Selleries Rifugio Outing

Just up the hill to Sellleries Rifugio

Recently, we were able to go out for a walk in the upper Chisone mountains. For me that is always a high water mark of the summer. I have spent a lot of time hiking in a variety of mountains over the years and find it invigorating and restorative, soothes my soul and mind. There is nothing quite like sweeping mountain vistas, wild alpine flowers, tumbling water, crisp air and a destination that offers a satisfying lunch that I don't have to prepare. Don't get me wrong, picnics are very enjoyable, but having hiked in the Colorado rockies and well actually, any of the mountains in the US, you need to make sure you have brought along plenty of fuel on your back in order to keep the body and mind going. Walking, or hiking as we Americans like to call it, and was promptly corrected when I worked for the British tour company that I would scare off my potential walking guests if I called it hiking, as it connotated serious mountaineering, with just water to a mountain rifugio is quite the treat. Oh, well then, walking it is. It didn't take me long to then be rebuked by my walking guests with, "I thought you said this was an easy walk". It is, it is an easy walk, it's just in the mountains, not on the flats or rolling hills. Mountains are mountains.  Enough about that and on with the spectacular walk from Villaretto/ Selleraut to Rifugio Selleries.

View of Val Chisone from Selleries Rifugio with their small chapel 

The day was gorgeous, not too hot  with a slight breeze, blue sky, great company and not a care in the world. The walk was pretty straight forward after we made our way up in the car around many narrow hairpin turns till we found a shaded parking spot and away we went.

Path from Selleraut to Selleries Rifugio

The path not only was well marked, it was well worn and I found myself wondering as I often do, what it must have been like back so many years ago to live in these hills and not venture too far from the old homestead, except for supplies and perhaps to sell or trade some of your cheese and such for other goods  that stored well and added some interest to an other wise simple meal. I'm thinking in particular about salted anchovies. I've always found it most peculiar how important they are to the Piemontese cuisine. It made a bit more sense to me when it was explained how they not only stored well and added a bit of zip to the soup, they also brought along precious salt at a lower than usual price due to the anchovies being packed in the salt and the bottom of the barrel seem to have more salt than anchovies and the salt tax was lower on anchovies than salt, which, in those days was quite dear. Learning that that the word salt or sale in Italian is the latin derivative of salary, which gives the old saying of worth your weight in salt, a whole new meaning. But I digress yet again, as I am wont to do....

Val Chisone

Anyway, we arrived on the top of our Alpi Cozie walk up to the Selleries Rifugio and stopped in to visit our friends the Agu cheese making family of Villar Perosa, in their summer time digs high above us all. what a gorgeous place to spend the summer. The cows have plenty of roaming range and wildflowers to munch on. I can attest to some delicious cheese is made up in these alps, and I was looking forward to it by the time we arrived.

Alpine Dairy building

Cow bell 2009 prize

We were rewarded for our effort with not only spectacular views and perfect weather, we ran into one of our friends who produces polenta who had ridden his bike up and joined us for some genuine mountain fare. You can always count on simply prepared and high quality food at Selleries, and we weren't disappointed. Smoked prosciutto crudo, pancetta, aged plaisentif and fresh ricotta, all made by the neighbors, Agu and certainlytook care of the hunger spot. The polenta with sausage helped Ben keep up his strength for the trip back down the hill. 

All in all a great day in the mountains. Good food, drink, friends in a wonderful setting in the Italian alps.

We hope you'll come visit and discover what this area has to offer.

It certainly doesn't lack in natural beauty, do you think?

Gofri, the recipe

Here's one of our favorite local festival snacks that turns up in more places now and again, Gofri(go free). It's a thin crispy waffle filled with any number of savory and sweet fillings.

Gofri with Nutella sandwiched in between,
served up at our favorite watering hole,
Beba microbrewery in our neighboring town of Villar Perosa.

I wrote about them and some of the other award winning local specialties here.

My original introduction to Gofri, was a light flavorful waffle slathered with local favorite, Nutella (as the original guilty pleasure hails from nearby Alba). Pure bliss. It didn't take me long to be won over by prosciutto crudo and aged creamy tomini cheese, or porcini mushrooms and marinated artichokes, or with marmalade and, and, and,.....mmmmm. I think I'm just going to have to go and fix myself something to eat before I fall off my chair fantasizing about the possibilities.

Here we have the outdoor variety set up for flea market the other day

The secret of the crispy outside is the lard that they lube up the hot griddle with.

If you haven't worked it out yet. Gofri making is a male dominated cooking endeavor.

Not unlike bar-b-que, which is also one of the favorite male bonding sports as well here in Italy.
I think it speaks to something very deeply ingrained back in the day of the discovery of fire and dinosaur burgers, but I digress.

Once they are determined crispy, it's on to the choice of fillings and ultimately eating.
I am passing along the recipe of our friends Alma and Renato's from Mentoulles, a small hamlet next to Fenestrelle Fortress.

During the winter Olympics of 2006 they invited us up to share a big feast of gofri with all the fixins and some of their very own moscato wine from their cantina. Notice the big stack of gofri, front and center, that we managed to polish off without too much of an effort. Renato is there manning their indoor set up in their cantina. It was a memorable night indeed. Now you can make your own little gofri festival and create some memories of your own.

Gofri

• 1 liter of water, tepid
  
• 750 g of farina, 00
• 1 cube of fresh yeast
• pinch of salt

Mix the fresh yeast and salt with the tepid water.
Whisk the flour into the water, salt and yeast mixture.
Leave in a warm place for 3 hours to allow the batter to develop.
Heat your griddle till very hot.
Run a piece of fatback over the griddle or brush with lard.
Brush with a light coating of olive oil or sunflower oil.
Close to reheat briefly.
Pour your batter over the whole surface to cover and close.
Cook on one side and flip over
Cook until light brown and crispy.
Give it a poke with a fork if uncertain that it is cooked all the way through.
Place on a plate, cover one half with your preferred topping and fold in half.
Serve immediately.
Lick your fingers clean.

Toppings/fillings suggestions

Prosciutto crudo and soft cheese, gorgonzola
Cooked ham with mozzarella
marinated artichokes, tomatoes and stacchino cheese
spicy salami thinly sliced

Nutella
Apricot or any of your favorite preserves. I love plum with rosemary
Anything goes really.