Although quite rustic, the cuisine of Piedmont region is very much influenced by the formal French and Austrian Hungarian rule as well as Jewish and peasant culture.

It’s a fantastic blend of all fine things, varying from meats, fishes, vegetables and tons of pasta. The Ministry of Agricultural and Food Policies has recognized over 300 Piedmontese products as “traditional”. Some of the delicious cheeses can fit into that category.

Cheeses like toma, bra or robiola d’alba were easily found in supermarkets, as well as this little on the go snack.

Speaking of supermarkets, when in Italy, we found more convenient to book Airbnb stays and devour everything from the local grocery shops that stay in hotels.

In that way our breakfasts and sometimes dinners would consist of variety of local cheeses but also tons of mortadella, homemade butter and tartare because why not.

And wine not let’s forget!

The wine region surrounding Torino is one of the most important wine regions in Italy, if you ask me; and some other wine connoisseurs. Although a matter of personal opinion the Barolo wine is considered to be the king of the red wines, while Barbaresco would be a queen. Both are produced in the Barolo, Alba and Asti surroundings, just an hour ride south of Torino.

The food culture in Torino is not different from other parts of Italy. The day starts and ends with gluten and bread, while grisinis and pizzas are found everywhere.

On every corner of the city there were small, sometimes aesthetically unappealing bars that would offer aperitivis with different schiacciata (pressed sandwich) or aperipizza offers (slice of pizza and aperol spritz for 8 euros let’s say).

After all no wonder the snack culture is so big in Torino as it was right here where aperitivo was invented, thanks to distiller Antonio Benedetto Carpano who created the vermouth (a widely popular aperitivo drink), in 1786, blending fortified wine with various aromatic herbs and spices.

Few hundred years after aperitivo appeared the small triangular sandwich filled with almost anything, tramezzino, was born right there in 1925 in a small Caffè Mulassano in Piazza Castello.

There was no chance that we would miss this spot, even if we weren’t hungry 😊

The soft white no crust bread filled with anything from cheeses, vegetables, tuna fish or meat is cut in triangle form and served often with some kind of coffee.

The best way is to try the traditional hot drink native to Torino; made of espresso, drinking chocolate, and milk served layered in a small glass.

The proposed way to consume it is by eating layers with a spoon or slowly sipping it never ruining the original layered form by stirring the drink. By the last sip of the drink you have so much caffeine and chocolate energy and your heart beats per second are unusually high, so it’s best to lay down.

We didn’t have time to waste. Three days were not enough to explore the rich Torinese food scene so we started with the traditional and ended surprised more than once.

Our first lunch sport was carefully researched traditional Savoian restaurant where we dined upon our arrival to the city. It was literally strait from the airport to a table for to on the busy terrace. Busy meaning, sitting right on the street 😊 Italians.

La Piola Sabauda means savoian trattoria in a local Torinese dialect so the menu is very traditional and we opted for all things never heard of before. As one would, right?

We had some most iconic dishes that we have heard of but not really tasted before. Vitello tonnato and carne cruda are one of those.

Vitello tonnato is a cold, sliced veal covered with a creamy, mayonnaise-like sauce flavored with tuna dish with unclear geographical origins, but obviously domesticated in Piemonte Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay under a name vitel tonnè.

Carne cruda was the biggest mystery of the meny but it turned out to be just non aged sausage meat. In a sausage form and shape. Out of ordinary but not my most desired dish.

Contrary to the square shaped pasta filled with meat typical of the region; plin and agnolotti.

Plin are the tiny pasta parcels are filled with a combination of beef and cabbage before being served in a cheese and butter sauce or leftover braising liquid. They were yummy, tasty and one couldn’t get enough of it.

And so were the agnolitti, kind of bigger plin and similar ravioli shaped pasta. They were covered with a simple ragu without the usual tomato sauce. Just meat.

Debeli had the classic stake of the fassona, a breed of domestic cattle that originated in the region of Piedmont.

The dessert was, as it had to be; a classic Italian tiramisu. No more, no less and our full Piemontese food experience could start.

Just few minutes away from our accommodation I found a simple and easy booking restaurant that we didn’t have the time to enjoy to the fullest (read: nap time / museum visit / the airline lost our child stroller), but we had some very tasty foods.

Ristorante Consorzio labels it self as a Piemontese restaurant with classic traditional dishes and a tasting menu. Simple and easy to go through the menu, something that was very much needed at the time.

We went for a very creamy and full deep fried egg, some more traditional pasta (tajarin is a form of piemontese tagliolini pasta) and a fine wine sprinkled stake.

Italians know their way around food and thanks to the good quality ingredients, skillful chefs and a slow food movement  (*promotes local ingredients and traditional cooking), established right there in Piemonte region no wonder our best dishes were in a local canteen and at the airport!!!

After our visit to the Museo Lavazza we decided to try our luck and have lunch in the canteen used by the Lavazza HQ employees and open to regular visitors of the museum.

For a small deposit price you can get a card that you use as an ordering card at the canteen and than at the check out, you pay the price for a meal. Btw the prices for the employees are around 2 euros per dish. Part of the price is of course subsidized by the company.

Basic in decoration, with several counters of different food themes and offers are adequate for everyone’s needs and wishes. Ours were very simple; traditional and local.

We had parmigiana, a dish made of fried eggplants and mozzarella; small concave wholemeal pasta orecchiette, rabbit stew with potatoes and canederli; bread dumplings flavoured with Alpine ingredients like speck (a local cured meat) and cheese, originating from norther part of Italy Trentino Alto Adige and Veneto region. The one closer to Austrian border, so when googling you will get semmelknödel as well in your search engine.

On our way to the goat farm in Capriglio, just after ending a morning wine tour in Barolo, we stopped for a lunch in Cocconato a small village in a Province of Asti.

La Cantina del Ponte was suggested by our hosts from the goat farm and it was a fantastic recommendation. The two probably has some deal between as we saw some of the Capre e cavoli cheeses on the menu but regardless, I was blown away by the combination of ingredients and delicious dishes.

Local seasonal products like hazelnuts and pumpkin were in full bloom so I decided to start with pumpkin milile follie.

Thinly sliced pumpkin stripes covering the cheese and sprinkeled with hazelnuts were pure delight, as well as cheese filled ravioli. Didn’t know how such simple add like hazelnuts can upgrade the dish so much.

Debeli had simple but tasty pasta with funghi porcini mushrooms and beef tagliata with potatoes. Simple but effective.

The dessert was a famous Torinese ice cream covered with chocolate. Back in 1939 the Pepino company  invented and patented the famous “Pinguino®” – first chocolate coated ice-cream on stick. M had a simple vanilla flavor ice cream, very much similar to Ledo Snjeguljica, while I opted for a lavender flavored one. It sounds better than it does in the taste It was just a vanilla base lavender smell ice cream. But still a refreshing ending of a tasty lunch in a village Cocconato d’Asti.

After savoring som industrial ice cream, there had to be a some artisanal gelato tasting as well. At least for the little one. I mapped tons of the local ice cream shops but we managed to visit only to.

The first one was in our neighborhood so it was a frequently visited shop where we had some gianduja  ice cream, and the other was Mara dei Boschi; a laboratory that produces all good sweet things like chocolates, coffee and ice cream.

The final dinner in Torino was very traditional local restaurant, that turned out to be not so good one.

Osteria Al Tagliere  had a fantastic outdoor seating, and a very delicious tasting plate of several appetizers but we weren’t so delighted with the main course.

Even if our last dinner in Torino wasn’t out of the space experience, we didn’t leave bitter. Flying out from Torino to Seville in the early afternoon, we were luck to have lunch at the airport.

Now, you may think, as we did that airport food will be overpriced and bad. Well, not in Torino airport. I think we had the cheapest and the most tasty pasta, comparing it to the rest of the city locations. I mean, we could have just gone to have lunch at the airport to have it good! 🙂

We even had some ice cream from Venchi shop that we visited in Firenze few years back.

It was definitely easier to leave Italy on a full stomach sprinkled with a bit of mango ice cream! <3