cornmeal cookies

All over northern Italy we have plenty of corn consequently, besides polenta, in Piedmont we also make traditional cookies with cornmeal, or in Italian, paste di meliga :P

delish tea flavored cornmeal cookies made by Tastinglife

Nonno's grignolino

The Moncalvo area in the Monferrato wine dristrict is rather rich of farms and interesting locations for both wine lovers and foodies, therefore our tour had to visit at our friend Stefano's family vineyard. Yes, Stefano is one lucky man whose grandpa had a beautiful country house, the kind you only see on decor and design magazines and he also happened to own the "perfect vineyard"!

Stefano Girola of Poderi Girola winery showing us la Sossala

Queen goat

While in the Monferrato wine district, our friend Luca introduced us to his neighbors who have a Roccaverano goat farm!

cute goat sign point to the capra regina farm

Moncalvo, the tiniest town

Our Monferrato tour this time brought us to the "Town of Moncalvo". Yes, tiny Moncalvo in the Monferrato wine district - roughly 3000 inhabitants - is officially a town since 1705. Who knew??!

Moncalvo main piazza isn't fully horizontal 

natural produce farm

We took advantage of our Monferrato trip to meet with our friend Luca Scrivanti. Luca needed to get some natural produce for his business: picturesque Cascina Rosa, literally a pink b&b on the top of a hill - you can just imagine the panorama! 

So we jumped into his car and after driving through wild woods - that once were vineyards and driving up a gravel road we arrived to Cascina Krylia.

driving up to Cascina Krylia, Raksha the farm dog is waiting for us 

organic Fassone farm

Just like the Mediterranean scrub is unique, so the Monferrato wine district is unique territory in the world: its landscape is highly varied, not simply steep hills or plains, but a mix of them both, uncultivated woods, vineyards, wheat fields, hazelnut groves, animal farms and vegetable farms. 

Every season changes its colors and its atmosphere: in the summer, days are literally endless while in the fall, haze and rain make the best time to savor its rich local specialties.

Being just at about 1h driving from both Turin and the Milan Malpensa international airport, it is the ideal destination to enjoy amazing food, outstanding wines, castles and art.

Azienda Agricola Monfrin on the Monferrato hills and its semi-wild cows

Krumiri cookies

Today we are talking about another royal Italian cookie: Krumiri.

You can easily find them everywhere in Italy, even in grocery stores, however, the traditional ones are from Casale Monferrato, in Piedmont and they are sold in traditional red tins.
There is only one kind of Krumiri, no variants, besides the industrial ones, of course, and they can make a delicious souvenir!

magic Vezzolano Abbey

Art and history lovers - especially if with a passion for food and outstanding wine - will be amazed by the Vezzolano Abbey from the 12th century.

TurinEpi July 23

Just like any other good thing in life, Turin Epicurean Capital 2015 came to an end on July 23. 

The third day of the second edition started with the round table facilitated by Maria Pasquale who started by sharing her amazement about Turin during her first time last April. The topic of her round table easily outlined from her memories and the magic happened again: the round table participants were so carried away by their talks that the interpreters were literally left out and after checking with the audience, it was decided they didn't need to translate such long pieces of conversation.

Rubino di Cantavenna: a precious wine

This week we're presenting Rubino di Cantavenna, one of the best wines in the world, naturally according to those who make it ;)

It's a red DOC wine made with a blend of Barbera (75%-90%), Grignolino and Freisa (up to 25% individually or combined) wines all grown in the same vineyard to create a bond of flavors and guarantee the affinity of these different vines. 

Rubino di Cantavenna DOC