Truffles

PreviousNext Image 1 of 6

Truffles

Gourmet Piemonte

Truffles

Piemonte

Piemonte

Truffle Hunting

Gourmet Piemonte

9 - 12 October 2008, 23 - 26 October 2008

This is an extremely good value autumn short break giving you the chance to visit some of Northern Italy’s classic food markets and stock up on some superb ingredients for your festive entertaining or purely for your own enjoyment!

We are based deep in the heart of the evocative Langhe countryside at the architect designed 4* hotel, which sits above the Ascheri wine cellars. From the glass floor of the lobby you can see down to the vats below. The hotel is extremely comfortable and breakfast is a gourmet experience in itself. In the Ascheri Albergo we will enjoy a range of traditional home cooked foods with the fabulous Ascheri wines.

Just a short stroll away you’ll find the lively but traditional town of Bra. No doubt during our stay here you’ll want to relax over a glass of wine in the extremely attractive wine bars.

Piemonte in autumn means truffles. Cookery writer Elizabeth David in her book "French Provincial Cooking" describes truffles as "a variety of parasitic mushroom which grows on the roots of certain oak and hazelnut trees. There are a great number of varieties of the truffle, of which the only common characteristics are their interior structure, their mode of growth, the fact that they are edible and a certain similarity of taste, but in dimension, size, colour and shape they differ extremely one from the other". She goes on to call them "the most delicious of all foods anywhere". We spend a morning with a truffle hunter and that lunchtime have a fascinating tasting of produce made with truffle products.

We will visit the famous Saturday morning truffle market in Alba, for its famous truffle market, where the streets will literally be perfumed with the heady scent of this precious and expensive white tuber. There are other markets in the region at Bra and Cuneo. Amongst the produce here are the region’s cheeses, Bra, Tomme, Pecorino and local Gorgonzola, and at this time of year, another speciality too, hazelnuts.

Chocolate, as we know it today, was first created in Turin and this area is still well known in Italy for chocolate. One of our visits is to a small chocolate maker still upholding these traditions. Vermouth, too was first created here and the region is famous for its grappa - we will close one day with a visit to a leading artisan distiller.

Of course as this an Arblaster & Clarke tour we also visit one of our favourite Barolo producers in the region to taste the Nebbiolo grape at its most evocative.