Giaglione, 3: Chestnuts!

Agriturismo Crè Seren, Giaglione, October 30, 2010—

AFTER A MORNING of sight-seeing we were hungry, and had gone to Chiomonte, Lindsey's father's birthplace, so we lunched in the old Albergo there. We first ate there in the summer of 1974, when its kitchen was a bit better, I think; it's been under new management since the late 'seventies, and the kitchen's a bit pedestrian. Still, you can do worse: I had a plate of tagilatelle with Bolognese sauce, then a couple of veal scallopine in a thick flour-based sauce, washed down with the local red.



After an afternoon visiting new-found family — Lindsey's third cousin, I think, once removed — we dined back at our agriturismo with Andrea and Teresa, a third cousin twice removed and his wife, a pianist. Our hostess, Serena Sereno, having heard I liked chestnuts, arranged a dinner featuring them in almost every course, as follows:

Lettuce, onion, and sliced fennel salad, with slices of soft raw pancetta
Grilled chestnuts with lardo (all this is from the agriturismo, by the way)
Gnocchi malfatti in butter and oil


Tomato tartlet with peppers and chopped parsley
Tagliatelle dressed with chopped chestnuts, carrots, and leeks
Roast vitellone with roast potatoes


Chestnut crumble cake topped with chopped apples in jelly

White, Dolcetto, and Crè Seren Nero, 2009, as yesterday

Albergo Chiomonte, Via Levis, Chiomonte (TO)Agriturismo "Cre Seren", Frazione S. Rocco 10, Giaglione (TO), tel. 0122.62 92 64