Culinary Delights of Piedmont

Gastronomy is an everyday passion in Piedmont. The inhabitants are fiercely proud of having at their fingertips many of the world’s finest ingredients, such as red wines that rival the greatest that France can offer, and a fantastic range of cheeses and other dairy products, not to mention the luxury of white truffles and awardwinning chocolate.

Piedmont’s cuisine, like that of its neighbour Lombardy, is rich, with thick white sauces predominating over red tomato-based ones. They are proud of their exquisite pastry-making tradition and careful attention to detail, which are known and respected throughout Italy. Although pasta in Piedmont is delicious, silky, soft and usually handmade, rice and polenta tend to be more prevalent. Garlic appears mainly in the salty bagna cauda, a savoury ‘warm bath’ in which vegetables are dipped, which is one of the region’s flagship dishes. The idea is that everybody at the table dips chopped vegetables such as carrots, fennel, bell peppers and Piedmont cardoons into a mouthwatering bowl of warm olive oil, garlic, cream, butter and anchovies.