Starting from Agrate Conturbia to Discover the Cuisine of Alto Piemonte
Article by Fulvio Julita
Among Hills, Rice Fields and Rural Authenticity
A handful of beans, a piece of salami, cabbage from the garden: that was once enough to lay out a feast in this land. It's from this peasant cuisine — poor in ingredients but rich in flavour — that the culinary journey from Agrate Conturbia begins: a small village in the Novara countryside, set between the plain's rice fields and the first hills climbing towards Alto Piemonte.
From here, just a short drive takes you from rice fields to the vineyards of Ghemme and Gattinara, from woods rich in mushrooms and chestnuts to the area's historic wine cellars. Few places let you cross so many different flavours in so little space: that's what makes the village an ideal starting point for anyone who wants to truly explore the cuisine of Alto Piemonte, not just taste it.
Traditional Flavours of Novara and Alto Piemonte
The traditional cuisine of Alto Piemonte is honest, full of flavour and deeply tied to the produce of the land. One of its most representative dishes is paniscia novarese, a rich, hearty peasant risotto born in the rice-growing countryside around Novara. In paniscia, Carnaroli rice grown in the local paddies simmers slowly with borlotti beans, cabbage, carrots and celery, enriched by the bold flavour of salame d'la duja and fidighin, a type of liver sausage. The result is a creamy, robust risotto that warms body and soul on cold days. Every spoonful tells the dish's humble origins: it was once a whole meal for farming families, made with whatever the farmyard and vegetable garden provided. Even today, tasting a steaming bowl of paniscia means taking a dive into the rural history of the Novara area, recalling the work of the mondine — the rice-paddy workers — and evenings spent around the hearth.
If paniscia is the symbol of Novara, another iconic dish of the area is tapulone. It's a finely minced stew, traditionally made with donkey meat, typical of Borgomanero. Legend has it that tapulone was born in the Middle Ages, when a group of hungry pilgrims sacrificed their own donkey and cooked its meat with wine and aromatic herbs to feed themselves. Today it's made with beef or horse meat, slow-braised in the red wine of the Novara hills with garlic, bay leaves and spices, until tender and full of flavour. Often served with steaming polenta, it remains a reminder of how humble ingredients, cooked with patience, could once become a feast.
Local gastronomic tradition offers many other genuine specialities. In the rice-growing areas, for example, you'll find fried frogs' legs, a legacy of when the paddies teemed with frogs and farming families would gather them to fry in a crisp batter. Polenta, made with local cornmeal, is a constant on Novara's tables: it can accompany a rich brasato in Nebbiolo wine, or be dressed with a sausage and porcini mushroom sauce.
In autumn, when the woods of Alto Piemonte offer up game, wild boar or venison stews appear, marinated in wine and slow-cooked with herbs and vegetables. The result is meltingly tender meat, wrapped in a dark, fragrant sauce, perfect for mopping up with a piece of rustic bread. These are bold flavours — of the woods, of the wood-burning stove — that take their time and demand it of whoever cooks them.
Rice, Cheeses and Cured Meats: The Treasures of the Land
Among the most precious fruits of this land is rice. The provinces of Novara and Vercelli, with their vast flooded paddies, have been the heart of Italian rice growing since medieval times. The Carnaroli and Arborio rice grown here is prized for the quality of its grains, which hold up beautifully to cooking and absorb seasonings while releasing a creamy starch: it's the reason Alto Piemonte boasts such an enviable risotto tradition, from the paniscia already mentioned to risotto with porcini mushrooms, to risotto made with Nebbiolo wine — and, as we'll see shortly, with gorgonzola. Visiting the paddies in spring, when the water turns them into shimmering "mirrors" under the sun, you understand just how much of the landscape and local life revolves around this grain, celebrated too in local fairs and festivals.
It's no surprise that the local rice finds one of its most natural companions in gorgonzola. This soft, blue-veined cheese, famous the world over, takes its name from a Lombard town but is today a point of pride for the Novara area, home to some of its most renowned producers. With a creamy, blue-veined heart, it's made from local whole milk and matures slowly, developing an intense, unmistakable flavour. It's enjoyed on its own, perhaps paired with honey or polenta, or, as mentioned, used to make risotto al gorgonzola, bringing together two local excellences in a single dish. Alongside gorgonzola is toma, another cheese emblematic of Piedmont: in the hills between Lake Maggiore and Lake Orta, for instance, Toma del Mottarone is produced, a raw cow's milk cheese with a fragrant taste of butter, grass and hazelnut. The best way to enjoy it remains the simplest: on a slice of homemade bread, or melted over the traditional gnocchi alla bava.
On the cured meat side, salam d'la duja deserves a place of honour: soft, made from pure pork, aged in a jar filled with lard according to an old method devised to protect the meat from the humidity of the plain. The result is a tender, savoury salami that keeps all the aromas of the spices and wine used to prepare it, and is also the ingredient that gives character to the area's paniscia and panissa risottos. Alongside it is fidighina, a small liver mortadella typical of the Novara area, with a bold, slightly iron-rich taste, eaten in thin slices on warm bread or browned as a base for sauces and omelettes. These are cured meats that perfectly embody the Piedmontese motto "nothing goes to waste": every part of the pig becomes a delicacy.
Another unique treasure of the Novara area is the cipolla bionda di Cureggio e Fontaneto, an ancient variety that has become a Slow Food Presidium: a deep golden colour, flattened shape, and exceptional sweetness. Harvested at the end of summer, it keeps for months while staying firm and sweet, and seasons soffritto bases, soups and fillings without ever overpowering their aromas. Try it caramelised in a pan, or slow-roasted alongside a joint of meat: the sweetness it releases surprises anyone tasting it for the first time.
Rounding out the picture of local flavours is honey, the sweet reward of the area's woods and meadows. Among the most renowned are chestnut honey, dark and intense, ideal with aged cheeses, and acacia honey, light and delicate, perfect for breakfast bread — alongside rarer varieties such as linden, rhododendron and wildflower honey. At the farmers' markets around Agrate Conturbia, you'll often meet the beekeepers who still offer their honey in small artisanal batches: a good way to end a meal, or to round out a board of local cheeses, with a genuine piece of this land.
The Wines of Alto Piemonte: Nebbiolo with Character, Among Hills and History
Alto Piemonte has an ancient and noble winemaking tradition, with three red wines that deserve to be told.
Ghemme DOCG, produced in the hills around the village of the same name, is almost a pure Nebbiolo, with small percentages of Vespolina and Uva Rara allowed. Ruby red turning to garnet with age, it offers scents of dried violet and sweet spices, and is an austere wine that needs years of ageing to soften. It pairs well with braised meats, game and aged cheeses.
Gattinara DOCG, produced in the province of Vercelli, on the opposite side of the Sesia river from Ghemme, is also Nebbiolo-based (minimum 90%). Volcanic soil gives it a pronounced minerality, a bouquet of dog rose and hints of tar, and a full body capable of ageing for decades. It's the right wine for polenta concia, hare in civet sauce, or the tapulone of Borgomanero.
Boca DOC, produced in a small area north of Ghemme, is a rare wine: made from Nebbiolo (45–70%) with Vespolina and Uva Rara, it has ethereal scents of violet and pomegranate, and is made in limited quantities by a handful of wineries now rediscovering the tradition. It pairs well with substantial risottos, starting with paniscia, as well as roasts and alpine cheeses.
Three different wines, one same soul: that of Nebbiolo, a noble and demanding grape, which each part of Alto Piemonte expresses in its own way — robust and complex, yet always elegant.
Conclusion: A Journey of Taste Between Tradition and Landscape
Setting out from Agrate Conturbia to explore the flavours of Alto Piemonte means embarking on a journey made as much with a fork as with your eyes. In just a few days you can move from the rustic atmosphere of a countryside trattoria, where a grandmother ladles out steaming paniscia, to the historic cellars on the hills, where Nebbiolo rests in oak barrels waiting for the right moment.
Here, food is living culture before it's tradition to be told: every dish bears the mark of families and territories, every local product holds passed-down passion and patience. Those who stay in this corner of the Novara area don't simply taste something good: they learn, one bite at a time, how people eat in a part of Piedmont that still has stories to tell.