Confectionery and chocolate

A as in Amaretti; B as in Bicerìn, Baci and Bunèt; G as in Gianduiotto… then P as in Panettone and Paste di meliga. There are over 80 Piedmontese sweets and desserts listed as “Prodotti Agroalimentari Tradizionali” (Traditional Food Products), resulting from the creativity of the traditional rustic and convent cuisine and the refinement that the chefs of the Savoy court brought to the tables of Turin’s aristocracy: recipes based on the local produce, such as fruit, hazelnuts, almonds, chestnuts, milk, corn flour and honey, and the fragrance of spices and chocolate, a legacy that has been assimilated, preserved and exalted by a class of historic and prestigious pastry chefs and a confectionery industry rooted in tradition. And so, alongside historic chocolate brands, such as Ferrero, Novi and Caffarel, Piedmont also features outstanding master confectioners, such as Gobino and Castagna, and together with the panettone made by Galup, Balocco and Maina there are refined confectionery products and a myriad of pastry kitchens where traditional recipes and techniques continue to be used: small fresh pastries and chocolate in Turin , Novara biscuits in Novara, Bicciolani biscuits in Vercelli, Krumiri biscuits in Casale Monferrato, Cuneesi al rum chocolates in Cuneo, and Torrone in Asti and Alba. We could also hardly fail to mention true masterpieces such as the hazelnut cake, zabaglione, candied chestnuts, sweet focaccia, hazelnut meringues and sugar drops. At the end of a meal in Piedmont it is also difficult to refuse the delicate “panna cotta” (cooked cream), peaches filled with cocoa and macaroon crumble, pralines and the thousand varieties of Canestrelli shortbread from the Turin and Biella areas, appetising offshoots of the monastery wafers, cooked on hot griddles. All of this could even be accompanied by a fine Passito di Moscato d’Asti or Erbaluce di Caluso.