Cumiana Celebrates, "Olio é Olive"

Piedmont Italy is known for it's fine wines and oh so delicious cuisine and if most people are familiar with this region that is what first comes to mind when contemplating what this region is famous for. What you don't usually think of is olive oil. Well, at least I don't, knowing that we are on the upper reaches of the olive growing zone. It came as a pleasant surprise a couple of years back to discover that olive production is starting to come back to this area. We were visiting the Castello di Razzano winery, over in neighboring Monferrato  not so long ago and were pleasantly surprised to find that they had just put in about 150 olive trees to replace some of their vineyard that they deemed better suited to olives. I was fascinated to learn that Piedmont use to produce a fair amount of olive oil, but the weather changed and people changed over to grapes from olives as they felt the weather was more conducive to wine production. Now we find as temperatures have increased the olive trees are going back in. 

What a pleasant surprise to find that the lovely little town of Cumiana our neighbor just outside of our valley and hugging the base of the mountains, began a festival a couple of years ago celebrating the local olive oil revival. This is one revival I can get more than a little excited about attending.

Cumiana

Even on a chilly autumn Sunday, there was plenty to see, taste and buy and we weren't alone in our exploration of the festa. In fact I got so carried away with all of the interesting things to check out aside from the wonderful variety of olive oils, that I forgot to even photograph any of the oil tasting tables. Silly me. 

But we did end up with a great selection of olive oils representing several areas of Italy and with quite . All of the oils we selected were from small producers, organic, cold and some stone pressed. Our selections reflect the varied personalities and flavor profiles of Piedmont, Liguria and Apuglia. We're looking forward to enjoying them over the winter.

Local Pinerolo producer Mimosa, were busy pressing oil all day long.

We enjoyed seeing our friends from Pinasca represented with their wonderful bakery goods. 

 Stefano was doing a brisk business, while papa Angelo was home making all the products to keep the stall well stocked.  I worked for Angelo a few years back when we first arrived and we were getting the B&B on it's feet. I learned a lot about local specialties and of the differences of baking in Europe. It was an enlightening experience and one I wished to have had many years ago when I was starting out as a baker. Little baker's tips and tricks for big scale production. Happily, I love my small scale baking these days. Simply satisfying when I can make it to my tastes and interest.

Liguria was well represented with their light and flavorful olive oils. This man was making fresh pesto to  sample and bring home for later consumption.

 Lots of varieties of cheeses to choose from also.

 Naturally, there was plenty of wine to sample, like from our friends in Frossasco, Dora Vini, who just recently won an award for their wine. It wouldn't be a festa without some vino and delicious vino at that!

 And always a welcome touch to any festival is a bit of music, provided by this young man on his Ghironda or more commonly known to Americans as the hurdy gurdy.

This festival serves as a wonderful warm up for this years Salone del Gusto that begins this week October 21-25. You can read about some of the previous festivals here  and here.

Here's a teaser of Ghironda music in the Occitania style.

Vendemmia in Val Chisone

I'm not quite ready to leave the autumn behind just yet, even though old man winter keeps blowing his frosty breath around to chill the bone and make you work even faster to get all of those autumn projects done before winter begins in earnest.
Our local vendemmia, or grape harvest, was well under way in September finishing up recently in October. It's a labor of love as the grapes are hand harvested and only picked when deemed to be at their peak. The wine growers experience helps them determine the best time for harvest, visually judging the color for ripeness and taste for sweetness. They also use an optical instrument called a refractometer, that measures the amount of sugar in the grapes supporting or not, their opinions of when would be the prime time to harvest. Naturally, the position of the vineyard and weather conditions all play their part in the drawn out maturation and harvesting process. The weather is critical in determining the harvest and is always a great source of speculation.

Recently we had the pleasure of introducing long time American educational filmmakers,

Sid and Mary Lee Nolan, to our Chisone valley.  They were in our area filming for their upcoming video of Italian wine regions. Naturally, we took them to visit the Coutandin family winemakers, whose Pomaretto vineyard we gaze upon from  our balcony. Their impressively steep vineyards are part of our "Bella Baita View" at the  base of of the French border skyline and mouth of the Germansca valley. Their terraced vines are so steep that they have installed a train to help them with harvesting and maintaining the vineyard. Below you see Daniele Coutandin, demonstrating the use of it for the camera.

 

Although the Coutandin operation is relatively small, Ramie wine has big bold flavors. They have gone from just over 800 bottles per year to 3,000 bottles last year.  Our alpine wines reflect the soil and environmental weather that can offer some insight into life in the Cottian alps. Back in January we were up in the vineyard as it was a beautiful mild day offering up the promise of spring and encountered some folks  working on the vines. Nice to see the full progression throughout the year.

 

This family winery mainly produces a rare DOC wine called Ramie, which is a blend of several local varietals. Their Ramie is quite smooth and fruity and goes down well with many of our local specialties, rabbit and polenta comes to mind. You might want to visit our part of the world and try it some time. We're always happy to point in any number of interesting directions.

We also made a a small tour up the valley to the imposing Fenestrelle Fortress and as well as some of our favorite haunts.
Later in the day, we also made a visit to the Dora Renato Cantina, who produce the other DOC appellation of our neighborhood, Doux d/Henry. This is light refreshing rose´ style wine, favored locally here and  in southern France. They produce a range of delicious local varietals also. A couple of other posts about them are here and here.

We rounded out the day tour with the unmasking of the 2009 edition of Pinerolo's Maschera di Ferro,
also know as the "Man in the Iron Mask" festival.  And who was that you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait until I can get a post up of this years festival. It is a wonderful event so, stay tuned.

Autumn Pear, Parmesan and Walnut Salad

Autumn brings along with it the golds and yellows that are just starting to brush the hillside in front of us. It's also a time of fruitful bounty. There are so many different varieties of apples and pears in the market these days. I am especially enjoying the pears as they normally disappear mid winter as they don't hold out as long as the apples, leaving me waiting for them to come back into season. I place them in the category of favorites and love all the man places the can find their way onto the menu through out the day. One simple dish is a composed salad of thinly sliced ripe pear wedges paired with fresh slivered Parmigiano, sprinkled with toasted walnuts and all drizzled with honey. What could be simpler or tastier?


Insalata di Noci, Pere e Parmigiano

Choose ripe semi soft pears
1/2 pear per person
Parmigiano, sliced from a wedge
walnuts halves, toasted
flavorful honey, I like chestnut for it's distinct flavor, but any local variety will do

Gather all of your ingredients beforehand and just before serving.

• Peel your pears, halve

You could so this ahead and put them in a bath of lemon jusice and water to have them ready before hand ready to pull together just before serving.

• Slice pears on an angle, thinly and fan out on your individual salad plate
• Shave big slices of Parmigiano or Romano, what ever you have on hand
• Toast your walnut halves lightly in a pan on top of the stove or in the oven
• I crumble some of the walnuts over the top and garnish with a few whole halves
• Drizzle honey over all and serve. You can refrigerate for a little while, but your pear might turn brown if you prepare them too far in advance.
  

Autumn celebration on a plate!

Festa, Festa, Everywhere a Festa

It's that time of the year when there are just so many darn festivals going on it's hard to get around to any of them let alone all of them. I have put together a little slide show from last weekend's Pinerolo Artiginato festival for you to get a feel for it. Last week when I was loving that hot weather that made me think that summer would never end, I was wondering around enjoying the last stand of summer.

Well, let me tell you , I got a rude wake up call that brought me to my senses. Fabrizio said it was just too warm for this time of the year and what do you know, on Friday we had the most amazing hail storm. It would have been more enjoyable if I didn't keep thinking about my poor geraniums that were in such glorious bloom. and the garden that was still in full production. Sigh. need I say more?

Well, I must say that now that the sunny weather has returned.
Even though I now am completely back into the reality that winter is just around the corner, I can go back to enjoying all the other festivals that are on this autumn. Pinerolo still has the "Maschera di Ferro" festival coming at the beginning of October. The link to the festival has some great photos, although the site is all in Italian. If you would like a bit more info on the Man in the Iron Mask festival and other Piemontese festivals in English, head over to Martha Bakerjian's " Go Italy" site on "Italy Travel", About.com. Her site has a wealth of information on Italy and Italian travel.
The "Slow Food Salon del Gusto" is a bit later on and there are quite a few other mushroom, polenta, chestnut, apple, truffle and on and on events, to try and get out to, but for now enjoy the photos of one last weekend in Pinerolo, that brought all kinds of artisans of art, crafts, foods and such and wander around, and take a peak. Artiginato del Pinerolese "32 rassegna"

It's all about the Bells

Fall Festivals have always had a special appeal for me. The one in my small town growing up were all about getting back to school and wearing all those new autumn clothes that were too warm in the beginning of September to wear. By the time the fall festival rolled around there was a crispness to the air and apples everywhere and all those foods that only get made by the ladies of the church or D.A.R. for the fund raiser of the year. Silly carnival rides and animals getting the coveted blue ribbon first prize before that trip back home in the cattle truck and the family piled into the cab up front and back. It was just a lot of fun. It's not so different here, although the animals usually arrive under their own steam with the family either on foot or some on horses and everyone gathering around admiring their cows or their neighbors herd of sheep or goats. Then there are the stands of fruit, veg, crafts , or vendors selling everything you need to mend your harnesses or make your own wine. The women folk wander off to have a look round all the market vendors that have arrived on a day different from their regular day and, Mio Dio, they're staying open past 12:30, the magical witching hour when everyone shuts down and goes home to have a proper meal and siesta. Not on festival day. The stands stay open although everyone is in the back having a bite to eat or sometimes the family brings along a fold up table and chairs complete with real cloth tablecloth and proper food. The farmers take their animals home for lunch after the awarding of the biggest and best bell to the honored cow, goat or sheep. There is quite the cacophony of bells, whistles, maaing and mooing as the herd and entourage of family in cars, on foot or the beloved "vespa" to make the trek home and enjoy a bit of respite after a morning enjoyed visiting or gossiping with your neighbors. Seems like a grand idea to me.