Heavenliness - Val d'Aosta, the Alps!

 If you have never been to the Italian side of the Alps, which means taking in the fabulous Val d'Aosta, you have not lived! Culturally Aosta is loaded with ancient history from BC to the beautiful Roman Amphitheater ruins to the Alpine culture and modern day. Everywhere you gaze there are mountains framing your views, the town piazza is crowned with tall glaciers in the background and you can have it all while sipping caffe in the square. I love Val d'Aosta

 

The gastronomic pleasures of this area begin with the infamous Fontina DOP. This is the queen of the alpine meadows, a cheese made from raw milk, fragrant and alive. To be labeled or considered Fontina DOP, it must be made only from cows of the Valdostana breed that forage on local grasses and meadows. This is the cheese that gave birth, to la fonduta (fondue). It was from this awesome fonduta, that was transformed into the other versions of fondue in Switzerland. If you want to savor the original, this is where you need to be! Do not forget to try Fromadzo DOP too, another very special cheese of the area, mix of goat and cow's milk. 

This area is also ultra famous for the Lard d'Arnad DOP and the Vallée d'Aoste Jambon de Bosses DOP. The prosciuto was an ancient gift for bishops and archbishops, produced in the city of Saint Rhemy-en-Bosses since the 14th century. The frigid stream of air that would come down to the valleys bordering with Switzerland and the long winter cold coupled with the manual labor of man, helped transform these raw prosciutti into authentic one-of-a-kind pieces. They are aged 12, 18 and 24 months and if you can find this ham, you must try it. 

The lard of Arnad is truly the jewel of the mountain peasant's world. Today it is found in the area for sale where previously, it was very difficult to find because it was the source of substenance during those long harsh and cold winter months. As they say, living in the mountains is about 9 months of frigid cold and 3 months of just cold. So be sure to try ultra thin slices of this served on warm crusty pieces of bread; this is something you will come back for time and again. 

A few of the brands assuring you of quality and origin are Saveurs du Val D'Aoste as well as  Alpenzu. Alpenzu is another group of the Val d'Aosta guaranteeing the origin of the products sold. While at the hotel, we were lucky to taste chestnuts in honey as part of an appetizer and while shopping we stumbled on le tegole, famous cookies of the area, another must-try!  

While traveling make sure you do the castles of the region, they are fantastic!    

Oh WOW, Val d'Aosta - Paradise Unveiled!

Just got back from a quick trip to the Val d'Aosta, and man do I have some great information for you! How can anyone not be amazed at those Alps, the Roman history of Aosta itself and the ancient door/arch to the city built 25 BC...
So hold on to your knickers because I have lots to share.  :-)

Bet you didn't know...

Did you know Italy contains 70% of the world's art? Think about that for a second, a country so small physically is so crammed full of art, monuments, churches, artifacts, tombs and on and on!! It is just amazing to me the whole concept, thinking about the number of people who passed through the country leaving such an imprint and patrimony for the rest of the world to come. No wonder Italy is so short on living space. ;-)

Meucci was the father of the telephone, not Mr. Bell; in fact Bell was well known for pirating his inventions. Marconi was the father of the radio and I bet you did not know the world's first freeway, created conceptually and physically constructed was here is this little land of dreamers and creators. Today the Italian autostrada is one of the best out there that is, if you do not judge it for the curves. With such a lack of space to build freeways, and the fact people will not sell land, the roads have to curve around history and stubbornness, so remember this when you are screaming down the road and have to back off by 50 mph to make a curve and stay alive. They have the best and world's only draining asphalt so when it rains, you can see the road; it is truly amazing (and still drive fast).

Now a quick tip on how to choose Gorgonzola, make sure the mold is not uniformly distributed. You should look for inoculation lines as well as where made. Gorgonzola originated in a small town close to Milan called, obviously, Gorgonzola. Today most of it is produced in the province of Novara and regions of Piedmont and Lombardy.  Try a risotto with Gorgonzola!

Superb Cheese Tarts from the Alps

250gm or 8oz Flour
100gm or 3.5 oz Butter unsalted
1 Egg

Butter and flour the molds diameter of 3 inches 7cms about 12 of them. Cut butter into the flour with a pinch of salt, when crumbly, add 4 Tablespoons water mix quickly and lightly then add egg and mix quickly until homogeneous. Cover and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Roll out on a floured board about 3mm (the thinner the better)

Filling 240ml or 8oz heavy cream

The following cheese combinations are recommended:

Swiss Emmenthal (good swiss cheese) and Brie or, Gruyere and Brie or, Fontina and Brie or, Gorgonzola dolce or piccante and Brie or, Gorgonzola and Fontina (a strong combination) or, Stilton and Brie If you are able to find Sbrinz (from Italy) this is a great one as well to combine with either Brie or Fontina

229gm or 8oz of "type one" cheese grated or finely chopped

115gm or 4oz of Brie or Fontina or type number two cheese cut into tiny squares or pieces

100 ml or 3oz Whole milk
3 Egg yolks
Parsley, salt, nutmeg

Cut cheese into cubes trimming crust off of the Brie. Divide the two cheeses evenly and place in the dough lined tart molds.

Combine milk and cream in a bowl, add the yolks mix and beat well. Add fresh grated nutmeg, a teaspoon of chopped parsley and a pinch of salt. Pour the mix into the tarts covering the cubed cheese.

Bake in a preheated oven 190 degrees Celsius or 375 F for about 20 minutes Cool 10 minutes and unmold and serve

Wine Bars Italian Style

Wine by the glass posted daily on the chalkboards; a really nice way of tasting without having to buy the bottle. This is one of the places we can wander into and have a glass with a taste of local salami and such as well as, the place we go when the "gang" gets together for a group dinner of Bagna Cauda, or Beef Bourgogne.

So what is next on Snow White's menu? With these days indoors, she is working on some super duper special cheese tartlets from the Alps.

Pienza & Pecorino

If you have never been to Pienza, a town near Siena in Tuscany, I insist you make an effort to go. This warm, small and hospitable town is a true gem, a place to go when you want to “experience” the life around you versus flying through.

The beautiful, no, the stunning view from behind the cathedral at the bar overlooking the Val D’Orcia is enough to keep one spellbound for days. The warm sexy, soft yellow of the stone and yellow sand used in the masonry bestows this sense of “home.” There are quite a few places in town between those soft walls where one may rent a room and actually “live” the idyllic life. I can hardly wait until Spring arrives to go back and savor that life; spend a night or two there, eat at Il Latte della Luna for fabulous fresh pici al tartufo nero (loaded with truffles not just a sprinkle of them) or roasted duck or young roasted pig. Of course, La Buca delle Fate is another wonderful spot to feast close to that great ice cream and coffee bar.

There is a wonderful wrought iron shop in which to spend some time dreaming, imagining the house with pieces similar and best of all is to wander the cheese shops. The pecorino cheese abounds in these cheese havens as well as, goat cheese specialties and they are stocked with salami, wines and culinary treasures. I can hardly wait to go back and wine taste, cheese sample and soak up the scenery, sign me up! ;-) I can see this town is going to be a monthly escape for me (giggle).

Unfortunately with this beauty and passion one has to take the red-tape-Italian-“sauce,” which covers everything here however it is worth it most of the time. Actually, time will be split half here and half in the states so the negatives will be supplanted by moving frequently between “zones.” :-))) I guess the hard part now of my daily decisions will be, “gosh, do we want to get that red for the cellar or, just for dinner?” Or, “shall we drive to Pienza or Norcia for cheese today?” Or, maybe take a few more days and go to Northern Italy for a cheese and wine run or even Milan for shopping depending on how desperately we need to see some city life. ;-)) You know, those “hard kinds” of decisions (giggle).

OK, back to Pienza and tour guide mode. If you do not have time to savor the town it is an injustice. The Piccolomini palace/museum is a stop worth doing and I suggest (strongly), the museum store! The store has books in various languages and has a lovely refined presentation and ambiance as well as fabulous gifts in the offerings. The store is quite unlike Italy; in that it is so nicely presented and lighted…hum maybe foreigners are behind it. ;-)) I could imagine how great it would be to cycle Pienza and the surrounding area, stopping to taste cheese at the numerous farms alongside the roads, to picnic and wine taste (hum, on bikes)? Then again, a driver would be great too so the wine tasting could occur in full force…giggle ;-)) A dopo!

“Erba Luce” come on down!

Who can pass up an invitation to pass a few hours chilling at Isola dei Pescatori on a summer afternoon? Certainly, not this creature! The weather was humid with cloud cover tingeing the lake a dead, gray hue nonetheless, the lake is always beautiful; so peaceful watching the sail boats, the birds and hearing the water lap against the rocks. Having scoped out the island, we realized the far side is always the least traveled and so we chose a little wine bar with a terrace, La Malghera to help us pass the time. Golden Piglet presented lil’ Miss White a nice refreshing white wine that would be perfect to offer at parties as cocktail wine. This white was called Erbaluce (err-bah-loo-chay) and originates north of Torino part of the Piemontese region, and needs to be consumed within three years from harvest; in other words, drink up and do not age. ;-)

This wine packs a whopping 13% vol. so make sure when drinking you are eating as well, something we managed to do quite well. Ordering a "cutting board" of cheese and sliced meats we cleverly whiled away a few hours; how much better can it get? There were samples of prosciutto della Val Vigezzo, Bresaola, Pancetta Coppata, a dark prosciutto like bresaola seasoned with porcini mushrooms and spices, little tiny cacciatore salami, various cheeses, toma, and one type encrusted with fennel and other herbs. So who said we were taking the ferry back to the mainland? Nope we were going to have to swim after that feast!

Great Italian Bordeaux

Her mood ever since she left the Veneto region and her favorite red wine, Venegazzù! (grrrrrr...)


There exists no myth about eating and drinking well in the province of Veneto; the region oozes simplicity paired with the utmost taste and elegance but then, what is to be expected from a wealthy province laden with luscious history, art and architecture? She sits back in the chair watching the passing parade, the trams, the pretty people, the locals, (and yokels) briskly walking the sidewalks (somewhere in some city in Italy) while she ponders returning to Vicenza, to see if the city affects her the same as it did the first time.

Inviting, leisurely in spirit, rich in history and unbelievable eye candy (yes, of course you are all thinking the other kind of eye candy), but this is about architecture (as her ears pick up chuckles from her readers). She finds herself truly dreaming of another glass of that stupendous Venegazzù and an afternoon on the square with a spritz and an evening dining outside with centuries before her eyes. Lord, that Venegazzù was such a luxury on the palette; paired with super, stinky aged cheese from the region, Puzzone di Moena, sliced tart green apples and limpid honey from the mountains around Asiago, life could not get any better.

This fabulous cheese is made from cow’s milk using a semi-cooked mixture. The salting of the cheese is done in a brine solution lasting two days. Starting at 15 to 20 days of age, the forms are bathed weekly with tepid water, which creates a perfect impermeable patina allowing the forms optimal fermentation within the milk mixture protected by this patina. Aging occurs in cool environments with a high level of humidity where the cheese is placed on wooden shelves and turned twice weekly. The average aging is two months minimum with eight months the maximum. A nibble of this and a sip of that red and she is in serious heaven.

Venegazzù is a Bordeaux blend using 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, 10% Merlot and 5% Malbech. The origins of this wine spring from a historic vineyard called Hundred-vines with vines that are 50 years old and also in part from the Falconera vineyard. This prestigious wine is produced in Montello on the infamous iron rich soil of the area. This high mineral and iron content determines the structure of the wine as well as, bestowing it a long life. The vines are planted in a density of about 3,000 plants/hectare yielding on the average 5,800 kilos/hectare. This stunning wine ferments for about twenty days in oak fermentation tubs, (fifteen of those twenty days are on the skins) at a temperature of 25 to 30 degrees Celsius. Once the malolactic fermentation has ceased, the wine is put to rest in barrels of French oak (of different weights) for 18 to 24 months and then refined in the bottle for one year.

Of the two versions of this lovely red liquid, is Capo di Stato I.G.T. Colli Trevigiani by Villa Spineda Loredan a Venegazzù. This supreme blend has been listed by a French publication; “100 vins de légende” or, among the hundred wines in the world for either their history and top quality can be considered legendary by all standards. This Venegazzù Capo di Stato is the first true Italian Bordeaux blend. The other one, is Venegazzù della Casa, I.G.T. Colli Trevigiani, another historic wine from Loredan Gasparini. This other important Bordeaux blend displays right out of the starting gate, true magnificence and luxury. This is made with the same grapes using the same composition as the main wine of the winery but with one big difference; the yield per hectare is higher and the aging time in the oak barrels is shorter, eighteen months or less. Nonetheless, the wine is still a perfect display of that ultra special character of the plant varieties, the rich soil where it is grown as well as combining the distinctive personality of the Bordeaux blend. This wine presents and maintains the elegance and balance of the greatest Italian wines and this creature needs to grab her car and head straight to the winery on a buying trip!

Yes, now she is smiling (once again, angel)!