Eataly

WHAT, YOU HAVEN'T been to Eataly? She was incredulous. Well, I had been in truth, sort of; we saw an Eataly pavilion at Slow Food a number of years ago, and I assumed from that that it was mostly an Internet-based supplier of Italian food products.

Wrong.

I won't write further here about the scope and extent of this amazing emporium; this is a dining blog, no more. I'll just write notes on our supper, after another intense day at Il Salone del Gusto.

We started off wsharing an Insalata Russa, that "Russian salad" I mentioned the other day. Peas, carrots, and diced potatoes in a thick mayannaise; in this case arriving in a little sealable glass jar. As I've said, it's comfort food, very old-fashioned; and we like it, very much.

Then the pasta course that we've otherwise been ignoring lately. We had tagiatelle with rosemary-flavored meat sauce — how else can I translate al sugo di carne profumato al rosmarino? The pasta was cooked to the perfect al dente. For dining in a supermarket, this was quite satisfactory.

If I lived here I'd be by once a week. There are several restaurants, specializing in various areas — meat, fish, an oyster bar — each with menus featuring a number of items. You could eat here every night, I think, and it would take a few months to get through tall the permutations…

ArneisFontanafredda, 2013 (true varietal, crisp); Dolcetto d'Alba, Mirafiore, 2012 (ditto)

•Eataly, via Nizza 230/14 (at Lingotto), Torino;  +39 011 19506801