TorreBarolo Blog

With the holidays upon us, might be nice to offer your guests something different as an hor’d’oeuvre. Bagna càuda, which translates into ‘warm bath’ is a famous Piemontese dish, with anchovies as the key ingredient. Seems funny that Piemonte, as one of the only regions in Italy that doesn’t touch the sea would have a dish with anchovies as its base. The history behind this is that 300 years ago, Piemontese people that harvested salt and butter in the mountains would trade along the ancient salt routes in exchange for anchovies from Liguria.

Now before you think, anchovies, yuck, too salty, the key here is that the anchovies are melted in olive oil. You have to be careful not to fry them or else the anchovies loose all their flavour. The fact that you combine the anchovies with garlic (soaked first in milk), butter and olive oil makes it clear how this is a yummy dish to set in the middle of a table for friends to gather round and enjoy large plates of raw vegetables and a good bottle of Barolo.

Ingredients: (per head)

• ¾ head of garlic
• 50 grams (1/4 cup) of chopped anchovies fillets
• 60 ml (¼ cup) of milk
• 150 ml (10 table spoons) of olive oil
• 15 gm (1 tbps) butter
• Pinch of salt
• Dash of vinegar

Suggested vegetables:

• Peppers (Capsicums)
• Celery
• Endives
• Fennel 
• Cabbage

Country Bread 

Directions:

1. Break the garlic into cloves and peel
2. Place the garlic in a saucepan and cover with the milk until the garlic is tender (the milk mellows the garlic)
3. Discard the milk and chop the garlic coarsely
4. Sprinkle the garlic with fine salty and then cut the garlic finely
5. Return the garlic to the saucepan and add the olive oil
6. Rise the salt off the anchovies and wash them in vineagar
7. Pat the anchovies dry, chop them up and add them to the oil and garlic
8. Return the pan to a low heat (the oil must not boil) and stir continuously (in order to not burn the garlic)
9. Stir until the mixture reaches an even consistency and after 20min, add the butter, stirring it in until it melts
10. Serve in an earthware pot over a flame. It is key that dip remains warm
11. Dip raw veggies or bread

Recommend wine: Nebbiolo dei Roeri

It can be hard to find fresh anchovies and generally they are sold preserved in salt, but if that is the case, just soak them in water to get rid of the excess salt. You might also have to take out the bone.

Given the Piemonte ski resorts officially opened this past weekend, I thought some information on skiing in the area would make for a timely post.

When people think of skiing in Italy, world famous resorts like Sestriere, Courmayeur and Cervinia come to mind. Having skied the later two, I can say that both are lovely villages that have all the amenities that one would want for a week’s ski holiday in the Alps. But what if you don’t want to commit a week to being just in a ski resort? Then this is where the Cuneo Valley offers a good many alternatives.

One of the many reasons I fell in love with TorreBarolo was its proximity – 45min to the Mediterranean and 45min to Maritime Alps that are close to the French border. Although I have hiked into these Southern Alps to escape the summertime heat, it was only this past February that I finally had time to take advantage of my proximity to the numerous local ski resorts ….. and I was very pleasantly surprised.

There are numerous small ski resorts in the Cuneo valley, but I think your best choices are the Riserva Bianca at Limone Piemonte or the Mondole Ski area with your choice of Prato Nevoso and Artesina. From Barolo by car, Limone Piemonte is about an hour and a half and Prato Nevoso and Artesina are a bit less than an hour.  If you don’t have a car, there are bus and train options.

Limone Piemonte got a complete make-over/upgrade in 2008 when it hosted The Snowboard World Cup. Lift systems link three valleys and the resorts of Limone, Colle di Tenda and Limonetto. It has 80 kilometres of trails (41 trails to be exact) serviced by 19 ski lifts. (One of the ski lifts was so comfortable, I could have been sitting on my couch.) The resort has a few different areas to ski, but I generally opt for Limonetto that is at 1,294 metres and has trails on 2 mountains, the highest from the 3 Amis mountain at 2,050 metres.

There is a cluster of buildings at the mountain base that contains a ski rental shop, a snack bar/restaurant and a lift ticket booth.  I was worried about the quality of the rental equipment at a small report, but it turned out the equipment I rented was the best I had had for years. Lift tickets cost about €33 for a full day though if you are lazy like me, you can start after 11am and pay just €28. The weather tends to be mild in the Maritime Alps and when we were there, the sun was bright, the sky was blue and there wasn’t a cloud to be seen.

The views are stunning over the “Mountains of the Two Rivieras” (Nice is only 60 km away). The slopes are wide, steep and with very few bumps and I felt like a ski goddess cruising down the mountain. And if the non-crowded, well groomed pistes weren’t enough, we had lunch at this cabin restaurant at the top of the mountain where I indulged in polenta with sausage in a wine and tomato sauce …… oh my god. All in all, it was the perfect ski day.

And at the end of the day, you get in your car and head back to the Langhe Valley free to decide if your next day on holiday should be to Turin to indulge in a biceren at one of the elegant cafes or instead to drive 45mins to the sea to explore the seaside towns and indulge in a bowl of fresh seafood pasta. Everything is possible.

(Personally I do everything I can to not fly Ryanair, but in the winter they do have a very handy London-Cuneo Levaldigi flight every Saturday. Levaldigi is only 40mins from Limone Piemonte and the airport has all your basic services like car rental and shuttle services.)

This year, the Torino Film Festival celebrates its 27^th anniversary; this is also the first year it is directed by Gianni Amelio. The Festival remains true to its tradition of discovery and critical reflection of contemporary cinema, its languages and its authors.

On November 13^th, the opening of the 27^th TORINO FILM FESTIVAL will be celebrated at the prestigious Teatro Regio with the international preview of Nowhere Boy, the first feature film by the English director Sam Taylor Wood. The film focuses on John Lennon’s early years and is based on the book Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon, written by John’s stepsister, Julia Baird. 2010 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the death of the English musician.

One of the new features introduced by Festival director Gianni Amelio is a special recognition, the TORINO GRAND PRIX, to honor directors who, from the rise of the nouvelles vagues of the 1960s on, have helped renew the film language. During the final evening of the Festival, the award will be given to Emir Kusturica, for the inventive quality of his films and the absolute originality of his style.

As always, the program of the 2009 TORINO FILM FESTIVAL offers a rich selection of approximately 220 films, projected in the following sections:

TORINO 27 – FEATURE FILMS COMPETITION. The main competitive section of the Festival is reserved to directors making their first, second or third film and proposes fifteen newly produced films that have yet to screen in Italy.
A MOVABLE FEAST. This is a voyage that will accompany Festival-goers through the most interesting films of 2009, the rising trends and the most curious previews.
CONFIDENTIAL REPORT. This section takes stock of an emerging director or specific phenomenon in international cinema. This year, the protagonist is Nicolas Winding Refn, a young Danish director.
ITALIANA.DOC. A competition reserved to unscreened Italian feature-length documentaries, on film or in video.
SONS AND LOVERS. Six important Italian directors, representing different generations, trends, expressive lines and themes, are asked to choose a film from the past that was of fundamental importance in catalyzing their inspiration and their desire to become a filmmaker.
ITALIANA.CORTI. Short films have their own language, tempo and rhythm and this is why the TFF has decided to reserve a specific competitive space to them.
SPAZIO TORINO. This competition presents the best shorts that were made by filmmakers who were born in or reside in Piedmont, an area that has always been a ferment of film activity.
WAVES. This section is a crossroads of trial proofs, research trends, explorations of languages, formats and expressive methods.

If you aren’t familiar with the events surrounding the annual International White Truffle fair in Alba, this is a great video that captures the mood and spirit of it. The images in the video are mainly from the opening weekend celebration when the city hosts various events with participants in medieval dress. One particularly entertaining event in the opening weekend is Alba’s Donkey Palio.

This is Alba making fun of its rival city Asti and its Palio (on bare horse back). Other events that weekend involve numerous wine and food tastings. If you want to make plans for a visit, this is a great time to experience the Langhe.  Although the truffle fair goes on for a whole month, many of the events highlighted in this video take place the first weekend of October.