“What to eat in Turin” is an extract from my Torino’s Simposio cookbook. Get your copy on Amazon for more food, recipes, beautiful pictures, and mesmerizing stories that will make you a mindful explorer and not just a tourist!
Things to eat in Turin
There are many things to eat in Turin, but here’s a sweet and short list of the unmissable.
- Tajarin is the typical pasta of Piedmont: the thinnest pasta strips of the peninsula made with a very eggy dough. Deliciously served, when in season, with truffles from the countryside – the white ones from Alba are world-known– or with ragù.
- Agnolotti are the Piedmontese ravioli – smaller, thicker – filled with pork and/or veal roast.
- Vitello Tonnato are thin beef slices served with a tuna and egg yolk sauce. It is in my files of eighties-fashion food and a must in the “what to eat in Turin” list.
- Finanziera is a meat-poor cuts stew of ancient origins. Don’t overthink that you are eating crests, rooster wattles, sweetbreads, brain and veins, and think instead of the power of necessity and tradition that with a little help from herbs, vegetables, and Marsala wine transformed these cuts into the marvel you are savoring.
- Brasato al Barolo is a classic Langhe recipe for Sunday family meals. A bottle of the precious Barolo is used to soak and longly cook beef and enrich it with every hint, aroma, and taste the wine was graced with by Nature and human genius.
- Fritto misto alla Piemontese is an appetizer or second course you’ll want to order once seated at one of those restaurants in the city that has cherished for centuries the traditions and efforts of genuine kitchens. Expect fried liver, lungs, brains, sausages, calf, semolina paste, amaretti, and apples.
- Bagna Cauda is a dip sauce made with garlic, anchovies, and olive oil, served hot with raw, boiled, or roasted fennel, artichokes, peppers, etc.
- Bollito Misto literally translates to mixed boil, referring to the seven different meat cuts and seven offals that are merely boiled and served accompanied by vegetables boiled as well (sometimes furtherly sauteed) and a range of sauces: Bagnetto Verde, green sauce, made with parsley, garlic, and anchovies; Bagnetto Rosso, red sauce, made with tomato and anchovies, Cougnà, a sweet and sour candied fruit, pumpkin, and nuts relish jarred and preserved in grape must, Salsa delle Api, bee sauce, made with honey, walnuts, broth and dry mustard, and Cren sauce, made of horseradish.
- Tomini are the small one-serving version of Piedmont’s typical cheese, Tomino. They are served as appetizers and generally accompanied by the Bollito Misto’s green sauce.
- Tramezzini were born in Torino, so you should indulge in them here, discovering the classic and new, fancy flavors! It’s one of the things to eat in Turin you shouldn’t absolutely skip.
- In Turin, in 1763, there was a seller of “acquacedrata”, a drink made with water and cedar syrup, who opened a small bodega in Piazza della Consolata. Many of his clients came after the mass at the church in the same Piazza. They were fasting and craving something nutritious and delicious. So, they were offered three ingredients in a glass cup, in three different proportions: coffee, heavy cream, and chocolate. Coffee and chocolate were poured still boiling hot, while the cream was added cold. The small venue had just eight tables – and still has – and kept the prices low and affordable to everyone: noblemen and people of the folk waited outside the long line and then seated one next to the other for a ritual that would become legendary: fourteen “bagnà”, dipping-cookies, accompanying the mixture mentioned above that was soon baptized Bicerin after the glass it was served in.
- Gianduiotti are the lingot-shaped chocolate truffles born in Torino, probably already in your list of things to eat in Turin. But in the city you’ll find infinite versions of them, all very respectful of the traditional recipe, still, as Italian ingenuity prescribes, one totally different from the other. It is so exciting you should tour the city, hunting and tasting all the chocolates you can.
- Baci di Dama, lady kisses, – recipe on the Red and Orange Simposio – are two fragrant cookies eternally kissing because of the chocolate filling that glues them together. Take one. Another will surely follow.
- Cannoli Piemontesi: a pastry dough shell filled with Marsala-scented Zabaione.
- Although now available everywhere, while in Turin, strolling under the arcades, you should snack on Pastiglie Leone, the aromatic little candies. Since the late 1800s, the pastel-colored sugary tablets laboratories were transferred from the original city, Alba, to Turin, where they had already gained great estimators like the count of Cavour. The twenty-eight flavors that made the tasting exciting and fanciful gained a local saying: “a l’è marca leon”, it’s brand Leone, to indicate something of extraordinary value.
Enjoy your “What to eat in Turin” list and every bite of your culinary experience!
Claudia