Then there were white Piedmontese and brindled Alpine cattle to provide good meat and milk for cheeses desserts and butter. In addition to milk, therefore, the foundation of many dishes rested on an excellent, abundant production of cheeses. These were praised as long ago as 1477 by Pantaleone di Confienza in his " Lacticinorum historia". Today they have been revalued with the assignment of seven appellations of origin: Bra, Castelmagno, Raschera and Murazzano (all produced in the Cuneo area), Robiola di Roccaverano from the provinces of Asti and Alessandria, Gorgonzola (Cuneo, Novara and Vercelli) and Grana Padano (made everywhere in Piedmont). For the last two centuries, maize for the production of "polenta" (meal) has been grown on the upper, cooler plains and the valleys between the ridges of hills.
The potato has been cultivated for a little over a hundred years, while rice -now of the best quality to be found in Europe - has been on the scene for some 350 years. Along the river valleys, in the foothills and on the flatlands around the cities and towns, served "ab antiquo" (from time immemorial) by a good network of streams and irrigation channels, then as now men produced fine vegetables: cabbages, leeks, onions, beans, pumpkins, celery, beets, turnips and spinach.
These have been joined in recent years by splendid varieties of peppers and eggplants, as well as tomatoes, the foundations of endless soups, side dishes, fillings and salads, often combined with eggs and cheeses. And we shall do well to remember that Piedmont from the ecologically happy days of Emanuel Philbert down to the upheavals of our polluted over-populated civilization was always richly embroidered with a fine texture of watercourses, brooks and mountain streams, as well as lakes both large and small, once abounding in fine fish, crayfish and frogs used for many a mouthwatering concoction.Many of the fine engravings produced by Gallo Gallina in the early years of the nineteenth century portray the buxom fishwives of Turin's Porta Palazzo market with their panniers full of fish of the most attractive kind: carp, used to prepare the "bagna verde" with garlic, parley and fine-flavoured herbs, and eels.
The large river crayfish, grey when caught and coral red when boiled, were used to make a delicious soup. Roast or boiled pike found its way into green and red "bagnetti", while barbels and dace were brought to the table in a jelly flavoured with onion, vinegar and sage, and small catfish and minnows were fried in black wrought-iron pans, first in oil made from walnuts, almonds, grape pips or sunflower seeds, soon replaced by olive oil brought inland from the coast. It is curious to observe how these freshwater fishes when dried or pickled in brine became one of the heaviest selling foodstuffs on the Piedmontese markets judging from the registers of local taxes and excise duties. Fish from other areas was hardly ever eaten fresh, but preserved in a variety of simple, tasty ways.
Anchovies in brine combined with garlic made the "bagna cauda" or were used vith small peppers and aromatic herbs to make a great variety of other spicy "bagnas" and "bagnetti". Salted cod, stockfish and smoked herrings, too, show us how the farmers preferred to have red wines on their tables: with a "bagna cauda", for example, Barbera is de rigeur, or at any rate a full-bodied Dolcetto(regarded as not much better than a stand-in, nevertheless). As a result, the need to produce and drink white wines has only come to the fore in recent decades as a companion to fresh seafish and hors d'oeuvres and in keeping with a summer craze for light, dry, sparkling and thoroughly chilled varieties, whereas in days gone by all that was produced was a few bottles of rather cloudy, sweet white wine, looked upon as a refined "medicine" for the sick.
To be continued.......
Last updated 30-Jun-97
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