centerpieces bustling and large (at least by Italian standards) cities: Turin in Piedmont and Milan in Lombardy. Each of these is in turn surrounded by charming smaller cities, such as Asti, Alba, and Vercelli in Piedmont, and Cremona, Pavia, and Mantua in Lombardy.
Valle d'Aosta is a bit of an outsider among this cosmopolitan group. It is Italy's smallest and least populous region with 115,000 inhabitants. Although sparsely inhabited, Valle d'Aosta is home to several mountains—Mont Blanc, Mount Rosa, the Matterhorn, and the Gran Paradiso (which at 13,324 feet is the centerpiece of Italy's largest national park). Its capital, Aosta, is certainly not a city on the level of Milan and Turin.
Where Valle d'Aosta does keep up with its flashy neighbors, however, is in its agriculture and cheese production. While Lombardy produces a vast number of different types of cheese, Valle d'Aosta concentrates on one: Fontina. In this tiny region, Fontina is carefully regulated and codified, and locals are able to determine the season—perhaps even the month—in which the cow provided the milk that went into a specific cheese's production. Fontina is made from whole unpasteurized milk of one milking. It is then pressed, scalded and ripened. Fontina has a delicate nutty aroma and a smooth, slightly elastic texture with some small round holes.
Valle d'Aosta has numerous orchards and is famed for its pears and apples—particularly the small and flavorful rennet apples. It is also a major honey producer. Chestnut-flavored honey is a typical Valle d'Aosta product, and chestnuts are used in many ways in this region. They are still ground into flour that is used to thicken soup as well as to make sweet and savory tarts.
As is true of all of Italy, the northwest has been conquered and dominated many times over the millennia. Piedmont was dominated by the Romans, the Franks, and the Lombards over the years until it came almost completely under the rule of the House of Savoy, along with Sardinia, after 1400. When Italy was still a series of city-states, the impulse to unite into a single country in the 1800s (a project that did not reach completion until 1861) was led by Piedmont.
Valle d'Aosta was originally a Roman settlement created to provide a barrier between Rome and the bellicose Gauls. The first inhabitants of this region were the Salassi, who lived in Valle d'Aosta more than 2,500 years ago. They were succeeded by the Romans (who conquered the Salassi and sold them as slaves). The Romans recognized the importance of centrally located Aosta and made it their base. When the Roman Empire fell, Valle d'Aosta came under the rule of the church. It is a relatively young region, formed only in 1945.
Also called cèpes porcini mushrooms are pale brown in color and can weigh from 1 oz (30 g) up to 1 lb (500 g); their caps range from 1 to 10 inches in diameter. Porcini have a smooth, meaty texture and pungent, woody flavor.
Lombardy was Celtic from the 5th century until it was conquered by Rome in 201 BC. After several centuries of attack by barbarians, it became the kingdom of the Lombards, a Germanic people, in AD 568. The Lombards lost control of the area to King Charlemagne in 774, but the region still bears their name.
While the days when Italy's city-states fought each other and invading forces are over, there is one subject that still raises the hackles of Italians from any region: the suggestion that their foods might not be superior to all others. While the foods of these three regions might seem mighty similar to an outsider, rest assured that, if questioned about the best food in Italy, or even in the world, their inhabitants will answer with certainty that the best food in the world is found in their backyards, and chances are they won't be speaking metaphorically.
The Imperialino restaurant at the Grand Hotel Imperiale, Moltasio, by Lake Como.
The Cuisine of Lombardy
The gastronomic variety in Lombardy is as exciting and diverse as the region itself
Although Lombardy's capital, Milan, is its best-known city—Milan has been important both politically and economically for more than ten centuries and is famous for dishes such as risotto alla milanese and costoletta alia Milanese—the region's other cities and provinces each have their own charms and culinary specialties.
Cremona is as renowned for its piquant mustard as for its finely crafted violins. Pavia is home to one of Italy's best universities and is known for its magro, or meatless dishes. Brescia and Beigamo boast the gilded look of small, wealthy cities and serve equally brilliant yellow dishes of polenta. Mantua offers a Renaissance cooking style that derives from the famous Court of the Gonzagas—spices and sweet-and-sour combinations are prevalent.
The lake district of Lombardy, home to Lakes Como, Maggiore, and Garda, is a beautifully groomed vacation area where fabulous freshwater fish is served, and frog's legs are a surprisingly common ingredient. And the northern part of Lombardy, the Valtellina, is an alpine haven with fabulous food such as pizzoccheri (buckwheat pasta) and bresaola (air-dried beef) and wines. Indeed, Lombardy houses perhaps the widest range of cooking styles of any region in Italy, hence resulting in food that is as exciting and diverse as the region itself.
One area in which Lombardy's diversity is truly astounding is cheese. Some of Italy's best cheeses are made in Lombardy, and the region produces an overwhelming number of different types.
Grana Lodigiana is seasoned for one to two years and fashioned into large cylinders weighing from 50 to 80 pounds (24 to 40 kilograms). It has a hard, golden yellow crust and is traditionally eaten both as a table cheese and grated.
Lombardy is also home to creamy Mascarpone, a snow-white to straw-colored substance that is more cream than cheese. Mascarpone is, in fact, coagulated cream aged just 24 hours. It is often eaten on its own, but is also an important ingredient in tiramisù and other dishes. Stracchino, which today basically refers to Crescenza but also includes Taleggio, Gorgonzola, and some robiola cheeses under its etymological umbrella, is slightly acidic and has no crust. It is milk-white and can be spread like butter. Strongly-scented Taleggio, on the other hand, has a soft texture and delicious taste, and it is a full, rich cheese and slightly sweet. Spicy Gorgonzola, is marbled with the green mold that gives it its unmistakable aroma; it hails from a town of the same name.
Other cow's milk cheeses include compact and strongly flavored Bagoss from the Bagolini mountains of Brescia with its hint of bitter herbs from the mountain pasture. Bagoss is eaten as a table cheese after two months ripening or allowed to mature up to six months for a more piquant, harder cheese that is used for grating. Bitto hails from the mountains of Gerola and, traditionally, contains one-fifth goats' milk. It is eaten either as a table cheese or, after ripening for up to three years, as a hard, grating cheese. The flavor of Bitto displays a hint of hazelnuts. Branzi of Bergamo is sweet when young but grows increasingly aromatic and spicy as it ages. The robiola cheeses of Valsassina are semihard and fall somewhere between sweet and spicy on the flavor scale. A reddish-brown rind that develops after the cheese has ripened for several weeks characterizes robiola.
In addition to its wide selection of cheeses, Lombardy offers many cold cuts, including bresaola—salted, dried, and lightly smoked beef filet. Berna is sheep's meat dried in the sun at 2000 meters (Tonale is famous for it). Busecchin is a blood sausage found throughout the southern Milan area. Coppa is a kind of salami made from the upper neck of a pig (Pietragavina is the main source). Cotechino sausage is made with spiced ground pork rind and pork thigh. Cuz is young lamb cooked and preserved in its own fat, typical of Val Camonica.
Different varieties of cheese, served at the Il Griso restaurant in Lecco.
Monza's
