Simplicity at its finest, this softly set pudding takes almost no effort to make, yet is nothing short of amazing! Even though panna cotta (lit. cooked cream) wasn't mentioned in Italian cookbooks until the 1960s, today it is considered a traditional Piedmontese dessert, and the original recipe calls for only whole cream, sugar, vanilla, and gelatin.
When made to perfection and properly chilled, panna cotta is silky smooth, deliciously creamy, and has a gentle wobble to it. For a slightly lighter version of this scrumptious dessert, use half-and-half instead of heavy cream, or simply dilute heavy cream with milk.
MOST ICONIC Panna cotta
MAIN INGREDIENTS
A variety of Italian pasta ripiena (lit. filled pasta), agnolotti are tender, bite-sized pillows of dough, plump with a creamy cheese, meat, or vegetable filling. Agnolotti originated in the Piedmont region circa 12th century, and they are often regarded as the first of many stuffed pasta types in northern Italian cuisine.
Unlike ravioli, which are made with two separate pasta sheets and stamped out, agnolotti are made with a single sheet of dough that is folded over the filling and typically cut into little rectangles. However, throughout the region, agnolotti come in various shapes.
VARIATIONS OF Agnolotti
MOST ICONIC Agnolotti
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Agnolotti del plin is a traditional dish from Piedmont that is made with small, usually boat-shaped agnolotti pasta. The pasta is traditionally filled with veal, pork or rabbit meat, this was mainly done with leftover roasts, but vegetables such as cabbage or spinach are also occasionally used.
The name of the dish stems from the local dialect in which plin translates as a pinch, referring to the preparation method of sealing each agnolotto with a firm squeeze. Agnolotti del plin can be served doused in melted butter, a combination of butter and fresh sage (burro e salvia), tomato sauce, ragù, or meat drippings sauce (sugo d'arrosto).
MOST ICONIC Agnolotti del plin
This is the traditional Italian form of dumplings. Today, the word gnocchi usually refers to a dumpling made with potato-based dough shaped into thick bite-sized pieces and pressed into a ribbed wooden board or grater to create an imprint, which helps the sauce to adhere to each piece.
They are typically boiled in large amounts of salted water or fried in shallow oil, a technique typical for some Italian regions. Gnocchi are believed to have been a predecessor of pasta, and historical records show that the term gnocchi, or gnocco, was sometimes interchangeably used with the word maccherone, a word that once referred to all pasta in general.
MOST ICONIC Gnocchi
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Gnocchi al Castelmagno is a traditional dish and a specialty of Cuneo. It's made with potato gnocchi, butter, milk or cream, and Castelmagno – a local DOP cheese. The gnocchi are cooked and mixed with the sauce consisting of butter, diced Castelmagno cheese, and cream.
The dish is often sprinkled with pepper on top before it's served piping hot. If desired, you can replace half the amount of regular wheat flour with chestnut flour, and the result is a perfect autumnal dish – chestnut gnocchi with Castelmagno.
MOST ICONIC Gnocchi al Castelmagno
Salsiccia di Bra is a traditional sausage hailing from Bra in Cuneo, Italy. Although the exact recipe is a secret, certified producers say that the secret of this cylindrical sausage lies in the right amount of lean veal meat, pig's fat, sea salt, white pepper, cinnamon, mace, and nutmeg.
Many producers enrich it further with fennel, garlic, cheese, leeks, white wine, and even prosecco or sparkling wine for Christmas. The combination is stuffed in a small ram's gut, and the sausage is traditionally eaten fresh and raw with a splash of lemon juice as part of antipasti or as a snack during aperitivo (pre-dinner drink).
MOST ICONIC Salsiccia di Bra
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Tajarin al tartufo bianco is a pasta dish flavored with the regional star - tartufo bianco d'Alba. This simple dish consists of handmade tajarin (also spelled as taglierini and tagliolini) pasta flavored with butter, pepper, and freshly grated white truffles.
Although truffles bring more than enough flavor, a sprinkle of Parmigiano is often used to finish this delicacy, which becomes even more decadent if paired with a glass of dry red wine.
MOST ICONIC Tajarin al tartufo bianco d'Alba
Carne cruda all'albese is an Italian spin on steak tartare, prepared mainly around Alba, a town in the Piedmont region renowned for its precious white truffles. In this version, raw finely chopped beef is flavored with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and garlic.
The dish is often served with thin shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and it is often topped with chopped and roasted Piemontese hazelnuts or the prized white Alba truffle. Due to the fact that truffles are very expensive, fresh wild mushrooms are sometimes used instead.