Taste of Torino

Go big or go home.

Some cities just seem more intense. Torino is so European, you feel the influences from France which just add a little je ne sais pas. Cooking with butter rather than olive oil, the flavor the different cheeses add to dishes.

They added hazelnuts to chocolate creating Gianduja, the mother of Nutella. A marraige made in heaven.

This week’s recipes to give you a little taste from Torino I chose to make a few classics.

Brasato al Barbera, Bicherin and Bunet.

I only just realized all start with a B.

I chose recipes that suit the season as the temperatures are just dropping and I was craving some comfort foods.

The recipe for the Brasato, at it’s most glorious can be made with a bottle of Barolo! I live in Tuscany and a “cheaper” bottle of Barolo is around 25 euro, but another local wine from Piemonte was much cheaper, Barbera. Another wine to use might be the Nebbiolo.

One of my favorite songs about Barbera is by Giorgio Gaber.

The story about two men at a bar, one drinking the cheaper Barbera wine, the other drinking Champagne. One man owns a company and the other has lost his job.

The recipes are after the paywall for the paid subscriptions.

In this newsletter, I am also including a PDF listing regional specialites. Often when you go to a new region, the food changes and perhaps even the names of dishes you might know. Dialect also is different.

Over the years, I have dug deep into discovering more and more of Italy. I visit a region and always pick up a couple of cookbooks written by locals as that is the only way to really learn. Often, other people right recipes and try to interpret recipes but they are not from that region and may not have asked questions and are only guessing.

The beauty of learning another language is to ask questions and interact with the locals. That has brought me the most joy in my life. Thanks to my curiousity, I have become an Italian… in the kitchen. Next year, I will be digging deeper into how I became Italian… a recipe at a time. If you enjoy learning new recipes, and learning about new regions of Italy, consider becoming a paid subscriber. I am going to be dedicating next year to serializing my “memoir”.

This year’s guides to the markets of Italy and the recipes will be in the archive. By being a paid subsciber,you will have access to the archives as well.

Thanks for joining me on this journey.