Typical products
- TRUFFLES
- MUSHROOMS
- CHESTNUTS
- POTATOES
- CELERY
- GARLIC
- ONION
- OTTOFILE CORN
- STRAWBERRY
- FRAGOLINA PROFUMATA DI TORTONA
- MELON
- PEACH
- CHERRY
- APPLE
- HONEY
- MONTEBORE CHEESE
- COLD CUTS
- BACI DI DAMA
- AGNOLOTTI
- GASSOSA ABBONDIO
- VINEGAR
TRUFFLES
The specific structure and the homogeneity of the soil, characterized by a complete lack of stones, has made the Curone Valley the ideal habitat for the growing of truffles. This is the only area in Piedmont able to produce three different varieties of truffles:
- white truffle (Tuber Magnatum Pico), smooth, pale yellow verging on ochre, with red-brown stains. It is the biggest one (its dimentions can reach those of an apple!), the most perfumed and that with the highest value from the commercial point of view;
- black Truffle (Tuber Melanosporum Vittadini), brown, with light internal venations, perfumed but less valuable;
- scorzone (Tuber Aestivum Vittadini), similar to Black Truffle but less valuable.
The colour of the white truffle varies according to the species of tree it was born and grew with: from light brown with the oak, to very light with the poplar and rosy with the lime.
Maturation, which usually takes place in November, is the element that grants the level of quality, from which taste and perfume derive.
MUSHROOMS
Mushroomes represent one of the most appreciated typical products of this territori. The area around then mountain communityof “Comunità Montana Valli Curone, Grue and Ossona” represents the ideal habitat for valuable and high quality productions.
These valleys are certainly among the most considered in Alessandria and its environs for the harvesting of pore mushrooms, the most known and valuable variety in Italy.
Mushrooms, both fresh and dried, are used to cook many typical dishes in the restaurants of the valleys.
CHESTNUTS
These delicious fruits of the chestnut tree, also called “the bread tree” during the past in these valleys and elsewhere, have represented the basic nourishment for the inhabitants of the hills and the mountains of the province.
During the last decades their use has decreased more and more due mainly to the depopulation of the mountain valleys.
Among the few areas in which the chestnut is still present there is that of Alta Val Grue, whose main centre is Garbagna. Here chestnut woods have been mantained and destined to the pick up of chestnuts (very hard since it is hand carried!). Most of the harvest is used for the production of chestnut meal, while the remaining part is destined to fresh consumption.
Garbagna’s chestnuts are suitable for preparing some typical specialities: “castagnaccio”, chestnuts with rum, chestnuts boiled in the milk and ice cream with a chestnut tasting.
POTATOES
This is a typical product of Bassa Valle Scrivia, more precisely of the towns of Castelnuovo Scrivia, Molino dei Torti, Guazzora, Isola Sant’Antonio, Sale and Alluvioni Cambiò.
The closeness to three big waterways (Po, Scrivia, Tanaro) has transformed this territory into the ideal habitat for the production of high quality potatoes. Water, in fact, represents the essential element for the good cultivation of this vegetable.
Another very important and distinctive element of the soils on which these potatoes are cultivated is that they are not treated.
Two main types of potatoes are produced: white-paste and floury potatoes and yellow-paste potatoes.
CELERY
The centre for the production of the celery is Alluvioni Cambiò.
This vegetable requires medium-softness soils, rich in humus but also a bit acid, such as those close to the courses of the river Po and the river Tanaro.
In this area two different varieties of celery are produced: white, fleshy and with a delicate perfume and taste; green, quite aromatic.
GARLIC
In the town of Molino dei Torti garlic has become a very important product for the local economy, with specific reference to the white variety.
It is cultivated in small clayey grounds , rich in organic substances.
People who like garlic consider it as the best one wothin the whole Italy and its fame is already known beyond nation boundaries.
ONION
This is a product typical of Bassa Valle Scrivia: the towns involved in their production are Castelnuovo Scrivia, Molino dei Torti, Guazzora and Pontecurone.
In the “Tortona plain” three varieties of onion are produced: white, gold and red.
Cultivations of the “Violet Onion” and the “Golden Onion”, also known as “Onions of Castelnovo Scrivia”, are very valuable.
OTTOFILE CORN
Among the cultivations typical of the Tortona region and environs there is that of the “ottofile” corn. But what is it? The name of this variety of corn derives from the fact it has a panicle made of eight longitudinal rows of orange round-shaped grains, very rich in starch. The plant is 190 centimetres high with an ear of 35 millimetres, with the corn with a good specific weight (1,23 grammes) and with a final gristing yield equal to 54,5 %.
Ottofile is a traditional variety of autochthonal corn used mainly to make “polenta” and rediscovered after risking to disappear.
The municipal administration of the Tortona region, in order to give value to some valuable agricultural productions has been able to involve the institutes dedicated to the study of agricultural products in the launch of a first campaign with 500 self-fertilized plants planted in 28 rows, each row containing 18 plants, and raising 300 plants for the seed at the same time. This product, previously limited only to self consumption, has been relaunched also thanks to the efforts of category associations and has been included in the cultivations of a number of farmers more and more high.
STRAWBERRY
It is specifically present in the towns of Viguzzolo and Volpedo.
For a perferct growing these delicious fruits require well drained and fertilized soils.
Strawberries are put on the market immediately after their harvesting and must be quickly consumed since they are very perishable.
FRAGOLINA PROFUMATA DI TORTONA
This is a variety of strawberry that was very diffused in the past among the farmers of this region. Unfortunately today it has almost disappeared due to difficulties in cultivating it and to the natural aging of farmers.
This is a very peculiar variety of strawberry, more precisely an ecotype of ancient cultivation: the rosy middle-sized fruits are round, characterized by a reduced consistency of the pulp and with a persistent sweet scent from which the appellative “fragolina profumata di Tortona”derives.
MELON
This horticultural species is produced in the area of Bassa Valle Scrivia, more precisely in the towns of Isola S. Antonio, Castelnuovo Scrivia and Sale. Here the humid soils, muddy and clayey by nature, together with the abundance of water and summer heat represent the suitable place for its cultivation. This is a typical summer vegetable particularly appreciated for the sweetness and juiciness of its pulp.
There are two main varieties of melons: cantalupi and reticolati. The latter are typical of the Tortona region: the net like rind – from which the name reticulated derives - with green venations more or less brown, round shaped or long shaped; once maturation is completed the pulp become orange and has an intense scent.
PEACH
The Tortona region has almost a vocation for the cultivation of the peach: it holds, in fact, the supremacy of the Province, both as regards quality and quantity.
Among the varieties of peaches produced the most known are those of Volpedo. These peaches are picked when maturation has almost been completed: the long permanence on the plants exalts their colour and scent.
Most of the production comes from family-run farms and is put on the market directly or through the Cooperative Volpedo Frutta, which represents the reference point for all the farmers of the valleys.
CHERRY
Located in the highest area of the stream Grue, which gives the name to the valley, Garbagna is the town of the production of the cherry “par excellence”, even if it is present in all the towns of the Curone Valley.
There are three varieties of cherry: Pistoiese, Bella di Garbagna and Grigione di Garbagna. The first, fiery red and with a crisp pulp ripens in the second decade of June; the second, preserved in alchol, with a rosy pulp and large-sized ripens in the third decade of June; the third, with a red pulp and a pleasant flavour, ripens in the first decade of July.
APPLE
The hilly area of the Tortona region around Volpedo, Monleale, Brignano Frascata, San Sebastiano Curone has become the main site for the production of high quality apples of the province, with a cultivated surface that increases more and more.
Peaches and apples represent the most diffused fruit in this territory. The cultivation of the apple has developed quickly in this area in a few decades and has improved its quality more and more.
The production is supported by Consorzio Volpedo Frutta which pushes the farmers to produce according to the requirements of the most demanding clients.
HONEY
The valleys of the Tortona region are suitable for the bees breeding and the production of honey, the delicious sugary substance, since they are not polluted and rich in nectar plants.
Actually the production of honey represents the main activity for many farmers of the territory.
According to the different botanic origin honeys are different as per colour, consistence, aroma and flavour.
They can be divided into two different cathegories: floral, produced with the nectar of a inique species and heterofloral (also known as multifowers), obtained from the combination of nectars coming from flowers of different species.
MONTEBORE CHEESE
This is a typical cheese of the Curone Valley which was alredy known in the XII century.
Montebore is first of all the name of a little hamlet of Dernice, in the Curone Valley, located on the watershed among the Grue and Borbera valleys: here is a small group of houses overhanged by the ruins of a castle or maybe a Saracen tower.
This cheese made of bovine or ovine milk looks like to a truncated cone and reminds to the forms of the territory: the cheeses have a decreasing diameter (from 15-20 to 5 centimetres) and if superimposed in a variable number (from 3 to 5) form what is called “il Castellino” (little castle).
The rediscovery of this tradiitonal typical product, after being forgotten for centuries, is the result of an accurate study realized by an exponent of the local Slow Food Organisation: the production has been restarted thanks to the willingness of Mrs Bracco, the last expert of the ancient dairy technique.
Montebore cheese can be tasted fresh, quite ripe (15 days), as grated cheese and “cumudò”, that it means kept in olive oil in small pieces or grated – sometimes also kneaded with a glass of white wine.
COLD CUTS
Pork breeding is part of the history and culture of the farmers living in the Tortona region. Born as a need to resist to poverty and famine, the production of cold cuts can today boast an high quality and represents an art that has been handed down from father to son.
Different varieties of cold cuts, all of excellent quality, are produced in the Tortona region. In particular the specialities of the territory are: raw salami and ham.
Raw Salami
Raw Salami is mainly produced by the the artisans living on the Tortona hills. It has a corse grain, made of pure bovine meat (only in a few cases a little percentace of beef can be used), worked with kitchen-salt, black peppercorns and an infusion of garlic and red wine, particularly aromatic.
Ham
It is the buttoh-hole of the cold cuts art of the Tortona region.
Produced on the basis of ancient recipes, it comes from national bovins only, without addition of chemical substances.
When cut the colour of the ham is pink, non translucent, with a unique perfume.
BACI DI DAMA
These delicious little cakes represent the main product of the pastry-making art of the Tortona region, besides being a symbol of the city of Tortona as well.
They are made of two little oval or semi-circular biscuits with a basis of almond flour, butter, sugar and wheat meal worked following an ancient recipe and with a chocolate strip in the middle.
There is also another recipe for “Baci di dama” that suggests the use of chocolate in the dough: they are called Baci Dorati.
They can be bought in the best bars, pastry-shops and selected shops.
AGNOLOTTI
Thanks to its notoriety, the “Agnolotto fo Tortona” has become famous also beyond local boundaries: today it represents a speciality to which goumets are not ready to renounce.
Agnolotti can be considered as a unique course, typical of important occasions of the past, made of two leafs of pastry with a delicious stew beef filling, cooked on a slow fire by adding a full-bodied red wine as the traditional recipe requires.
GASSOSA ABBONDIO
In January 1889, Angelo Abbondio (who was born in Sale in 1858) arrived in Tortona and founded the company “fabbrica di acque gazzose”.
In the beginning, the two main products were: ” GASSOSA BIANCA” a fizzy drink tasting like lemonade and soda water.
The first packaging of “GASSOSA” was certainly original: a little bottle made of two thick-glass compartments, which self-closed thanks to an internal marble pushed high by the carbon gas.
With this packaging, “gassosa” was originnaly called “bicycle”.
Angelo Abbondio, the founder, died young in 1900 and his wife Carolina Grassi continued to run the company after his death. Also Angelo Abbondio’s son, Domenico (born in 1886), even if he was very young, hardly collaborated to the management of the family business activity and when he became adult he was nominated owner of the company.
Domenico increases the number of clients and in 1907 takes par tinto the exhibition “Mostra Nazionale del Lavoro” (National Labour Exhibition) and obtained the “Gold medal” award.
Thnaks to his efforts he gave an important push to the production innovation during the thirties: it is during that period that “GASSOSA ROSSA”(originally called “AMERICANO”, later “AMARO”) was born.
Towards the end of the forties, Domenico Abbondio used, for the first time, a means of transport (tricar), for the transport of products to clients.
Before he started this process, in fact, deliveries were carried out only with a handcart dragged by horse.
In 1958 the last product of the range, i.e. “GASSOSA VERDE”, the drink tasting like mint was born. Domenico Abbondio died in 1972.
His son Angelo (born in 1935) succeeds to his father together with his sister Carla.
During the next decade, Angelo improved the production plant and promoted the selling of products more and more, even beyond Tortona boundaries (Voghera, Novi Ligure e Alessandria).
In 1997 the management of the business was handed over F.lli Devecchi and Co.
VINEGAR
Among the most signsificant productions of the Tortona region there is certainly that of vinegar; hereby are the main types of vinegar and the best food matches:
WINE VINEGARS white or red:
especially recommended with mixed salads cooked vegetables, pickled fish or meat and so on
AROMATIC VINEGARS:
with fruits and berries (lemon vinegar, red pepper vinegar, bilberry vinegar, raspberry vinegar, garlic vinegar and so on). These vinegars, which do not contain chemical substances, take their colour directly from the fruits or berries they contain. They have a soft taste and an enriched aroma.
SPECIAL VINEGAR:
with the trademark 8 1/2, aromatic and strong, full-bodied, it is a particular vinegar that derives from valuable wines, whose aroma is persistent. A few drops are sufficient to exalt its strength and aroma.
APPLE VINEGAR:
scented and particularly delicate, suggested also for diets.
MODENA ACETO BALSAMIC VINEGAR:
produced in the plant of Vignola (MO). It is considered as the “black gold” of Modena, very salutary, obtained from the most of Emilia Romagna grapes, cooked on a high fire and matured, refined and aged with slow acetification, following the ancient technique of Estensi.
WHITE BALSAMIC DRESSING:
bitter-sweet, fresh, aromatic, it is made of selected white grapes juices, mixed with different types of tipi white wine vinegars. Specifically recommended in the preparation of sauces and mayonnaise, besides being an excellent dressing.
THE BIOLOGICAL RANGE:
specific attention paid to the new production of Vinegars and Dressings coming from biological agriculture, a range whose use is increasing more and more.
