According to an article in a recent issue of Civiltá del Bere, Italy's major wine trade magazine (lots of news & statistics, no reviews) Piemonte has established a new Langhe DOC zone to cover the wines made around Alba that do not fit into the existing DOCs, which include Barolo, Barbaresco, Dolcetto d'Alba, Barbera d'Alba, Roero Arneis and many more.

The rational behind the new DOC, the authors say, is to provide vintners with a designation other than the lowly Vino da Tavola (see http://italianfood.about.com/library/weekly/aa031497.htm for an overview of Italian wine designations) for their non-traditional wines -- wines made from grapes that are new to the region, e.g. Chardonnay, and wines made from blends of grapes, e.g. Nebbiolo and Barbera. The establishment of this new outlet should, they continue, reduce pressure to tinker with the regulations governing the existing DOC wines (especially Barolo and Barbaresco) that are all made from single grapes. Thus tradition is saved, and innovation recognized. It's all quite glowing, and the vintners interviewed are extremely positive.

I'm not quite so sure. Foremost, for a philosophical reason. DOCs should in theory be used to denote specific wines made in specific areas well suited to the production of wine, following specific methods. For example, Barolo is a wine made from specific varietals of the Nebbiolo grape grown in non-north-facing vineyards in the 5 townships around Barolo; it must mature for 3 years, 2 of which in wood (4 years for the Riserva) prior to its release. Even though there is considerable variation in fermentation technique and wood use from producer to producer, you have a fairly good idea of what you're getting when you buy a bottle -- a full bodied, elegant, powerful wine.

The new Langhe DOC sets no restrictions on grapes used -- they can be red (Nebbiolo, Syrah, etc) or white (Chardonnay, Viognier, Arneis), or any blend the vintner chooses to try. While I have nothing against the use of non-traditional grapes or blends (the labels pictured in the article stated what went into the wines), it is stretching the concept of DOC to say that anything and everything qualifies.

The Langhe's traditional DOCs are for the most part quite restricted: Barolo to all or parts of five townships around Barolo, Dolcetto di Dogliani to Dogliani and parts of 10 other surrounding townships, and Roero Arneis to a few towns on the left bank of the Tanaro down river from Alba, and so on. The Langhe DOC covers the entire area. Were it monotonous this would be fine, but the Lange are topographically and geologically varied; some parts of the region are perfectly suited for the production of wine and others less so. The new DOC includes them all; it thus becomes a catchall for grapes grown in the region but outside the areas that have been traditionally recognized as excellent. This again goes counter to the philosophy behind the concept of DOC.

My final reservation is one regarding what's known as "trasparenza" in Italian -- clarity for want of a better term in English. Many of the vintners who are making the new Langhe wines have their vineyards within the areas of the more traditional, prestigious denominations. Therefore, for example, they could make both Langhe Nebbiolo and either Barolo or Barbaresco, using the better grapes for the latter and the rest for the former. In a good vintage this could work very well. However, in an off year, or one in which part of the vineyard suffered hale damage, what's to prevent a producer from diverting most of the grapes into the more prestigious wine that sells at a much higher price? The temptation will be great, and I expect the output of some producers' prestigious wines will be strangely constant, while that of their Langhe wines will fluctuate considerably.

A DOC should denote a specific wine with well defined characteristics. The new Langhe DOC, as far as I can tell, does the opposite -- Since Langhe DOC wine can contain any grape or blend of grapes, be fermented and aged as the vintner pleases, and come from any part of a very diverse region, consumers will have no way of knowing what's really in a bottle short of buying and tasting. In final analysis, the Langhe DOC strikes me primarily as a marketing ploy that will give vintners the opportunity to classify wines that break with local tradition as something other than a plain table wine (VdT). Considering that the Super Tuscans gained worldwide renown while classified VdT, I'm not sure this new DOC is necessary.

Daniella

Moving onto other things, I don't often plug individual companies. However, this December I stopped in Asti to taste Giorgio Carnevale's wines (considerably liked the Barbera D'Asti de la Rocchetta 1997). Alessandro Carnevale and I then drove into Asti for lunch, and afterwards he presented me to a couple of friends of his, Daniela and Raffaella, who have recently started a pastry shop called Daniella, in the heart of town (Via Brofferio 159 Asti, Tel 0141 355650; Fax 0141 430 908). They wanted to do something new, and decided to work with piccola pasticceria secca, dry cookies (not biscotti, but elegant tea cookies and such) because there wasn't anyone else in Asti doing them. However, to test the waters they began by making a hazelnut cake in a friend's restaurant oven. They took a food show by storm and began production in earnest; the cake I took home was simply delicious. It was also quite healthy -- the only ingredients are hazelnuts, egg whites and sugar. No flour, and no fat, so it's ideal for people with some types of allergies. Daniela says it reaches perfection when topped with zabaione al moscato, and served with a glass of moscato. If you live in the US, Balducci's was supposed to begin carrying them in January.

Torta di Tagliatelle

Winding down, Donna wrote: I made your e-mail acquaintance more than a year ago in connection with your translation of Artusi's timpano recipe--great! I'm wondering if can come to my rescue with a recipe for torta di tagliatelle. Suddenly I find myself anxious to try this torta (who knows why?), but I can't find a recipe either on my bookshelves or on the Internet.

Fernanda Gosetti gives the following in her pastry book, Il Dolcissimo. She notes the recipe is a specialty of the city of Mantova.

• Ingredients:
• 3 1/3 cups extra fine unbleached flour
• 3 ounces almonds
• 3 ounces bitter almonds (if you cannot find these use regular almonds, and the nutmeats from 2-3 peach pits if you have them)
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup less 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 or 2 shots of sweet moderately strong liqueur, for example Alkermes or Sassolino (not sure what this is; A. is bittersweet-spicy and deep red)
• 6 yolks
• A healthy pinch salt
• Butter and a little flour for the cake pan.

Make a mound on your work surface with 3 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt. Mix the ingredients and scoop a hole in the center so as to form a well; drop the yolks into it and make a dough, which should be slightly softer than normal pasta dough by the time you've finished kneading it. If need be, add a little liqueur to provide more moisture. Roll it out, though not excessively thin (not dine thin, but a little thinner than 1/8 of an inch, I'd say) and let it dry a bit.

In the meantime, peel the almonds, mince them finely (if you use a blender use short bursts, checking often, lest the almonds liquefy and give off their oils). Brown them lightly in the oven, remove them, and mix them with the remaining sugar.

Butter and flour a high-sided, 9-inch diameter pan, and heat your oven to 400 F (200 C). Cut a disk from the sheet of pasta that's large enough to line the pan. Dust the remainder of the sheet with just a hint of flour, roll it up, and slice it into 1/8 of an inch (2 mm) slices, and unroll them to make the tagliatelle.

Sprinkle the pasta sheet in the pan with some of the sugar-and-almond mixture. Then lay down a layer of the tagliatelle, sprinkle with more of the sugar-almond mixture, and repeat the process until all is used up. Drizzle the cake with the liqueur and dot it with the butter. Slip the cake into the oven, reduce the heat to 360 F (180 C) and bake for 45 minutes. Serve when it has cooled.

Ms. Gosetti notes that the Mantovani also make a variation with just sweet almonds, which they chop and then combine with 4 ounces sweet cocoa, 2 ounces crumbed amaretti (not sure what the volume of this would be) and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. No sugar in this case.

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Zuppa di Formaggio

Also got a request for a "Zuppa Valdostana, which contains fontina cheese, cauliflower, etc. topped with nutmeg?" Haven't found anything exactly like this in any of my general Italian cookbooks. However, the Zuppa di Formaggio made in nearby Piemonte comes fairly close -- no veggies, but lots of cheese, and perfect for keeping winter at bay. Here's Alessandro Molinari Pradelli's recipe, translated from La Cucina Piemontese. To serve six you'll need:

• 2/3 pound Fontina Valdostana, diced
• 2 ounces Gorgonzola Dolce (the milder variety of Gorgonzola)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 egg yolks
• A ladle of meat broth (you could use bullion if need be)
• Day-old bread, sliced & toasted
• Freshly ground pepper
• For a liquid béchamel sauce:
• 1 quart whole milk
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano

Begin by making the liquid béchamel sauce over a double boiler. Heat the milk, and once it is hot whisk in the flour, butter, and grated Parmigiano. Keep hot.

You should now prepare a fondue from the cheeses. Set a pot with the fontina and Gorgonzola over a second double boiler (or suspend it in a pot of simmering water) and heat, stirring, until the cheese is melted and the mixture is of a uniform consistency. Lightly beat the yolks and stir them into the mixture, followed by the butter. Continue stirring until you have a smooth, even cream.

Stir the fondue into the liquid béchamel sauce (which should still be over the double boiler) and dilute it with the broth, continuing to stir until the soup is of uniform consistency.

Serve in individual bowls, with the toasted bread. You could, if you want, give each bowl a grating of nutmeg, but go easy. In terms of a wine, this is quite rich, and though it might not be orthodox I'd be tempted to go with an unoaked Barbera, which will have the body to stand up to the cheese, and the acidity necessary to balance the fats. Because of its richness I might also be tempted to make it into a single-course meal, with a salad.

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Thanks for visiting, and have a wonderful day!
Kyle Phillips

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