On top of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps, in Cuneo and the Occitane Valleys, the population practised agricultural and pastoral transhumance. Thanks this way of life a peculiar gastronomy was born, named "Cucina Bianca" becuase based on starches, dairy products, vegetables like potatoes, turnips, leeks, garlic or products found along the paths. In spite of its proximity to the sea, the "Cucina Bianca" is very different from the typical Mediterranean cooking. The old menu consisted of just an energy-giving and tasty main course, quick and easy to prepare. The "Strada della Cucina Bianca - Civiltà delle Malghe" represents an itinerary all through the Ligurian municipal districts of Cosio d'Arroscia, Mendatica, Montegrosso Pian Latte, Pornassio, Triora and it also includes La Brigue in the French district of the Maritime Alps and Briga Alta in the province of Cuneo.
Aglié This is a variant of the Provençal aiolì. It's a sauce that looks like mayonnaise, with potatoes and a strong scent of garlic. It goes well with boiled snails and potatoes, but also with boiled meat.
Bastardui The "Bastardui" are also called "Lasagne Bastarde" or with other funny local nicknames. They are a sort of gnocchi or maltagliati whose dough includes coarsely chopped vegetables. Their traditional condiment is a cream and leek sauce.
Bernardun People used the rest of the minestrone to stuff a thin sheet of pastry and baked it. A variant: the filling consist of finely cut potatoes and leeks.
Brodu d'erbe amare A light soup with beaten egg and chopped stonewort, a self-sown aromatic plant. Tradition attributes to this herb digestive properties.
Brussusa With the rest of the bread dough people made the "brussusa": the dough was first rolled out and folded back with a filling of garlic or brussu, then baked. It was particularly widespread in the area of Briga.
Flan di scorzonera With the "Pute" or béchamel sauce and a scorzonera purée people made a dainty flan to bake in a bain-marie.
Friscioi The leftover soups and vegetables were added to a batter of flour and eggs to make the "friscioi". For the children instead, especially at Carnival time, people added to the batter sliced apples and sugar (friscioi de mei).
TURTELLI Minietti-bugaeli A particularly digestible soup that was mainly prepared for convalescent, for women in childbirth, for the children and for the elderly. People put little lumps of flour and water in a garlic flavoured stock with cubed potatoes or in water and milk. In Triora, the variant with chestnut flour is called "bugaeli".Simili come ingredienti alla torta di patate, si tratta di fagotti cotti al forno, o piccole torte da una porzione, ripieni di patate molto spesso accompagnati da altri ortaggi come i cavoli. Numerose sono le varianti locali o familiari.
Pan fritu Before baking the bread, people collected two portions from the dough: one was kept as yeast and the other, which was first cut into pieces and fried, was eaten with salt or sugar.
Panissa di piselli The pea flour left the mill mixed with wheat flour, which was used by the miller to remove from the gears the traces of the legumes. With this flour people made the "panissa". Once it became solid, it was sliced and eaten with milk or whey, "becca" for breakfast or with olive oil, vinegar, onion and chopped garlic for lunch or for dinner.
Panissa di gasce (chickling pea) People added mashed potatoes to mitigate the bitterish taste of the chickling pea.
Patate in tà foglia People put potatoes in a floured backing tin (la foglia) with milk and leeks. This recipe is widespread in the area of the Mount Saccarello, but it's a specialty of Piaggia (Briga Alta).
Pute Dainty sauce of flour with cream to melt in boiling water. It was used, before the advent of the béchamel, to make a flan with boiled vegetables.
Raviore This is the typical dish of Montegrosso Pian Latte. It consists of little ravioli with a filling of self-sown herbs, as stonewort, lemon verbena, spinach (engari), mint, nettles, etc. Their traditional condiment is boiling water, butter and a lot of pecorino cheese. There's a variant in Cosio d'Arroscia: the raviore, a little bigger, are baked.
Sciumette The sciumette are stiffly wisked egg-whites with sugar that were cooked in boiling milk. They garnished the puddings and the cakes.
Sugeli Sugeli are made with a simple dough (only flour and water), worked with the typical "corpu de diu" (they look like orecchiette). Their traditional condiment is a white sauce with brusso. Sugeli are considered the "national" dish of the Maritime Alps, because they're widespread in the area of the Mount Saccarello, in the land of Briga, in Mendatica, in Triora and in the Argentina Valley. You can find many variants of the sauce also in the Occitan Valleys of Cuneo.
Streppa e caccia là This is the typical dish of the alpine grazing of Mendatica. It's a "fastest" variant of the sugeli. The dough is flattened by fingers before putting the pasta in with savoy leaves, turnips and potatoes.
Turle Big ravioli of potatoes and mint to season with cream, sauted garlic (or leek) and roasted hazelnuts. With a similar filling people prepare the fried turle.
Turui – cubaite – cuppette People filled white wafers with browning honey and assorted kernels.
Turta de patate On the hearth or in the wood-burning oven people cooked the white pie. It had a filling of chopped or mashed potatoes, "sciura de laite", onion and, depending on the season, savoy, leeks, mint or other vegetables. In the land of Briga it's called "patatusa" or "tantriforusa".
Turtelli Turtelli are similar as the ingredients to the potato pie. They are fagotti or little cakes with a filling of potatoes and other vegetables. You can find several local or domestic variants.
The sheep of Briga
Every year, in the second half August, in Mendatica people devotes a week-end to the "Cucina Bianca". Meetings and cooking laboratories take place in our conference rooms and in this period you can taste the old home cooking.
Here all the dishes you could taste last summer