{"id":83,"date":"2012-07-07T07:54:10","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T11:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wherearemomanddad.com\/?page_id=83"},"modified":"2021-06-18T18:12:45","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T22:12:45","slug":"2010-piemonte","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/wherearemomanddad.com\/?page_id=83","title":{"rendered":"2010 Piedmont Food and Wine Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Father\u2019s Day, 2010 was Mom and Dad\u2019s first day on our food and wine tour of Italy\u2019s Piedmont region.\u00a0 We met our old friend and tour guide, Marcello from Bluone Tours (www.Bluone.com) in Turin.\u00a0 This was supposed to be a college graduation gift to Tony, but Good News, Tony was promoted to manager and Bad News Tony couldn\u2019t get the time off.\u00a0 Poor Tony\u2026 Not to worry.\u00a0 Mom and Dad decided to celebrate anyway.\u00a0 After registration in the Victoria Hotel and a stroll around the city.\u00a0 Mom, Marcello, and I had dinner at the Taverna dell\u2019Oca (Duck Tavern).\u00a0 We enjoyed a light Proseco, followed by appetizers of fois gras, and what I would call beef sashimi.\u00a0 Apparently Piedmont is known for this appetizer of finely shaved raw beef.\u00a0 It was pretty tasty.\u00a0 We shared a bottle of Verduna Pelaverga 2009 with the appetizers.\u00a0 This is a very light red wine which went very well with our lightly flavored appetizers.\u00a0 For our first course, Mom had homemade pasta and asparagus in butter sauce and Marcello and I had vegetable agnielotti in a vegetable sauce.\u00a0 Mom had roasted quail wrapped in very thin dough as her second course, and Marcello and I had beef braised in dulcetto wine and steamed asparagus with a parmigiano cream sauce (running a special on asparagus I guess).\u00a0 We shared a 2005 Barolo with the second course.\u00a0 Dessert was a sampling of coffee pannacotta (coffee flavored flan), chocolate and pear cake, and a pear tart.\u00a0 Dinner started a 8 PM and we didn\u2019t roll out of the restaurant until 11 PM.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Day 2 started with a walking tour of Turin with our lovely tour guide, Laura.\u00a0 It is a shame that in the US, the only Italian history that we learn deals primarily with Rome and Florence.\u00a0 Turin has much more to offer than the \u201cShroud\u201d (which was not on display during our visit).\u00a0 The city indeed has a very rich and interesting past.\u00a0 The original inhabitants of the area called themselves the Torini which in their dialect means \u201chill people\u201d\u00a0 during the Roman occupation, the Romans mistakenly thought the inhabitants called themselves the Taurini as in Taurus the bull, so the Romans associated the town with the bull which became its mascot.\u00a0 After the fall of Rome, Turin and the Piedmont area were taken over by the French Savoy family and turned Turin into a major commercial force in Europe in the 18th century.\u00a0 The Savoys were very liberal and progressive politically.\u00a0 Cavour, political master of the unification of Italy and Garabaldi, military master of the unification were contemporaries of that political era.\u00a0 Turin became so commercially and politically successful that Turin was actually the first capital city of Italy after the unification.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From Turin we drove south to Dogliani, in the Barolo wine region.\u00a0 What a beautiful area!\u00a0 The Poderi (estates) Luigi Einaudi (originally owed by Italy\u2019s first president before he became president) will be our home base for the rest of the trip.\u00a0 Marcello could not have picked a better place.\u00a0 The villas of the estate overlook the hills of the Barolo and Dulcetto region and the Alps in the distance.\u00a0 This is a working winery of 120 hectares of vineyards (what the heck is a hectare?) making Barolo and Dulcetto wines.\u00a0 I\u2019m thinking that we\u2019ll get a chance to taste some pretty interesting wines here.\u00a0 We had dinner at the Ca\u2019 Del Lupo Restaurant on top of another hill in Albese.\u00a0 Mom does the cooking and son Salvatore is the host.\u00a0 For an aperitivo we shared a bottle of sparkling Arnaise wine and chicken pate.\u00a0 Appetizers consisted of\u00a0 proscuitto with one of the sweetest melons we have ever tasted (Mom) and roasted peppers with basil pesto (Dad).\u00a0 Mom had tiny ravioli stuffed with radicio and walnuts and I had little gnocchi in a light tomato and basil sauce as our pasta course.\u00a0 Mom and I both had the restaurant\u2019s signature dish as our main course; roast rabbit with a side of roast potato and zucchini.\u00a0 Our wine was a 2006 Barbera di Alba wine.\u00a0 This was a very full-bodied red with low tannins and a color so rich that it appeared to be velvet.\u00a0 Dessert was a pastry of vanilla cake with light cr\u00e8me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Day 3 OH MIEN GUT!!!!!! Today we started the eating extravaganza in earnest!\u00a0 The day started with a tour of the Fontanafredda Winery.\u00a0 This winery was started in the 1850\u2019s and makes about 12 regional varieties of wine including reds, whites, and sparkling reds and whites.\u00a0 The lovely Serena gave us a great educational tour of the winery.\u00a0 (Tony, she\u2019s 25, beautiful, incredibly knowledgeable about wine and best of all\u2026Italian!).\u00a0 From the winery, we traveled to the town of Sinio (population 500) where we learned about making honey from the town\u2019s mayor who is a prize winning beekeeper and tasted his delicious homemade Dulcetto wine.\u00a0 We had a \u201clight\u201d lunch and a bottle of dulcetto at a small restaurant in downtown Sinio owned by the lovely Zina who is Romanian by the way!\u00a0 We started with prosciutto and melon, followed by boiled veal slices, and then a pasta dish of meat ravioli in sage and butter sauce, which lead to the main course of sliced roasted pork loin in cream sauce.\u00a0 For dessert we enjoyed chocolate Bunet which is close to flourless chocolate cake infused with rum.\u00a0 All homemade by Zina!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After a 15 minute nap, we headed to the agriturismo \u201cLa Pieve\u201d run by Antonia and Giovani Peyro for a cooking lesson and dinner.\u00a0 La Pieve is a renovated villa with church attached that dates back to the 7th century AD.\u00a0 Our cooking class and dinner included appetizers of lard and prosciutto, followed by two anchovy appetizers, and the tuna mousse that we made in the class with which we drank a sweet and dry sparkling wine of the region.\u00a0 The first course was Tarjin langaroli in ragu.\u00a0 Tarjin is a pasta dish which is made with a lot of egg yoke to the point that the dough is very firm.\u00a0 The second course was braised sliced pork loin sprinkled with grated hazelnuts and roast potatoes on the side.\u00a0 We drank a bottle or two of dulcetto with these dishes.\u00a0 For dessert, we made another chocolate Bunet and drank a glass or two of grappa and nochino.\u00a0 All homemade!\u00a0 Needless to say, we rolled into bed again tonight.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Day 4 RUB MY BELLYYYYY!\u00a0 This was the second day of \u201clight eating\u201d.\u00a0 I guess Marcello decided that we needed to work off a couple of pounds from the last 3 days of eating so he arranged for a 5 mile truffle hunt with Giovanni Manchiero from the \u201cUniversity of Truffle hunting dogs\u201d.\u00a0 After a warm stroll through the hills of Roddi and catching about a dozen illusive black truffles, we headed back to Giovanni\u2019s house where his Mom had another \u201clight\u201d lunch and a bottle of their dulcetto waiting for us.\u00a0 Here we enjoyed both hot and sweet pepperoni, celery and tuna salad with pickled squash, frittata roll of vegetables, roasted peppers, and sausage, as well as the famous cheese from the area called Tuma infused with truffle, and local bread.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After a two hour nap, we then headed to the lovely farm owned and operated by Gisela (age 71) and Giovanni (age 72 tomorrow!) Gato for a dinner of typical regional food and some of their homemade dulcetto and barbera wines.\u00a0 After a brief tour of the farm animals and the couple\u2019s tuma cheese laboratory.\u00a0 We sat down to start dinner.\u00a0 Appetizers included salami from home-raised pigs, tomato slices with parsley and garlic pesto, tuma cheese, octopus salad, and homemade bread.\u00a0 The first course was braised pork shins and the second course was braised lamb and olives.\u00a0 After three days it struck me that the locals always include tuna, anchovies, and\/or octopus with their meals\u2026but we are in the hills!\u00a0 It turns out that the \u201csalt road\u201d runs straight through the region from Leguri (which is a seaside town).\u00a0 Apparently there is a rich tradition of the locals trading their cheeses and wines for seafood for hundreds of years, and thus seafood has become a staple of the diet in the hills.\u00a0 For dessert, we enjoyed homemade canned peaches and ice cream.\u00a0 I need to hit the gym the moment I get home!!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Day 5 We concentrated on the wines of the region today.\u00a0 We started with a tour of the Luigi Einaudi Vineyard which is a small vintner (150,000 bottles\/year) that makes Barolos, Dulcettos, and some Cabernets, Chardonnays, and blends.\u00a0 We then traveled to Barbaresco and had lunch at a great Osteria called Cantina del Romeo where we tasted the proprietor\u2019s Dulcetto and Barbera.\u00a0 Lunch started with an appetizer of stuffed zucchini leaves, vegetable frittata, and fried sage leaf.\u00a0 That was followed by thinly sliced roast beef (medium rare) and a small salad.\u00a0 For dessert we shared a strawberry jello mold that was much tastier than it sounds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After lunch we headed to a Barbaresco cooperative for a wine tasting.\u00a0 The Cooperative was started by a priest about 100 years ago to help local growers earn more money for their grape crop by sharing the expense and profit among over 100 growers so that the growers were not at the mercy of the major wine makers.\u00a0 We then headed to Rivetto family winery in the Serralunga d\u2019 Alba region and tasted their Barolo, Barbera, and Moscato sparkling wines.\u00a0 What a great family!\u00a0 We met Enrico and his father who invited us into their home to watch the second half of the Italy vs Slovakia World Cup game. (U\u2026S\u2026.A!\u00a0\u00a0 U\u2026.S\u2026.A!).\u00a0 We had dinner at Osteria dei Catari in Monforte.\u00a0 We were pretty stuffed so we only had two courses, a 2005 Barbera, and dessert (a light dinner compared to the other evenings!)\u00a0 Mom\u2019s first course was little ravioli looking stuffed pasta called plini in butter and sage, and I had a very light eggplant dish stuffed with goat cheese.\u00a0 Mom\u2019s second course was a bread crumb coated fried veal dish and I had rabbit cacciatore.\u00a0 For dessert we shared a molten chocolate cake with raspberry sauce.\u00a0 Somehow we managed to pickup 14 bottles of wine today!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Day 6 was our last full day in the Piedmont region.\u00a0 We spent the morning window shopping in the city of Barolo and then headed to the Marchiese di Barolo for a tour and wine tasting.\u00a0 The delightful Evana, took us through the ancient winery that now is responsible for more than one million bottles of Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera, and Dulcetto sold throughout the world per year.\u00a0 The winery has its origins in the early 1800\u2019s when the Marchesa Giulia Corbert originally from the Bordeaux area of France decided to help the local nebbiolo wine makers perfect their local wine with the help of her friend Count Camillo di Cavour who convinced the great French wine maker Count Louis Oudart to lend a hand.\u00a0 Together the three turned the nebbiolo wine into the famous Barolo wine that is enjoyed the world over.\u00a0 The Marchesa was a great philanthropist who dedicated a percentage of the wineries profits to the poor and the winery still holds to that tradition which is indicated by the tagline \u201cGia Opera Pia Barolo\u201d\u00a0 Here we tasted their best Dulcetto, Barbaresco, and Barolo.\u00a0 We had a quick lunch of gnocci in ragu (Mom) and tagliateli in ragu (Dad) with the proprietor\u2019s own Dulcetto followed by Bunet for dessert.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After a nice nap, we headed to our cooking lesson in the hills of Sinio with the talented young Antonella.\u00a0 Antonella studies cooking in France and has cooked in restaurants in Spain and Croatia. \u00a0She lives with her parents on their hillside estate and vineyard which has been in their family since 1886.\u00a0 The estate includes a restaurant built by her parents as a gift in 2003.\u00a0 Tony and Stephanie, don\u2019t get any ideas.\u00a0 The three of them run the restaurant, plant and harvest the fields, and of course tend to their excellent vineyard of Dulcetto and Nebbiolo grapes.\u00a0 Oh, in their spare time they also hunt for black and white truffles; the father is one of the more well known truffle hunters of the area.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dinner started with a light and refreshing salad of finely sliced porcini mushrooms (picked from their cellar 5 minutes prior) with olive oil, lemon juice, and salad.\u00a0 We next graduated to a different version of \u201ccarne bastolata\u201d which is raw, minced, veal, with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt.\u00a0 As our pasta dish we enjoyed a Dulcetto wine risotto.\u00a0 The main course was thinly sliced veal scaloppini with black truffle all saut\u00e9ed in butter and olive oil.\u00a0 Antonella told us that black truffle should be added to food as it cooks in order for it to release its best flavor, while white truffle need not.\u00a0 We enjoyed three wines from the family vineyard with our meal.\u00a0 We started with their 2009 Dulcetto, and then graduated to their 2005 Dulcetto.\u00a0 Their Dulcetto grapes are lucky enough to be situated on a hill with just the right blend of soil conditions and sun exposure to give the grapes sufficient body to age many years in the bottle.\u00a0 They have a 1948 vintage that is still very drinkable.\u00a0 Our last wine of the evening was their 2006 Nebbiolo which tasted like a Barolo, but cannot be named Barolo because their grapes are outside the Barolo region.\u00a0 For dessert we enjoyed a chocolate and hazelnut salami which was very easy to make and will definitely become a holiday staple in our family.\u00a0 After several hours of cooking, talking, eating, and drinking with a great and hospitable family, we shuffled to our car for the short ride to our villa and our last evening in Piemonte.\u00a0 What a great trip!\u00a0 Thanks Marcello and Rafaela for a great \u201cgastronomic\u201d tour!<\/p>\n

Here are a few more pictures and stories.\u00a0 Either click on the “slideshow” or arrow down to page through the pictures one at a time.\u00a0 Enjoy!\u00a0 Our trip to Milano for Laura’s Wedding directly follows.
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