What you eat at a Piedmontese village festival
The dishes that come round again and again, and what they are.
Written by the I Love Piedmont editors in Mongardino (AT).
Last updated:
Every sagra has a theme, but the underlying menu is remarkably consistent. This is what you will be handed.
Antipasti. Vitello tonnato, cold sliced veal under a tuna and caper sauce, which sounds wrong and is not. Carne cruda, hand-cut raw veal dressed with oil and lemon. Insalata russa, a potato and vegetable salad bound with mayonnaise. Peperoni con bagna cauda, roasted peppers with the anchovy and garlic sauce. Acciughe al verde, anchovies in parsley and garlic.
Primi. Agnolotti del plin, small pinched pasta parcels of roast meat, served either in butter and sage or in their own roasting juices. Tajarin, a very thin egg pasta with an unreasonable number of yolks, served with butter, with a ragu, or with truffle in season. Risotto, usually with a local wine or with sausage.
Secondi. Brasato, beef braised for hours in red wine. Bollito misto, several cuts of boiled meat served with a tray of sauces, of which the green salsa verde and the red bagnet ross are the ones to take. Grilled sausage, salsiccia di Bra being the famous one, which is veal and is eaten raw as well as cooked. Fritto misto alla piemontese, an enormous plate of fried things that includes sweet items, amaretti and semolina, alongside the meat.
Bagna cauda. Its own event rather than a course. A pot of oil, garlic and anchovy kept warm on the table, with raw and cooked vegetables to dip. Served from autumn to late winter, communal, and it takes an evening.
Farinata. A thin chickpea flour pancake baked in a wood oven, more Ligurian than Piedmontese but common in the Alessandria and Acqui area. Eaten hot, with pepper, standing up.
Dolci. Bunet, a chocolate and amaretti custard. Panna cotta, which was invented here. Torta di nocciole, hazelnut cake, made with the Tonda Gentile hazelnut of the Langhe, often served with a glass of Moscato.
To drink. At a sagra, the house wine in a jug, which will be local and perfectly drinkable. Barbera with almost everything, Dolcetto when you want something lighter, Grignolino if you want the one the locals argue about. Moscato d'Asti with the dessert. Coffee afterwards, never with the meal.
If you do not eat meat. Be realistic: a traditional sagra menu is meat from end to end. The vegetable antipasti, farinata, and pasta in butter and sage are usually available. Say vegetariano clearly and expect to be offered ham at least once.
