Perfection under the Mole

The restaurant's name means "Under the Mole"; the Mole is the gorgeous dome seen here.

I was in Turin the other day with a good friend and she brilliantly summed up one of my favorite Italian cities with, "It's like Paris but a bit grungier." True story. For me the city is equally defined by its sweeping, noble piazzas, decked out in their Baroque and Neo-Classic palazzos, as it is by its thriving immigrant communities, which inevitably add a much welcomed zest to the local culture. You can start your day with a brioche and bicerin at one of the numerous grand cafes then head off to the ethnic markets to take home some rare Chinese veggies to cook up for lunch. The mark of a great city if you ask me.

You know another mark of a great city? Great food (duh). Since B and I both lived in Piemonte (the Italian region where you find Turin) we were eager to eat some of the classic dishes we so miss, and luckily for us, we didn't have to look beyond the Slow Food Osteria guide to find a real winner in Sotto la Mole.

Now the thing about eating in Italy is that when considering the country as a whole, the cuisine possibilities are seemingly infinite, but when discussing typical dishes for a given province, well things don't change so much from one restaurant to the next. I could pretty much count on my two hands the dishes (and I do mean, antipasto, pastas, rice, meats and desserts) to be found on any menu in and around Turin. Understandably this gets to be a bit monotonous, especially if you don't live in the city where you have access to different types of food, but for us simple day-trippers, this was perfect since it was the classics we longed for.

Before we even arrived, I knew exactly what I wanted to start with: carne cruda. Now for those of us not accustomed to eating raw meat, it may sound pretty nasty, but it is really gorgeous and satisfying and not to be found out here in Parma (unless we're talking about horse meat, which is another story). Sotto la Mole presents the dish with a flourish: three small cylinders of hand chopped raw beef, each topped with a small green leafy garnish and delicatley sprinkled with sea salt and olive oil. Heaven. B and P enjoyed an artichoke flan, nestled in a warm bath of bagna cauda - another Piemontese specialty of warm olive oil, garlic and anchovies.

For our primi we went back to basics. Gnocchi for me in a rich sauce of local Castelmagno cheese, tajarin (a very thinly cut, eggy pasta) with veal sausage and rosemary for B, and a fantastic risotto with sausage and Barolo wine for P. Love all around.

Speaking of wine, you really cannot talk about Piemonte without talking about wine since some of Italy's top bottles come from the local vineyards. Living here we were really quite spoiled with what we drank, and were delighted to have our pick of Barberas, Barolos and Dolcettos. In the end we picked a fruity Barbera from Elio Grasso, that just as the food, not surprisingly, did not disappoint.

Ristorante Sotto la Mole
Via Montebello, 9
Turin, Italy
011 8179398