The Valle D'Aosta is tucked up against France and Switzerland:
Because of its location, the cooking of the Valle D'Aosta is more closely related to French and German than to Peninsular Italian. The traditional Pranzo Valdostano was a substantial one course-meal, followed by bread and cheese if cheese wasn't the primary ingredient of the main course. Dinner was a soup, followed by rye bread and cheese.
If the main meal didn't involve cheese:
It was meat-based, consisting either of sausages and cured meats (which are now served as antipasti), roasts, or boiled meats. On holidays, boiled and roasted meats were followed by soup. Family meals were simpler, with dishes made with lesser cuts of meat, for example, carbonade, beef or pork diced and stewed in wine with onions.
Traditional side dishes:
Consist for the most part of salads made from wild greens collected in the fields, and dressed with walnut oil, as it's too cold for olives to grow in the Valley. Potatoes also figure prominently, and in the past often took the place of bread. Polenta is also important.
And finally, there is cheese:
Much of Val D'Aosta is either too steep or at too high of an altitude to make planting crops feasible. But those highlands have wonderful pastures; herders take their animals up into the mountains after the snows melt, and spend the summers making formaggio d'alpeggio, cheeses from Alpine forage. Tough, backbreaking work, but the results are spectacular. True fontina is a treat you won't easily forget.
And, Of Course, Wine:
Given its altitude one might not think of the Valle D'Aosta as a wine producing region, but many of the slopes are planted with vineyards, including Nebbiolo, the great red grape that gives us Barolo. It is known by a local name, Picotendro, and yields wines that are considerably scrappier and more vegetal than those from less marginal areas, but they do display a certain grace and charm.
Modern Day Valdostani Have Changed Things:
They've adopted the more Italian custom of dividing the meal into optional antipasti, and then a first course followed by a second and a dessert of some kind. In the process some of the sausages and such that were originally part of the main meal have become antipasti, while the soups that used to appear at dinner have become first courses, and the roasts and other meats are now seconds, as is the fonduta alla valdostana. Lots going on in a small space, just a short drive from Torino. And an area well worth visiting, to hike in the summer, and to ski in the winter.
