broken up in a pan ready for an omelet worthy of a “marenda sinoira”? The choice is yours!

Stories of Vines and Winemakers

When it comes to wines, abandoning for once our trademark modesty, we really don’t lack for anything!

We have one of the most versatile whites in Italy, Erbaluce, a native grape variety that is vinified still, sparkling and passito. Its history is even rooted in the legend of the nymph Albaluce but, with less poetry, its roots are instead in soils of complex geological texture, the result of the great Balteo Glacier that, as it melted, brought here gigantic quantities of rocks and soil with an acidic composition. A wine for every occasion, Piedmont’s first white grape DOC, now a DOCG.

We have Carema, made from “picotener” nebbiolo grapes, another DOC, also dating back to 1967.

We have pure Barbera and Nebbiolo, Canavese Rosso and then precious little “goodies” like Neretto di San Giorgio.

a centuries-old plot

About viticulture we would like to tell you many things: for example, that the vine is not cultivated, but “raised,” and already this evokes the dedication, love, and passion of the winemakers; for example, that Erbaluce is traditionally developed using the pergola, generating rows that look like tunnels, with clusters hanging lush and elongated (of course, vineyard work is done manually and small plots will never be able to compete in the globalized economy: but who ever said that only trade wars should be fought?).

We would like to tell you that the practice of drying the Erbaluce grapes required large suitable spaces, in the attics of the houses, so the trellises were stacked in bunkers, about half a meter apart; what better way, then, for obvious economy of management, than to use the same for raising silkworms as well? (October-March for the grapes, summer for the worms): that’s why the houses in many towns in the Canavese area (and Caluso is an obvious example), are very tall, a logical consequence of the elevation of the roofs made to create high, well-ventilated attics.

Vineyards and Wineries: Experiences to Taste

We would like to tell you about the heroic viticulture of Carema, made up of small plots of land carved out in terraces along the mountain slopes through a patient and laborious construction of dry stone walls; small vines also arranged in the pergola style, supported by characteristic cylindrical pillars built with stone chips and wooden poles and beams: an ancient technique that provides maximum sunlight for the vines, accumulating heat during the day and releasing it at night, when temperatures drop, to preserve against late frosts and aid ripening before the harvest.

Imagine how much wisdom there is to pass on: the best thing is to be told these things by the protagonists, along the itineraries in Canavese of the Royal Route of Turin Wines; visit them in their cellars, have a guided tasting, walk among the rows, sit on some of the Big Benches among the vines to appreciate all that you then find in the glass in your hands.