I had 48 hours in Turin, a lovely weekend side trip from my base in Genoa. My primary tasks were writing about the Savoy dynasty and the city’s automotive history. But hey, a guy’s got to eat, right?

48 hour in Turin. Ostensibly four meals: two lunches and two dinners. Maybe some snacks or drinks between. (I’m not really a breakfast guy at this point in my life, preferring just a quick coffee or two and getting on my way.) Could I experience the breadth of Piedmontese cuisine in such a short time?

No, of course not. But I was going to give it a heck of a try.

My first challenge was distilling a cuisine down to just a few items. After all, Italian regional dishes are many and mighty. It was easy to drop the classic vitello tonnato. I get that it’s a big deal, but veal with a sauce made from canned tuna doesn’t appeal to me with limited time. Same goes for the seemingly endless variations on things with anchovy sauces. I am as adventurous of an eater as anyone, but with so few chances to eat locally, now was not the time to try things “just because” if I didn’t have a reasonable expectation of enjoyment. (And yes, I probably would have enjoyed these things, but maybe not as much as what I did decide to seek out.)

Of course logistics were going to prove an impediment. I had a hotel lined up, the lovely AC Hotel (a Marriott chain), so dinners on a rainy weekend would likely be close to there. My first lunch had to be either near my hotel, my activity for the day (the Italian National Automotive Museum, which was also fairly near my hotel), or the train station I was arriving into. And my lunch on the full day I had in the city needed to be reasonably close to my main sight, the Royal Palace of Turin. So my searches had to focus on those areas.

So with all the seriousness necessary for such important research as food, I got to work. And here is what I ended up with. You can judge my success or failure.

The First Lunch – Pizza, Turin-Style

Pizza is everywhere. And many places seem to have their own pizza style. Turin is no exception, apparently being one of the few places in Italy where pizza is not Roman (thin crust baked crispy) or Neapolitan (bubbly, crispy, chewy crust in a super hot oven) in style. Piedmontese pizza is pan pizza, where putting the dough in cast iron skillets before baking it gives luxuriously crispy edges. It is called padellino, and I found a place near to the train station called Al Padellino. Seemed promising.

Well, it was closed. (Reminder, friends, that hours on Google Maps aren’t always accurate, and even if they are, sometimes it still doesn’t work out.) Fortunately, I had passed another pizza joint on my way to this one, and even more fortunately, that one – Pizzeria 150 – was open. And most fortunately of all, it had pan pizza!

By this point I was rather hungry (as was A, who was with me; traveling with a partner means getting to try more food), so lunch was both a pizza with prosciutto and mushrooms and farinata with Gorgonzola and onions. What is farinata? It is super thin dough of chickpea flour layered and either baked or fried until crispy or topped with things that prevent it from being crispy. It isn’t unique to Turin or Piedmont, being common throughout the north, but it was there and wonderful.

As for the pizza, it was indeed crispy and delicious, made better by fresh pepper. A solid start, and under €20.

The First Dinner – Beef in Focus

We were the only people in Ristorante La Mina when it opened at 730pm. (I’m used to being among the only diners in much of Europe, where my American timing means I eat earlier than most.) A half liter of red wine on the table while we perused the menu meant I didn’t care.

Tonight was to be about beef, something Piedmontese cuisine is known for. It can be done raw as a tartare, or it can be cooked. And it can come inside of pasta. Score!

The order, shared: agnolotti (little ravioli) of beef with a beef gravy and a filet topped with melted local Castelmagno cheese.

Let’s start with the pasta. It was incredible, basically small meatballs inside of ravioli with a gravy like you’d find on roast beef back in the US. I can only imagine the sauce was from the trimmings of my filet, which used the cheese fondue as its salt element.

And of course we saved room for dessert. Torta della nonna is more Tuscan than Piedmontese, but pie with lemon custard is so good nobody is nit-picking here.

And the total with wine and desserts was around €70 for two.

Day Two – Snacks and Sweets

I had a lot I wanted to see in Turin, and I didn’t think I’d have time to have a sit down lunch. So my plan revolved around trying a couple of things, one sweet and one savory, over the course of the afternoon. For savory, I wanted Piedmontese salami. I found it in piadina form.

A piadina is a flatbread sandwich, sort of a cross between a crepe, taco, and stuffed pita. It can be filled with pretty much anything, and piadina shops are all over central Turin. (Look for signs advertising Italian street food.) Mine had salami (score!), along with vegetables like zucchini, and fontina cheese, for €8.

But of course, I had to save a bit of room for one of Turin’s most famous foods: chocolate. Piedmont is known for its chocolate, traditionally made with hazelnuts. If you’ve ever had Ferraro Rocher, it comes from here and is pretty typical. The most famous chocolate chain is called Baratti and Milano, and I found a shop offering loose chocolates in various forms (the hazelnut ones are called gianduja), and I picked several at random to taste.

But for a more elegant experience, I wanted bicerin. Perfect on a rainy day, a bicerin is a drink made with chocolate ganache, espresso, milk, and whipped cream. I found mine in Cafe Roberto near the royal palace. After mixing in the whipped cream so as not to just end up with it on my nose, I drank until it was only ganache, and then used the spoon provided. I believe it was €7.

(Note: bicerin is also the name of a chocolate liqueur that you can get on ice cream.)

The Second Dinner – The Cheese Course

Last night I had Castelmagno cheese atop my steak. Today, it was time to try it in two other forms. I chose Osteria del Fiat for the occasion, just around the corner from both my hotel and last night’s dinner.

First, we had Castelmagno raw with honey and greens. This simple plate brought out the nuttiness in the cheese. It is hard and a bit crumbly, though not so much as parmesan, and the honey adds a bit of depth.

And then it was the pasta star: potato gnocchi with Castelmagno sauce. The gnocchi at Osteria del Fiat are the most potato-forward I’ve had, and with a creamy cheese sauce are sort of reminiscent of a classic baked potato with cheese. Just better.

And yes, there was dessert. Bonet is the most traditional Piedmontese cake, although it is more a pudding in the British style. It is made from chocolate and almonds or hazelnuts, and soaked with liqueur. The consistency is halfway between pudding and sponge cake, and it was delicious.

This dinner was cheaper without the filet, and was €52 including another half liter of wine, this time white, and pasta and dessert for two.

The Verdict

I’ll give myself a B. I got to the things I wanted most: agnolotti, Castelmagno cheese, Turin pan pizza, chocolate. I added a few fun surprises that weren’t exactly local, but seem to be pretty popular here. And with the most expensive meal (the first dinner) running only about €70 for two, I did it reasonably.

What do you think?

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