Courmayeur, the culinary showcase of the Aosta ValleyBy Emmanuel TresmontantCourmayeur is an alpine resort in a class of its own, not least because it has great food! Courmayeur’s restaurants offer cuisine that is typical of the Aosta Valley at very affordable prices, and if you’d rather have the occasional meal in your chalet or apartment, there are many shops downtown and nearby where you can fill your shopping bags with excellent local products. Arriving in Italy via the Mont-Blanc tunnel, visitors may not immediately notice that they’ve entered a border region which has always preserved its cultural and even political independence... The Roman government is many leagues away, and the denizens of the Val d’Aoste have traditionally taken their own destiny in hand; in 1947 the region was officially granted administrative autonomy. In their local cuisine as well, the Aostans have distinguished themselves from the rest of Italy through their fondness for alpine products and fare that cannot be found anywhere else... One example is the slow-baked bread and cheese soup (zuppa di pane), whose least elaborate form is the seupette de Cogne made of bread, fontina (the local cheese), butter and stock. For the more sophisticated zuppa di Valpelline, fatty bacon, Milan cabbage and rosemary are added to the basic recipe.  Polenta © E. Tresmontant/ViaMichelin Many delicacies typical of the Aosta Valley may be enjoyed at the Baita Ermitage restaurant (with terrace) in the heart of the forest. Polenta with cheese (polenta cùnsa), beef stew (carbonade all’uso aostano) or jugged hare (lepre in civet) will provide you with plenty of energy for all your mountain adventures… Other varieties of this civet, or stew, are concocted from chamois meat, pheasant, or even marmot - this last must marinate for 48 hours in white wine with carrots, celery, onions and spices. Aosta Valley rye bread has always been appreciated for its rich, compact interior and aroma of honey and hay. In olden days, this bread was kept for several months during the winter period. It would finally become so tough that it had to be cut with a special slicing tool: the sturdy copapan! The Boulangerie Antari, a bakery situated in the Morgex hamlet, makes delicious local bread, and its grissini, elongated cylinders up to 77 cm (30”) long and baked from wheat flour, water, leavening and salt, are among the most renowned of the Aosta Valley. Crunchy through and through, an exquisite snack any time of day, grissini are best enjoyed as is or dipped in olive oil.  Mocetta © E. Tresmontant/ViaMichelin In Courmayeur, excellent artisan cured meats are generally included in every first course. Among local specialties, try the mocetta - cold cuts that were traditionally made from dried, marinated and spiced meat of the ibex, or mountain goat. Because ibex is now a protected species, today’s mocetta comes from either chamois or goat meat. L’Auberge de la Maison offers a delicious warm potato and mocetta salad dressed with Tuscany olive oil and lemon. The most emblematic specialty of the Aosta Valley remains the renowned lard d’Arnad - Arnad bacon - made from the fatty rind of mountain pigs. The bacon is cut into pieces, smothered in salt and spices (pepper, rosemary, laurel, sage, cloves...) and dried at high altitude for three months. Served with rye or hazelnut bread, it makes a delectable antipasto!  Fabrication de la fontina © E. Tresmontant/ViaMichelin The fromagerie Panizzi, a Courmayeur institution which won the ‘Italy’s best home-made fresh goat cheese’ prize in 2007, is another local favourite. Italian cheeses, each more tempting than the last, as well as artisan yogurts with fresh fruit abound in this appealing shop, along with the most illustrious cheese of the Aosta Valley: la fontina, produced here since the Middle Ages. Made from the rich milk of cows that graze in the alpine meadows, this yellow, resilient cheese peppered with small holes is aged for three to four months in arched cellars dug out of the mountain. Very high in proteins, mineral salts and calcium, la fontina has nurtured untold generations of robust young Aostans; it also makes a very flavoursome fondue!*  Poires au vin © E. Tresmontant/ViaMichelin When dessert time rolls around, we encourage you to try regional recipes - scrumptious little Aosta Valley pears cooked in spiced wine and served with whipped cream are a top choice. Try the "Pere Martin al vino rosso" served at the Auberge de la Maison and the Cadran Solaire (Courmayeur’s oldest establishment) - especially delicious when accompanied by a good espresso. After a fine meal, there’s nothing better than a glass of genépi, the Aosta Valley’s most celebrated after-dinner drink. Genépi is full of aromatic plants, including gentian root and the very rare Glacier Wormwood (Artemesia glacialis, for the botanists among us) which may only be harvested twig by twig in carefully controlled, limited quantities. On Via Roma, we recommend a shop called Gourmandises which offers a full range of genépis distilled according to traditional methods - those made by the Ottoz family are a good choice. White genépi, which does not contain any colouring additives, is the most authentic. Finally, for a treat that is not specifically Aostan, be advised that Courmayeur is also known for the quality of its pizzas, since nearly every pizza served here is baked in wood-fuelled ovens. We recommend those on the menu of the Montfrety Restaurant, located on Via Regionale, unless you’d rather head down to Pré-Saint-Didier where L’Étoile, Avenue Dent du Géant, makes a fabulous margarita for only €6. *The fonduta valdostana, best enjoyed after a hard day’s skiing, is made from 400 g (around 14 oz) young fontina without the rind; 250 ml (a little over 1 cup) of whole milk; 30 g (2 tbsp) butter, 4 egg yolks, 1 white truffle, salt, pepper, and slices of toasted bread… A rarity: Morgex et de la Salle wineThis traditional dry white wine may be sampled and purchased just a few kilometres from Courmayeur. The “Blanc de Morgex et de la Salle” is famous for its provenance: it is made from grapes grown in old vineyards situated at an altitude of 1,000 to 1,250 m. Ancient stone pillars support vines which are trained along terraces which require very careful cultivation and a sure foot. The variety of native grape called the “prié” does well in cold and snow and produces a high quality ice white. During the 1960s-70s, a local priest created a sensation by producing a white wine that certain critics considered to be “Italy’s most gorgeous wine”. Nowadays, unfortunately, the harvest is rather too abundant and growers generally entrust their grapes to the Morgex Wine Co-op. address bookRistorante Baita Ermitage Ermitage - 11013 Courmayeur Tel: (0039) 0165 844351 Auberge de la Maison Fromagerie Panizzi ViaCirconvallazione 41 – 11013 Courmayeur Tel: (0039) 0165 843041 Gourmandises Via Roma 44 – 11013 Courmayeur Tel: (0039) 0165 842138 Montfrety Ristorante – Pizzeria Via Regionale 21 – 11013 Courmayeur Tel: (0039) 01 65 841786 L’Étoile Avenue Dent du Géant 49 – Pré-Saint-Didier – Courmayeur Tel: (0039) 01 65 848157 |
Tourism and Gastronomy
Send to a friend
Print this article
