We started our trip with 3 night stay at ortaflats.com, right on Lago d’Orta.
First night, salumi and wine and a very nice bread basket at Pan&Vino. excellent! Their kitchen doesn’t open until 7:00 and we were exhausted from a very long travel day so this 6:00 “meal” was perfect
Last night–we returned to Pan&Vino to try out the cooked food.
They boast “No Pizza No Pasta” on their sign outside. We started with Franciacorta and some marinated vegetables–peppers, mushrooms and artichoke which were just OK. Then, I had polenta with gorgonzola-type local blue cheese and well cooked radicchio. What a great combo of bitter and sweet! Ken had a dark rice dish with sausage and vegetables which was very good. It was called “It’s Not Risotto.” We shared a glass of Gattinara red. Dessert was a plate of cookies with a wonderful sweet moscato, slightly sparkling wine from Asti. We finished with a local amaro wine–served with an ice cube, it tasted like vermouth.
From Orta we traveled to Novello. On the way we stopped in Vercelli. I have a Slow Food app from 2020 and found the restaurant, Paulino, on it. We had a really great Piemontese lunch there. Finally I got my favorite very small agnolotti, simple with butter and sage. Ken got a pasta with sausage and vegetables which was really homey and delicious. Then we shared roast chicken and sauteed cabbage and a hazelnut torta for dessert. We were lucky we reserved because Paulino was turning away walk-ins. The ambiance of the place is homey, like the food. He even scolded me for not finishing my pasta.
We also had a fabulous lunch in Alba, where we went to do our laundry. Trattoria da Sergio proved to be a great pick. We got the last table in the non touristy Trattoria with its Sardinian influenced menu. The food was really good. Outstanding was my appetizer of calamari stew/guazzetto. Ken had Malloreddus with sausage and we shared a beautiful mixed vegetable plat and a glass of delicious Arneis.
