Renovating a villa, hunting for white truffles, eating and wine tasting in Piedmont, Italy
Restaurant Review - Ristorante Bovio
Restaurant Review - Ristorante Bovio, La Morra, Piedmont, Italy. I review this restaurant run by the historic Bovio family and remember my first white truffle meal a decade ago served by Mr. Bovio himself at their former location, Ristorante Belvedere, also in La Morra.
Memories come streaming back to me as I sit down for dinner with Franco Frutta at Ristorante Bovio located just outside the village of La Morra, one of the five primary Barolo wine producing villages. I remember my first experience with white truffles while visiting and photographing the famed Ristoranta Belvedere, then owned by the Bovio family, in the center of La Morra. It was a crisp autumn day in 2005 with crystal clear views of the Italian Alps on one side and the mesmerizing undulating landscape stretched out below me covered in nebbiolo vineyards whose grapes transform into the ethereal and age worthy Barolo wines. This has become my home. I have claimed this land as my own. Mr. Bovio, way back in 2005 while speaking to me, was filled with such extreme pride and passion for his region it was as intoxicating as the aroma of the giant white truffle he proudly displayed for my photographs that cold day.
Fast forward to this evening. His daughter Alessandra is now running Ristorante Bovio while her father Mr. Bovio lives above, wheelchair bound, but still greets customers with enthusiasm in the restaurant when he can. Franco Frutta and I are led to our table. The restaurant is divided into smaller dining rooms and the maximum capacity is approximately 70 seats in total. There are ten services per week which include lunch and dinner Friday - Tuesday. This is a hard reservation to get without making a reservation weeks, or even months, in advance depending on the season. The chairs are comfortable, the staff extremely efficient and polite, and the ambiance hushed with anticipation but pleasantly relaxed and convivial. There are six people working in the kitchen and four people working not the floor. Service is impeccable.
There are bread rolls and grissini on the table with a bowl of butter, the bread is somewhat dry but the grissini purchased from a pannetteria in Alba are delicious. Menus are presented along with the monstrous wine list which I study for a good ten minutes searching for potentially overlooked bottles. Wine prices are fair but by no means a bargain. We decide on our antipasti and primi and agree on a bottle of wine to begin our meal.
The wine, 2005 Valferana from the Azienda Vitivinicola Nervi located in the village of Gattinara, Piedmont, is presented table side and is simply outstanding. The wine is made with 100% Nebbiolo and aged for a minimum of five years in large oak casks. Franco Frutta smiles with enthusiasm, he is absolutely delighted to discover this wine. With the wine we are presented with a breaded and fried zucchini flour stuffed with salsiccia (fresh sausage) which my older daughter Isabelle adores. This version is very good except for the fact that they leave the stem attached which, Franco Frutta, confirms, is almost never eaten.
Our antipasti arrive and they present two stark contrasts in style. First the 'Trance di baccala su crema di topinambour e salsa di acciughe' (Slice of salted cod with cream of Jerusalem artichokes and anchovy sauce) is absolutely beautiful to look at, sits on a hot plate, and the fish is cooked to absolute perfection. The only drawback, for me, on this plate is the sprig of fresh thyme. Truth be told, I am not a fan of food served on a plate that, while edible, is merely placed for decoration. A small sprinkling of fresh thyme leaves would have been perfect. The second antipasti is the 'Millefoglie di peperoni di Cuneo con tonne e capperi di Pantelleria' (Roasted peppers with tuna, capers, anchovy, and green salad) also comes on a hot plate, has many diverse colors, but the salad leaves that surround the roasted peppers quickly wilt. The dish, although not as beautiful, is equally delicious with peppers from carmagnola that add a really enjoyable hit of heat while the salad leaves are an unnecessary extra. I savor the wine between courses.
For our primi piatti we order, without hesitation because I've never seen this on a menu although I've photographed a book on the subject (link at the bottom of this blog), 'fettuccine di farro monococco con calamaretti, gamberi rossi e triglie' (Fettuccine made with einkorn flour and served with squid, red shrimp, and red mullet). Our second primi is 'Lasagnetta di verdure autumnal gratinata su fonduta di parmigiano e basilico' (A single portion of lasagna gratin made with seasonal vegetables, parmesan fondue, and basil). All plates are steaming hot as is the food. The Einkorn Fettucine looks dry but is in fact is toothsome and bursts with brilliant seafood flavors and is served in a generous, but not overly abundant portion. The single portion lasagna also is a good size and the pasta is very thin and not dry which for me is a success. The drawback on this dish is the bay leaf on top for decoration that simply gets discarded.
Our secondi piatti arrive, almost too quickly, but expertly prepared. I have the 'Capretto di Alta Langa arrostito al forno con verdure' (Roast baby goat from the Alta Langa with vegetables) and Franco Frutta has the 'Trancio di peseta, verdure croccanti e mayonnaise di olive taggiasche e capperi' (Slice of fish, crisp vegetables and mayonnaise with taggiasche olives and cappers). The baby goat is glistening and the meat is delicate, savory, and sticky with goodness. The slice of fish is less interesting as is the sprig of rosemary topping the dish. How can we pass up dessert? I ask the waiter for ten minutes to savor the wine before we delve into the sweet course.
I can't leave without trying 'La Panna cotta con fruity di bosco' (Panna cotta with berries) and Franco Frutta orders the 'Sformato al cioccolato Gobino blend 75% con gelato al pistacchio' (Warm chocolate cake with a Gobino blend of %70 percent chocolate and served with pistachio ice cream). For the most part, until dessert, the plates have straddled between simple modern and slightly old school. The desserts are both topped with a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar which, unfortunately takes away from the very well prepared panna cotta and warm chocolate cake. Additionally, there are unripe strawberries served along side for decoration. The desserts are so delicious that they would happily stand on their own.
It was a delight to eat at Ristorante Bovio. Although there were some extras that could be considered missteps on the plates, the food is served warm, very well executed, and reasonably priced, the service seamless and outstanding, and the wine list has great selections from smaller budgets to top dollar wines covering numerous vintages. I look forward to returning.
All photographs copyright 2015, Clay McLachlan
Restaurant Review - Locanda dell'arco
Restaurant Review - Locanda dell'arco, Cissone, Piedmont, Italy. We visit the well celebrated restaurant with a deep and dedicated wine cellar in the Alta Langa.
I receive two texts that are music to my ears early Thursday morning just after dropping the girls off at scuola. The first from Sara, "sure, I'd love to go out to dinner with you tomorrow, find out if Elisabetta can babysit, please." And the second from Elisabetta, "si perfetto, ci vediamo domani sera verso le 7!" Yes, our date is confirmed! In our family, clearly I am the one who is driving the interest in restaurant dining. It's not that Sara doesn't like to go out, it's that she prefers a hike or a bike ride over a meal. Me, I love both!
Immediately after hearing from Elisabetta I speed-dial Locanda dell'arco in Cissone in hopes of securing a reservation for two for tomorrow evening. My heart races as I hold the line while my mind meanders the long list of wines the restaurant has to offer. "Yes," we have a table for you. I breathe a deep sigh of relief. Thursday evening I struggle to convince Tamar that, although tomorrow night's meal will most certainly include many of Piedmont's traditional recipes, the wine list has been cultivated for more than twenty years and there will be a delicious bottle of nebbiolo for us to savor. "Whatever you like, it's fine by me, you know I will be ordering the same thing anyway," says Tamar.
Friday evening I meet Sara in the main Piazza in Dogliani where head up the hill to Cissone. We drive up the hill and park. It's a crisp autumn night with fog encircling the town and church above the restaurant. We take a short walk around town up before entering the packed restaurant. We are shown to our corner table next to shelves of enticing wine bottles. We peruse the menu and I beg Sara's forgiveness before I delve into the large volume of wines. There is no rush with service as we have the table for the entire night and the staff is busy tending a number of large groups already in the middle of service.
We order from the menu and I ask for a few more minutes to read the entire wine list. Finally I settle on an outrageously good 2004 Langhe Nebbiolo from famed wine producer Giuseppe Rinaldi located in Barolo.
We order to share, although I know full well that Sara won't try everything that we order. First we have 'Filetto di trota salmonata marinato alle erbette con limone confit al sale' or 'Marinated trout salmon filet with lemon confit' and 'Linguine all article con sumo di verdure e nocciole' or 'Noodles made with wild nettles and topped with a vegetable sauce and hazelnuts.' The Salmon trout is made in house and served in a fairly small portion and, honestly, I can't recommend this dish as it is flat and uninteresting. The handmade wild nettle pasta, on the other hand, is toothsome and quite delicious if slightly sweet, this is a dish to try. The negative for this plate and the next pasta is that they are both served on small plates which result in a heap of pasta and not a lot of thought for presentation.
For our second course, Sara orders the 'Tajarin al sugo di carne langarolo' or 'traditional thin noodles with a meat ragout sauce.' I have the ultra-traditional 'Brasato al Barolo con polenta di mais integrale "otto file," or 'Roast beef braised in Barolo and served with corn polenta.' First the Tajarin pasta. In my opinion, this was a lackluster version of this outstanding dish. The Roast beef was well prepared, the sauce delicious, while the polenta cake was clearly prepared in advance and reheated. It was savoury, but not spectacular.
The wine, on the other hand, was spectacular. It unfolded throughout the evening and had me thinking more about how spectacular and nuanced the nebbiolo grape can be and thinking less about the edible, but not spectacular food that accompanied it. I decided to order the pannacotta in order to give one last attempt with food. The small dessert arrived on a large plate which stood out to me mostly because of how remarkably small the pasta plates had been. The panacotta was not silken and smooth, but it was well balanced. All in all, I would not hesitate to return to this beautiful, homey, and warm dining room with a spectacular wine list and a hope of more precisely prepared food.
All photographs copyright 2015, Clay McLachlan
Restaurant Review - Le Piemontesine
Restaurant Review - Le Piemontesine, Igliano, Piedmont, Italy. Le Piemontesine was opened in the Spring of 2014 by Chef Jerome Migotto and his wife Charlotte who worked under famed chefs Guy Martin and Yannick Alleno in Paris before deciding to move to the Alta Langa and create a culinary destination in the little known town of Igliano while raising their children in Italy.
It's Tuesday night at six o'clock in the evening and 'Franco Frutta' rings my telephone as I rustle awake from a five minute afternoon nap. It's Tuesday and we are trying to figure out where to eat tonight. Franco, my good friend, is also Dogliani's best vegetable and fruit purveyor at the weekly farmer's market each Tuesday morning, and is extremely passionate about finding authentic local ingredients. My new moniker, Contadino Americano, was given to me at a previous dinner with Franco Frutta earlier this Spring. With Franco's resourcefulness in acquiring heirloom seeds I planted a few rows of beets, carrots, swiss chard, peppers, and tomatoes this year. The beets survived and were fully appreciated by Denise at her restaurant inside the Hotel Castello di Sinio. The harvest of these crops, truth be told, were extremely limited and honestly this does not bode well for my future prospects as a farmer. Or, as I say to myself as I run up the hill and grab a few delicious and still ripening 'cuore di bue' tomatoes now in late October, next year I will actually weed this mess of a garden.
Tonight we choose to try Le Piemontesine in the completely forgotten town of Igliano just twenty minutes from Villa San Lorenzo. Franco Frutta doesn't even know where this town is, and he's an actual local, so we agree he will pick me up at eight o'clock and I will direct him to the restaurant located past the hilltop town of Murazzano. I have heard murmurs of this restaurant around town but nothing more specific than that. We arrive even more quickly than I had expected and we wander in the recently renovated hotel and restaurant. Charlotte, one of the owner's, greets us as we enter and leads us into the large dining room that is gleaming white with each table generously spaced apart for easy quiet conversation. I sink into the extremely comfortable chair and exclaim "This chair is so comfortable I could go to sleep right here." Franco Frutta laughs in agreement.
Charlotte brings us welcome glasses of local bubbly along with an assortment of three small tastes offered by the chef. Next, we are presented with a selection of breads made in house and cooked outside in the wood fired oven. Wow, I'm impressed. I ask Charlotte how long they have been open, "twenty months, if we don't include the six years of renovation," she says. My ears perk up as this sounds like an unusual story for this part of the Alta Langa. People always look quizzical when I give a background of my life so I understand instantly that this may be a similar story to ours.
Charlotte explains that her family owned a small house just ten meters from where Le Piemontesine is now located although she and her husband, Jerome Migotto, were both born and raised in France. This, at least, gives me a clue as to how they found this tiny town of Igliano located between the Langhe wine country and the Italian Riviera in Liguria. Chef Migotto lived and worked in Paris for twenty-years and during that time he met Charlotte while they were both working at Le Grand Vefour under Chef Guy Martin next to the gardens of the Palais Royal. I'm startled because this is not what I expected to hear. Tamar and I also lived in Paris and a good friend of mine worked at Le Grand Vefour as well. Next Charlotte tells me that Chef Migotto also worked under world renowned Chef Yannick Alleno. This instantly tells me that this chef has great pedigree and must be extremely technically gifted.
Suddenly it dawns on me. I remember hearing about a French family that has children attending the same school where my daughters go to school in Bossolasco. I immediately ask Charlotte if they have children wondering if that may be the reason, like us, that they fled Paris to start a new life in the Italian countryside? "Yes, they go to school in Bossolasco," she says. OK, this is bizarre. I have been seeing this couple for over a year at school drop-off and pick-up and I never knew that it was this family with this restaurant. Small world. And what is even more strange is that they also lived near us in Paris.
It's time to stop talking and start eating. Franco Frutta and I look over the menu and decide on which dishes to try. For our starters we try the Scampi with honey and home grown vegetables as well as the special river shrimp. I prefer the Scampi to the river shrimp and Franco Frutta agrees. More bread is served. For our primi, we try the Atlantic crab filled tortellini in a lemon butter sauce and the handmade langhe style ravioli with rabbit and rosemary. Both pastas are delicious, my only complaint is that the plates are not hot enough and thus the pasta arrived a the table luke warm. I want to have a relatively light second course so we both select the fish of the day. One of the plates was an expertly cooked 'capasante' sea scallops but the downside is that there were only three scallops included in this main course entree at 22 EUR. The other fish of the day we shared is 'merluzzo' salted cod which unfortunately is less expertly cooked and is dry.
With our food I choose a Barbaresco, vintage 2009, from Azienda Agricola Taliano, followed by a few glasses of the Nebbiolo d'Alba "Blageur" also from the same Azienda Agricola Taliano. The wine list is short and has limited selections, I hope that Jerome and Charlotte can invest in the wonderful and large selection of wines that the Alta Langa and nearby Dogliani have to offer. We finished with an enormous cheese plate and a selection of 6 sorbets that were delicious. The extra 'seat' for my camera was spectacular, I've never experienced that at a restaurant. I look forward to seeing how Le Piemontesine progresses in the coming years, bravo for taking the leap and building a new life in Piedmont, Italy!
Restaurant Review - Osteria Battaglino, Dogliani
Osteria Battaglino in Dogliani, Piedmont, Italy
Marco Battaglino, age 35, is at the top of his game right now at his eponymous Osteria Battaglino. You can view his website at that link, but don't judge the website, he 's focused on his food much more than promotion online. Battaglino takes inspiration from the traditional recipes of Piedmont and makes them better. He cooks with passion and creates local dishes sourcing ingredients from passionate producers that anyone from our children to the most discerning food aficionado would crave. Battaglino makes food that he wants to eat including a delicious array of seafood that is a spectacular compliment to the rich and filling food of the Langhe.
Flavia Bergamo, in charge of front of the house, is warm and welcoming, honest and generous. They have a huge representation of wines from Dogliani as well as a great selection of wines from Barolo and Barbaresco. When visiting Piedmont, food and wine are at the top of everyone's list of important daily tasks (it's a tough life but someone's got to do it, right?). I would highly recommend the carne cruda, hand chopped raw veal, often topped with white truffle in autumn. The meat is sourced from a single producer located in the small village of Briaglia where the animals feed on grass and live outdoors year round. When I visited this farm I realized that, if possible, I would try and only eat meat from this producer as it is that much better than the rest. The whole roasted onion stuffed with sausage and cheese, a piedmont classic, is outstanding as is the raw sicilian red shrimp, a melt in your mouth change from the traditional langhe fare.
Pasta here is not to be missed. You can visit any Osteria in the Langhe and most make their pasta by hand daily, but I would say that although you may find equal, you will never find better. Again, Battaglino uses locally sourced flour and fresh farm eggs to make his traditional tajarin and ravioli, 1 kg (2.2 pounds) of flour with 46 egg yolks. This is a delicious pasty packed with protein and when you are here in autumn, this is the perfect dish to have topped with white truffle shavings. Our daughter devours a bowl of this pasta served simply with butter or olive oil every time we eat here. Another option is gnocchi made with fresh pumpkin which is divine and during autumn is served with fresh porcini mushrooms or the agnolotti del plin.
Second's can include bollito of bull or chicken. I have to remind myself how crazy it seems to order boiled meat in a restaurant, wasn't this the food we tried to get away from? In fact, these dished are stunning due to the quality of meat, the simplicity of preparation, and the stunning accompanying sauces which include bagna verde (anchovies and parsley), freshly made mayonnaise (I hate mayonnaise in a jar and I love this!), and a tomato salsa. Truly brilliant. If you don't want meat, then choose any of the fresh fish on offer simply roasted in the oven with spinach, tomatoes, capers and olives, simple and perfect.
While there are a good selection of desserts, the one not be missed is the zabaione. Battaglino comes down from the kitchen whipping up this froth of goodness and pours it into your dish table side, it's the best I've ever had. Run, don't walk, to this cozy sensational food destination.
All photographs copyright 2015, Clay McLachlan