Langhe, home of Slow Food

The Langhe, home of Slow Food, is a beautiful area in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. For many Italians, this area is known as the birthplace of the Slow Food movement. Slow Food is defined as: “Food that is produced or prepared in accordance with local culinary traditions, typically using high quality and locally sourced ingredients.” In the Langhe area, sustainability is a practiced lifestyle, and has had time to engrain itself into the soil and shows its success in restaurants, agriculture, and tourism.

Underneath you find the Slow Foods of Piedmont’s greatest gastronomic center.

“We go back generations. It’s different from Tuscany here. In the Langhe, there are no princes, just farmers.”

The King and the Queen wines of the Langhe

Although there may be no ‘princes’, there are other royal names in the Langhe. It is the area where the ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ of Italian wines, the famous Barolo and Barbaresco, are produced. Both of these powerhouse reds are made with the Nebbiolo grape. The name comes from ‘nebbia’ (cloud), because the grapes — as the story goes — used to be picked in the autumn mist.
Barolo is a wine with immense resources and a high prestige. Not by chance, has it always been subject of interest in the past and has it created today a world-wide reputation.
The Barolo wine route is an enotouristic itinerary that joins together wineries, castles, charming hotels and holiday farms along the Langhe hills. The trail gathers the picturesque municipalities of Alba, Barolo, and La Morra, in an extraordinary journey into the very heart and soul of the territory, where the main character is, indeed, the wine. In the background reigns the great patrimony of culture, tradition, and the affluence of nature with its enchanting hills and vineyards.

“Explore the hilltop villages of the Langhe, sample the region’s wines, and gaze at the waving hills of vines.”

The hilltop villages of the Langhe, have a somnolent feel, as if they have just completed a splendid lunch. In places such as La Morra you can slow down almost to a stop, sampling the region’s wines, and gazing at the view.
The hills look as if they have been stitched together, with every slope pinstriped by vines. The angles of the fields are surrounded by the red roofs of the villages. For nearly one thousand years, generations of residents have carefully molded these Piedmont’s terrains, sculpting it into the viticultural masterpiece that one sees today. In the summer of 2014, this hard work has been rewarded, when the vineyard landscape of the Langhe-Roero district was granted the UNESCO World Heritage Status.

The White Truffle

Every autumn, as the air gets cooler, locals and “in-the-know” visitors flock to the town Alba. Not least because of the pretty streets, picturesque churches and squares filled with the aromatic scent of one of the world’s most luxurious foods: the white truffle. Gioacchino Rossini defined the truffle as the “Mozart of mushrooms”, and since the eighteenth century, the Alba white truffle has been considered a rare delicacy. The legendary hunters of the white truffle venture out on autumn nights down hidden paths with their faithful hounds. With their intense aroma, Alba’s white truffles are the jewel on the crown of Langhe’s cuisine.

October and November mark Alba’s annual White Truffle Festival (Fiera Internazionale del Tartufo Bianco d’Alba), a month-long celebration of the beloved local delicacy that is savored all over the world.

The gastronomy of the Langhe is robust and tasty, but simple and genuine at the same time, because it depends on the products of a territory that adapt with the changing of the seasons. Inherited by the farmers’ tradition, the typical dishes of the Langhe recall a rustic cuisine, which is rich in flavors and authenticity.

DOP cheeses

The DOP (DOP is short for Denominazione di Origine Protetta (literally “Protected Designation of Origin”) cheeses of the Langhe are an integral part of its cuisine and are the protagonists of many ancient and contemporary recipe. You can appreciate a range of flavors among the delicious varieties of cheese such as Murazzano, Castelmagno, Robiola and Toma. Every town in the Langhe produces the most amazing cheeses, that are much more refined than any other area of Italy.

While the Langhe is a hot spot for winos, the region is still largely off the beaten path, compared to places like Tuscany. And while some could argue that Slow Food has done a lot to boost food explorers in the area, it seems to be not a tourist-driven movement, but more a moral one. Sustainable food is a hot topic globally right now. But the factor that we often forget regarding sustainable food, is the preservation of cultural practices and traditional cooking. It is exactly this what counts for Langhe’s Slow Food; it feeds the soul of its locals and the community that survives off it.