The typical recipes of the Aosta Valley

The meal of the Aosta Valley farmers is characterized by simplicity and respect for traditions: the cuisine has its exaltation precisely from the products of the mountains. The first course is the soup which now includes bread, now rice: the seuppa, par excellence, is based on milk, rice and chestnuts (the chestnuts, peeled down to the last skin, are boiled in water, then added in rice and milk); the seuppa valpelleunentse of sliced stale bread, boiled cabbage, fontina cheese and meat broth; the seuppa cogneintze of fontina cheese, bread and rice; the seuppa de l’ano, donkey soup, also called seuppa freida, finally completely primitive: black bread, cut into slices and soaked in red wine with a lot of sugar. Black bread, we wrote: the typical Valle d’Aosta bread made of rye, round in shape, marked with a cross on the surface and prepared once a year (of course it hardens; to slice it, you need copapan, a rustic tool).

The meats, the result of long cooking to give the broth, are put in brine (salt, garlic, cloves, rosemary and other herbs) until they acquire flavour. Another meat dish born from the carbonari’s need to use dried meat brought into the woods in a new and tasty way is carbonade. Finally, among the meats that can be cooked immediately, there is the speck from the Gressoney valley, boiled; it is served surrounded by potatoes, carrots, sauerkraut and the so-called knolle, small dumplings made with polenta flour cooked in broth (a dish of clear German origin).

A cuisine, as you can see, which takes its development from the empire of the climate and the places. Naturally, milk and dairy products have great space (a Valle d’Aosta proverb reads: “lo fromadzo freque l’at tre vertu: toute la fan, la sei et lave le dei”, that is, fresh cheese has three virtues: it takes away hunger, thirst and brush your teeth). The mountain pastures have excellent productions: cream, butter, tome, robiola and above all fontina, which goes into various local foods: in polenta concia, in the already mentioned soups valpelleunentse and cogneintze; in gnocchi, in fondue (which here is served with croutons or boiled rice), not to mention the Valle d’Aosta-style rib, invented in the city.

Finally, immediate products from the mountains: hunting, freshwater fish, potatoes (small and tasty, precious for the farmer who coined a beautiful saying: “poure dzen di campagna, no careimen tot l’an, et trifolle et tsatagne, fan nostro comentran”, i.e. poor country people, we do Lent all year round; and potatoes and chestnuts make up our carnival), mushrooms, chestnuts, raspberries and blueberries.

First Courses