The Valle d’Aosta, or the Aosta Valley, is a region in northwest Italy. It shares borders with the Piedmont region, Switzerland, and France. Italian, Swiss, and French cuisine influence the region’s food and traditional dishes use the ingredients readily available in the area at different times of the year. Here is an overview of traditional Aosta Valley cuisine.
Produce and Ingredients of Aosta Valley Cuisine
Fontina
The regional cheese produced in this area is Fontina. It is a full-fat, semi-cooked, semi-hard cheese made using cow’s milk. It has a sweet, earthy taste and an intense flavour. People eat it on its own, with rye bread or as an ingredient in sauces.
Polenta
People eat pasta less in the Aosta Valley region than in other regions of Italy. Instead, they commonly use polenta as a dietary staple. Aosta Valley’s people often serve polenta with game meat from the mountains or bacon.
Trout
A special treat from this area is mountain stream brown trout. A traditional dish in this area is trout. A typical way to serve trout is to stuff it with ham and top it with Fontina before poaching in white wine.
Speciality Meats
As much of the area is mountainous, the locals cure many of their meats. One of the most popular is bosses de jambon, a ham spiced with mountain herbs. Motzetta is the dried meat of goat, sheep or beef.
The Traditional Dishes of Aosta Valley Cuisine
- Stews: Stews are typical of this area, and one of the best to try is carbonade. You can use any meat, although beef is the most common choice. The meat is stewed with other ingredients, including spices, onions, and red or white wine. Most people serve it with polenta. Another example is capriolo alla valdostana. Venison and vegetables are the main ingredients of this dish, and there is a sauce of grappa and herb-flavoured cream.
- Risotto alla Valdostana: The risotto has three kinds of cheese to create a creamy sauce; Fontina, toma and Parmigiano Reggiano. Chefs then season it to taste and serve it as an appetizer or an entrée.
- Seup de Gri: Soups are another typical dish people cook in the Aosta Valley. A typical example is seup de gri, a barley soup with seasonal vegetables, potatoes, and a seasoning of salt pork and onions.
- Fonduta: A popular dish from the Aosta Valley is Fonduta. It is a type of fondue made using Fontina cheese combined with eggs, cream, and butter. Diners mop up the fondue sauce with rye bread or black bread.
- Polenta concia: Club Esse lists polenta concia as one of the traditional dishes of Aosta Valley cuisine. To make the dishes, you bake Yellow flour polenta in the oven with fontina cheese.
If you enjoyed reading about the cuisine of Aosta Valley, you might also like to read about the cuisines of Sicily, Trentino-Alto Adige, Sardinia, and Piedmont.