Holiday Greetings from the Alps

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Merry Christmas from Bella Baita

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Team Delcious and Nonna Genia's Recipes come to life at Bella Baita

Normally what happens at Bella Baita, stays at Bella Baita, but on occasion I share some of our experiences with our guests, with their permission, of course. This holiday season brought us a group of adventuresome, fun loving, food journalists and photographer, from the Netherlands, who collectively work and free lance for the Dutch food magazine Delicious (in Dutch, naturally). Independently, they have a variety of projects on the trot.

Team Delicious plus Fabrizio, minus Suzanne

Their choice of Piedmont for the Christmas holidays reflected their ongoing love of this area's cuisine as they have been here on numerous occasions for work and play, just as they did this time. Merjin Tol, a food editor for Delicious and part of the Dutch convivium of Slow Food and fellow free lance food stylist, Nadia Zerouali have attended the Salone del Gusto on more than one occasion as well as exploring and sampling other Slow Food offerings here in the Piedmont region. Saskia van Osnabrugge, made up the third of this intrepid trio that ventured up to Bella Baita between our record snow storms, testing their mettle by learning how to get the chains on and off of their transports wheels. A bit of tutoring from Fabrizio and they soon got it down to a fine art. The spark plug in the group was Tariq, Nadia's son who kept everyone smiling and on track. No communication problems there, as he spoke Dutch to us and we spoke English with him and in the end we got there. Part of the holiday they were joined by the delightful Suzanne, another food editor for the mouth watering Delicious magazine. What a line up of talent.
They brought along a copy of the Christmas Delicious edition that featured their visually appealing collaboration with free lance food photographer extraordinaire, Saskia van Osnabrugge, that will have you running right out to buy up all the winter vegetables you can find. Check out Saskia's web site for a sample of her work that will tantalize you to discover more of her work. Merjin and Nadia's sites are in progress, but if you can read Dutch and love Arabic food, then I recommend that you run, not walk, out and purchase a copy of "Arabia", the recently published cook book that Merjin and Nadia's labor of love has produced, along with the gorgeous photography of another of their collaborators, Sven Benjamins, who did not make this trip, but, perhaps next time.

This intoxicating gorgeous cook book, come travel diary, will be a delight to their fans through the Delicious magazine. Fortunately/unfortunately, for me it has only been published in Dutch at the moment. Why fortunate you ask?, because I have had a quasi moratorium on cook book purchases, since I started working and living away from the US. It has been a hard habit to shake, because I love and lust after, beautifully photographed cook books that have wonderful stories to accompany the recipes. You guessed it, this one has all of those elements and whimsical illustrations that ties together this into a must have cook book package. If you have any Dutch friends that love Arabic food, then direct them to this book pronto! I, of course, will undoubtedly be breaking that quasi moratorium, as soon as the English version hits the shelves, and it sounds like that is already in the works. Merjin and Nadia cooked and ate their way thought out the middle east, southern Spain and Sicily with a variety of local experts. Now that I have spent a few days and meals with them I can only imagine what fun it must have been. They have a passion for real food made by real people and an elegantly simple style of presentation that will have you wiping the drool off your book.

Piedmont has been fertile ground for all of them and their foodie adventures, also known as work. This time was no different as they worked on a free lance project for one of my old favorites, the American cooking magazine, Saveur, in between skiing up at Sestriere.

They were working on developing some updated recipes based on recipes from a local cook book from the Langhe region, that I was not familiar with before, called, Nonna Genia.
This classic Langhe cook book is a combination tribute to the authors grandmother's cooking with some additional recipes by chefs of "Stelle del Piemonte" and to the trattoria by the same name in Grinzane Cavour, which I am assuming is run by this family. It is a classic collection of Piemontese recipes and indeed worth tracking down, now that it has been translated into English. It is available in Italian or English from here from in Italy from the Asti library or from Alta Cucina Inc in the US.

Working out in our guest kitchen

Team Delicious cooked up a storm, in our modest guest kitchen, while the snow fell on Christmas day. That kitchen had never seen such activity, even when we have taught some of our cooking classes there over the years. Merjin and Nadia made their interpretation of the books "Polenta with Cabbage" as more of a hearty soup and the "Pear Martine Tart" with the added attraction of on old fashion type of cherry to add another dimension to this delightful polenta based tart.

Saskia plying her craft

How do I know you ask? Well, we all gathered together in our more spacious dining room after they braved the elements and put Saskia through her paces getting just the right angle and backdrop of our neighbors old baita to raise these dishes up to new heights of deliciousness, to share a fine Christmas repast!

Women at work

In spite of braving the elements or because of, the soup tasted heartily wonderful, even with the unintended element of smoky flavor that our pans lent to the dish, as the guests kitchen utensils were not really the best for making a perfect polenta soup. I actually really liked that aspect and even incorporated it into my interpretation of this dish recently. I'll be sharing my results and tweaks on these recipes here in the next couple of days. Do come back as I think you'll find the results worth a try out as an addition to your own winter repertoire of comfort foods.

Gift Idea and Acciughe al Verde for the Seven Fishes Feast

Just reminder if you need a last minute gift that you don't have to wrap and ship and will make a difference in someones' life be sure and have a look at Mercy Corps' Mercy Kits!
Choose between food, health, or garden kits and others that help people help themselves. Today the 18th is the last day to insure a gift card arrives in time for the holidays, but you can choose this option all year long. You choose the amount you want to spend and the gift will keep on giving long after the holiday season.

On another note,
I hate to miss a party, so even though I am down to the deadline with little time to spare, I did put a little something together for Maryann of Finding la Dolce Vita, and Joe of Italyville's, Seven Fishes Feast. Do head over and sample all the delectable dishes there and pick up a few ideas and recipes for your holiday celebrations!

The Feast of the Seven Fishes isn't generally celebrated up here in landlocked Piedmont, although fish is an important part of the Piemontese cuisine, especially anchovies. They are so very fond of them, fresh, marinate, fried and cooked in all sorts of dishes as that little subtle, or not, "je ne sais quois" element to the dish.
I found it peculiar that anchovies were such a frequent ingredient in so many of their regional dishes, especially as it it he main ingredient of the much beloved and somewhat revered, Bagna Cauda. We are 3 hours away form the coast, which is a heck of a lot closer to the coast than where I grew up, but I still was surprised by its popularity. When I came across the tale of salted anchovies arriving over the alps via the salt trail, it shed some historical light on the ardor of the locals for these small salty fish. As the tale goes, large barrels of generously salted anchovies were in actuality a lot more salt than anchovy. Salt was a such precious commodity back in the day and was quite heavily taxed by the state, that in true Italian fashion, clever people found a way to get more salt for less taxes paid. With an abundance of anchovy the addition of anchovy to many dishes came to be the norm. At least that is how the story was told to me.

Acciughe al Verde doesn't really go by a firm recipe, but there are a few tips.
You must use the best quality of anchovy that you can find. My in-laws, insist that it can only be salted anchovy. They are not fans of anchovy in jars, as they they say they aren't the true anchovy. They will use them in sauces where they will need to break down completely in the cooking, but not if they are going to retain their texture. I have to admit after having had my palate educated, I do agree with them as well. High quality, salted anchovy are a far cry from anything I have ever had that you buy in oil. I was never an anchovy fan until moving to Italy. I wrinkled my nose up as well, but once you have some done well, especially fresh ones, I think you might change your mind about this much maligned fish. Give them a go.

Acciughe al Verde

6 salted whole anchovies,
figure 1 -3 per person depending on your crowds ardour for them
2-3 garlic cloves, more if everyone is having them and loves garlic
fresh parsely, maybe a whole bunch
Extra virgin olive oil, a flavorful is nice

First clean your anchovies, by pulling the tail off and then run your knife or finger down the inside of the center of the fish pulling out the spine, keeping the two sides intact.

Place all of the fillets in a bowl and rinse a few times, ridding the rest of the odd bone or two left.
Let the fillets soak about an hour and rinse. If you let them soak too much or rinse them too thoroughly you lose some of the salty flavor that you want to keep.
Now place rinsed dry anchovies in a bowl.
Grate on a micro plane or mince very fine, you garlic into the anchovies.
Chop the parsley very fine and add.
Cover all with oil to make a nice saucy green mixture.
Adjust amounts as needed.
Cover and let sit overnight or up to three days.
Serve at room temperature, making sure to adjust garlic, parsley or salt as needed.
This sauce usually has a big garlic bite to it.
Best if everyone enjoys some at your dinner party for every one's sake!

Holiday Festivities

It was my kind of Christmas visit and celebration this past week. We had old friends visiting from halfway around the world and made some new friends as well. We did a bit of sightseeing, to Monviso, which is not only the highest peak in our range of the alps, but also is the headwaters of the Po river, longest river in Italy. We enjoy taking our friends and family to our off the beaten path places that we love. Pian della Regina, is at the end of the road past Crissolo, and sets under the very impressive face of Monviso, 3,841 m (12,600) I love this mountain as it is such a presence in our landscape and is an imposing monolith that stands out in a crowd of mountains. Fabrizio spent a winter season there, years ago, running their on mountain "baita" operation, and has been treated as part of their family ever since. I am part of that extended family and we always find a warm welcome when we visit their "Baita della Polenta", restaurant/rooms and refugio, all rolled into one. The area is a bit past it's winter heyday when the small ski area used to really pull them in from Torino and beyond, but the lifts have aged and the family no longer has the will or resources to replace the lift that started just outside their door. It's a shame, as it is a stunning place and a fun hillside to do a few turns down. They still have a lift in town that runs on the weekends and they hosted the world mountaineering championships a couple of years back. Summer is still hopping with backpackers of all nationalities and mountaineers, making their way across the GTA, which is a famous footpath crossing the length of the entire European alps, and a popular trek in the summer. We love taking people over there as it is a regional park, a stunning drive, and a charming stop at the top of it all with warm friendly people there to look after you. Very worth while place to make the effort to experience, indeed.

Continuing on our winter tour of the valley we spent one day skiing Sestriere with our friends in slightly overcast weather, but otherwise pleasant conditions for skiing.

What a treat to go skiing. Christmas Day we got up at a reasonable hour, had breakfast and off we went to Prali on a gorgeous sunny day. The conditions were good, the sun was out and all was well in our world. We ripped it up all day and then came home for a feast fit for the occasion. Good wine, good food, good friends and family. Who could ask for more.

Both of the ski areas are fun and deserve more of a proper write up, so I think I'll save that for another day in the new year, when I'm up for writing more about these places, Prali especially, as it fits into my off the beaten trail and hidden gems catergories. Something to share, in the future, especially as I have a few more photos to trot out.

Happy New Year to all!

Fun In the Alps

"Peaceful Pragelato" Mecca for Nordic skiers

Our guests have come and gone and now we await our guests for Capo D'Anno(that's new years to you). We had a great Christmas at Bella Baita, with new friends. There was lots of eating and drinking with story telling too. Hot spiced wine, many Christmas cookies, Italian goodies and a foray up the upper valley for a bit of skiing atmosphere, made for more than a few memorable moments. Not all of our guests were skiers, but everyone enjoyed the atmosphere and snow. It was a great day out and a good time was had by all. It's a pretty mild winter for us and the snow that we did have around the house has crept away. Winter is the quiet time of the year for us at Bella Baita, except for the Christmas /New Years holidays and last year's Winter Olympics, of course. 19 days until this years Universiade. We're not far from several ski areas, so we like to get a bit of skiing in ourselves, while we regroup for the coming spring, summer and autumn seasons. We have a few ideas for next winter to keep us busy and off the slopes more than we would like, but we'll just keep that under wraps for now.

Winter or summer Val Chisone offers something for everyone all year round.

"Sestriere" of World Cup and Olympic Downhill fame

Have A Merry Merry

We're having a great time here in the alps for Christmas. We are anticipating our far flung guests with lots of preparation for food, drink, decorations and general merriment. I hope all of you will have a wonderful holiday and that the real Santa and his helpers find their way to your home.
If you find you're looking for an Italian Christmas in the Alps, we hope you'll consider visiting with us here at Bella Baita Mountain Retreat, your home sweet home away from home, and base for discovering Piedmont's mountain charm!