Panna cotta = Piedmont

P = Piedmont panna cotta

a traditional registered recipe since 2001

Let's be real... who doesn't like panna cotta?? Simple and versatile, it's a world wide people pleaser from Piedmont!

Panna cotta literally means cooked cream, and we mean heavy whipping cream. This is because according to the registered traditional recipe here in Piedmont, NW Italy, you make it by cooking heavy whipping cream with sugar, vanilla or a citrus peel, and by adding gelatin. This is the very basic recipe you can serve with fresh fruit, coulis, natural syrups, chocolate and / or coffee sauce. 

Keep reading for our recipe.

Different versions of panna cotta have been around in Europe since at the very least 1244 when Henrik Harpestræg, a Danish doctor who had studied in Sicily, included in one of his books moos hwit - a dessert almost identical to panna cotta.

Even though, up to the 1960s there is no mention of panna cotta in the Italian cookbooks, legend has it that we owe it to a Hungarian lady who in the early 1900s had moved to the Langhe wine district (Unesco World Heritage Site) here in Piedmont.

Mombaruzzo amaretti

Many of you might be familiar with the Amaretto liqueur and the amaretti cookies, but have you ever tried our Piedmont amaretti di Mombaruzzo?

First of all Mombaruzzo is a picturesque hamlet in the Asti area and this automatically makes us think of green hills, vineyards, renaissance castles, narrow and steep lanes, brick towers and a cute little piazza. Most def it is worth a visit, especially if you bake or are a cookie lover 😉

Legend has it that at the end of the 1700, Francesco Moriondo, bursar of the royal park of La Mandria (near the Royal Palace of Venaria) fell in love with one of the royal pastry chefs, a Sicilian lady. Her specialty was a cake made with almonds.
Once they left the court duties they moved back to Mombaruzzo where Francesco was born and opened a small pastry shop where they started selling a new kind of cookie: soft and elegantly bitter thanks to the almonds.

Amaretto in Italian means a bit bitter because this is how the first fans of these cookies defined them: good and a slightly bitter.

rice and cornmeal cookies

Whether you are busy Christmas baking or you simply enjoy making, eating and giving cookies, today we are sharing a recipe that very simply sums up Piedmont.

Piedmont is the top European rice producer, risotto is one of our staple foods so 50% of this cookies is made with rice flour. Piedmont is also famous for polenta or cornmeal which makes up to the other 50% of the ingredients. Yes, these are simply delish a gluten free cookies that sing out loud: Piedmont!

Rice paddies in the Vercelli area in April when they are flooded

nocciolini di Chivasso

Only three ingredients are needed to make this traditional tiny amaretto-shaped cookies from Chivasso, a small town in the Canavese area, 13 minutes by train north of Turin.

super tiny and delicious nocciolini di Chivasso

lots of kisses!

One can never get enough of kisses especially here in Piedmont where baci di dama or lady's kisses were invented 😙

let's face it: just 1 tin of kisses isn't enough!

Ivrea's cookies

Eporediesi

For all lovers of chocolate and hazelnuts out there, here's one more recipe from Piedmont. Eporediesi are the traditional cookies from Ivrea, a small town just 40min driving from Turin, famous for its carnival, tomini cheese and fairy tale wine: Erbaluce di Caluso - the only Italian DOCG wine in all 4 of its variants!

Bicciolani from Vercelli

Piedmont is famous for its many local cookies, some expanded over the regional borders and have acquired a national recognition becoming regulars on all Italian tables, others are still pretty much connected to their locality and you will find them only where they are produced.

artisan bicciolani

Camporelli aka Pavesini

Each Italian town has its own cookie and camporelli are Novara's cookies or biscottini (tiny cookies).

Coming from the Milan Malpensa airport, driving or riding the train toward Turin, you go through Novara, also known as the gorzonzola cheese hub.

Camporelli are among the few cookies or biscotti that go through a double "cooking" (baking) - bis-cottatura process.

eggs, sugar and flour

Piedmont royal cookies

or savoiardi better known in English as Lady fingers 😋

These are the top royal Piedmontese cookies invented in the 14th century by the chef of Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy when the King of France and his court came over to Turin for an official visit.
They loved them so much that that's how savoiardi became the official royal cookies and were offered to all the royal guests as a symbol of the local cuisine.

Piedmont canestrelli

Cookie lovers, Piedmont offers an endless list of delicious cookies and many share the same name like canestrelli!

In fact, according to where you'll visit, you can find waffle like cookies, thin wafers or wafer sandwiches, could it get anymore scrumptious?

Piedmont canestrelli from Val di Susa (the waffle-like ones) and from the Canavese district (the large holy wafers)

brutti ma buoni

Brutti ma Buoni or ugly but good in Italian are basically hazelnut meringue cookies often eaten during the Holidays.

As they are very easy to make and to modify they come in many variants all around the Italian boot and you can further personalize our Piedmontese original recipe.

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

easy peasy pampavia

Pampavia are among the most simple and easiest cookies in the world. They come straight from the old time country life of Ceresole D'Alba, the uppest municipality in the Roero wine district, on the Unesco vineyard covered hills.

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!

Torcetti cookies

Food and wine in Piedmont are a real lifestyle, after all Piedmont is the Italian top wine producer, cheese making region and homeland to Slow Food and all food sustainability philosophies and... it also produces a high variety of cookies!

Let's face it, cookies in their simplicity have the high power to make a bad day into a good one when we dunk them in wine or to start our day in the best way, when we have some for breakfast!

Cookies are easy to make, thus have the big power of making us feel at home away from home. When professionally made they bring us back in time and can also add a touch of royalty to any coffee break.