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The tasty local gastronomy preserves clear home-made features: in the summer alpine huts cheese makers prepare tasty "tome", fine wines ferment in the cellars, the hand-made long breadsticks are prepared in the historical confectioner's shops and in the bakeries, and there is also a limited production of herb liqueurs and liqueurs.
Let's imagine a terracotta saucepan on the slow flame of a wooden stove, where the products of the vegetable garden are cooked together with herbs picked up during a walk in the mountains of Canavese area: this is the ideal image to describe the local cuisine, made of ancient tastes and traditional recipes based on local products.
The Canavese and Valli di Lanzo areas are characterized by a very strong gastronomic tradition, to the extent that some of the dishes you can find in the menu of the most famous local restaurants are the same dishes that were served at our grandparents' table and they still preserve the ancient taste. What we call poor cuisine is indeed rich in genuine ingredients.
The pastry chefs of Canavese area are real artists who keep secrets deriving from very ancient local traditions. You should taste the so-called "martin sec", small pears cooked with wine and sugar, "Torta '900", Canavesani with rum and cocoa Eporediesi. But there are also the crunchy torcetti of Agliè, Andrate, and Lanzo, "paste 'd rnelia" based on corn flour, the soft amaretti of Castellamonte and "Grappini" of Chiaverano. And again canestrelli with vanilla, cocoa, hazelnut, orange, coffee, mint, coconut, pistachio flavor, the cocoa Duchess Cookies, typical of San Giorgio. How not to mention the so-called "nocciolini di Chivasso", born at the beginning of the 19th century from the mixture of Piedmont hazelnuts, sugar, and egg white or "Pan douss 'd Malgrà"? According to the legend, the latter was the favorite dessert of the lord of San Martino, owner of Malgrà Castle in Rivarolo around the beginning of the 16th century: the dessert prepared by his chefs required 48 hours of processing and 24 hours of natural leavening. Today, local pastry chefs do not need so much time to prepare it, and offer different varieties, like "pan semplice", "pan rustico", "pan ricco".
The local wines have crossed the regional borders and are known and appreciated not only in Italy, but also abroad. They are produced by wine growers' associations working as cooperatives or private companies that are modernly equipped and led by experts, in order to use the best wine-growing techniques. The most famous wines are Erbaluce and Carema, white and red respectively.
