Hoping simply to try some typical local dishes, my dear friend Cristiano took me to an agriturismo near Revello. (An agriturismo is a small inn/bed and breakfast that also serves food they normally grow out in the back garden.) Little did we know that a four hour feast was in store!
We were welcomed to La Virginia by a glass of spumante and a plate artisanal bread, juniper-scented lard and salami. (Yes, lard. It's quite popular here and really delicious despite the name.) Then came a procession of appetizers. There was a beef carpaccio with raw artichokes, a spinach salad with crunchy pancetta, and an eggplant flan covered with melted Tuma di Martiniana cheese. The two first courses were really great. There was risotto with radicchio and homemade sausage as well as "cujette," or gnocchi, covered in a Castelmagno cream. (Normally, castelmagno is made with cow's milk, but this tasted a lot like goat cheese.) Our meat dish consisted of thinly-sliced roast capocollo with baked potatoes. And finally, for dessert, there were a few choices. Most were generic Italian desserts, panna cotta, apple cake and semifreddo. However, there was also the bunet, a traditional sweet from the area. The bunet is like a pudding-y chocolate cake with amaretto crumbles and caramel sauce. The meal finished, of course, with a coffee and some home-brewed limoncello.
I'll be working this dinner off for a while, but it was so worth it!
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