The
Centro Nazionale Studi Tartufi is housed in the same building as the
Alba Bra Langhe Roero tourist office. I never really knew what these guys did until this year when they started offering truffle classes. The smell of a good truffle is one of those things that once you get embedded in your brain, you know it. It's like for most of my adult life I am sure I drank more than my share of corked wine, but once I had someone point out what that really means, I can pick out a corked wine with the best of them.
With truffles, there is a smell that (because of the nature of smell) is hard to describe, once those synapses fired in my brain, I would describe as earthy, hay, slightly garlic with maybe a hint of honey. At least for the variety here in Alba When I smelled a too ripe specimen a slightly ammonia smell prevailed. A fresh truffle should be firm and a too ripe truffles will have a little give when pinched. Too young, you might as well be eating dirt, so we won't go there.
So what does this have to do with truffles in America?
Well, December 8, 2007 was the first International Fiera del Tartufi symposium where they invited people to represent the countries where truffles grow. Hungary, China, France and America. For various reasons (not the least of which was the people they really wanted were busy and I live here) they invited me to represent America.
Read More......Truffles, Piedmont, Piemonte, 45th parallel, Italy, Italian
Recipe – Bagna Cauda
Anchovy and Garlic sauce with fresh vegetables
Piemontese cuisine does not use garlic in many recipes, however, in the recipes that call for garlic, they don’t mess around. Husbands will ask their wives if it okay if they order a dish with garlic in it, or better yet, they agree to both eat the same dish so they don't offend each other with their breath.
Bagna Cauda dish is served in autumn and winter when people have time to gather. It is typically served as an appetizer, but for a festa it can be the main attraction. Restaurants often serve the vegetables on the plate with the sauce drizzled on top, but at home the oldest table cloth is used so dripping doesn't matter and the warm bowl is placed in the middle of the table for all to share. Read More......garlic, anchovy, liguria, Piedmont, Piemonte
Every year the harvest season in Piemonte begins in late August when most of Italy is still on vacation. People in the Langhe, Roero and Monferrato hills start planning their harvest first with Moscato grapes followed closely by Arneis and other white wines while families in the Alta Langa begin harvesting and drying hazelnuts and chestnuts. But the major harvest revolves around Nebbiolo. This is the grape that makes both Barbaresco and Barolo wines.
The Italian word for the harvest associated with wine grapes is Vendemmia (it's racolta for most other things). The first sign the vendemmia is about to begin is when tractors start clogging the roads on their way to the vineyards and baskets begin to line the vineyard rows....Piedmont, Piemonte, wine, Italy, roero, Monferrato, langhe