GAVI DI GAVI "LA MEIRANA" BROGLIA, 2000

Produced from Cortese grapes, this is one of Italy’s most refined and elegant white wines. Fruit and floral aromas and crisp, dry flavors make a good pairing with the Taglierini and Pollo.
bottle $28 glass $7.50 1/2 glass $3.50

BARBERA D'ASTI MICHELE CHIARLO, 1998

A juicy, supple red wine with explosive berry flavors and gentle tannins, produced from Barbera grapes, one of Italy’s most widely planted varieties. Its medium body and excellent balance make it a nice match with Polenta e Funghi and Penne con Fonduta.
$25 bottle $6.50 glass $3.25 1/2 glass

arlo Allesina grew up in the small town of Sovazza in Piemonte, the region neighboring Val d’Aosta. As a young boy, he often took school trips to Val d’Aosta, especially to visit Gran Paradiso (“Big Paradise”), one of Italy’s largest and most beautiful national parks. He began working at a young age, as a dishwasher at a trattoria near Lake Maggiore. He soon began cooking, and realized that it would be his ticket to see the world. In New York he cooked at the well-known restaurant Mezzogiorno, and is now Chef-Partner of Il Fornaio in San Jose.

“One of my favorite foods of this region is fonduta,” Carlo explains. “It is very similar to fondue, and in Val d’Aosta and Piemonte, you will often come across vendors selling it on the street, with their pot of melted cheese and hot grill to toast the bread. On this menu I have added fonduta to Risotto al Barbera. The classic combination of this rich cheese sauce and Barbera wine evokes for me the essence of this region’s cuisine.

“Because of the mountains and cold weather, the people of Val d’Aosta often cook with meat. Between September and March you can find Scaloppine in almost every trattoria throughout the region. My version, Scaloppine Gran Paradiso (veal with ham, grilled portobello mushroom and fontina cheese) is named after the famous park in Val d’Aosta. I think this dish makes it a little easier to face the harsh winter. It is very authentic, and I remember eating it in a restaurant in Aosta with my mother and father when I was about ten. Maybe I like it so much because I associate it with that happy time in my life, but still, it is a great dish.
“I love to cook – it was always my dream to be a chef. By cooking you can go around the world and revisit other times in your life. So thank you for letting me take you to Val d’Aosta, this mountain region of Italy that carries such strong memories of my childhood.
Buon Appetito!”

al d’Aosta is a politically autonomous region from Piemonte, but the food is nearly inseparable. The mountainous terrain that dominates both regions greatly influences the cuisine.

Mountain cooking - solid food designed to help combat the cold - features a lot of roasted meats, cheese and mushrooms. Cooking is not very fancy, and although it is heavy, the people are not heavy eaters (it is said that northern Italians are relatively reserved and not given to excess).

The best known ingredient of the region is fontina cheese. Named for Mount Fontin, at Quart, it is made in Val d’Aosta and it is famous around the world. The finishing touch to this rich cheese is its aging in well-aired stone buildings nearly 10,000 feet up.

Fontina cheese appears in many dishes of the region. Risotto al Barbera features fonduta, (fontina cheese melted with milk, eggs and flour) the Northern Italian version of cheese fondue. Scaloppine Gran Paradiso (veal scaloppine, ham, grilled portobello and fontina) is a variation of a very traditional dish. Pollo Valdostana (chicken breast stuffed with fontina and ham) is also typical—and is a hearty entreè for cold weather.

The capital, Aosta, was an important city in Roman times and Roman walls still surround the city. The region also includes Europe’s highest mountains: Mont Blanc, Cervino (the Matterhorn) and Mount Rosa, a haven for skiing enthusiasts during the winter.