The magic of the landscape and good food: a weekend at the Castello di Cortanze

Once upon a time there was a medieval castle with two mighty towers that could be seen from afar, telling travellers that they were about to arrive at Cortanze, that is, Curtes Ansari, a centre on which several cultivated estates depended, spread over the gentle hills that we can admire even today from the garden of the ancient manor. If we had arrived here in the early Middle Ages, we might perhaps have met Lord Anserius, from whose name the place name of this splendid village of the Asti area would derive. Anserius had come down into Italy in the retinue of Charlemagne with other vassals loyal to the king, placed among the Lombards to control them and rewarded with rich fiefs such as the lands confiscated from the rebels.

We chose precisely this village, laden with history and set in a spectacular landscape, in which the gaze can range from hill to hill against the green backdrop of nature, for a weekend of pure relaxation between walks and good food. We owe this experience to a friend of ours who recently got married right here, at the Castello di Cortanze. Since she praised both the location and the restaurant, we decided to visit this place too, and the choice turned out to be spot on. After settling into two of the twelve rooms of the Castle, with the intimate atmosphere of a true patrician residence, we go to discover the historic centre. Of the two large towers of the Castle, one remains today, besides the two hanging turrets.

It is said that it was in this very tower that Emanuele Tesauro was born in 1592, a distinguished man of letters and historian, author of the treatise "Il Cannocchiale Aristotelico". Over the centuries the Castle had long belonged to the Roero family. Towards the end of the nineteenth century the Roero sold the Castle and several owners followed one another, among them an Anglican pastor who in the 1960s made it the centre of a small religious community. The Castle also became the protagonist of a novel by Anna Maltese, whose family owned it from the end of the nineteenth century. During our walk we visit the seventeenth-century Parish Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and John, whose bell tower designs, together with the towers of the Castle, the characteristic skyline of Cortanze. Inside we admire several splendid works of art and decorations.

A short distance away we visit the Church of the S.S. Annunziata, dating from the fourteenth century. This ancient church, rich in works of art, among them the altar in polished stucco of 1741 and traces of frescoes from the 14th and 15th centuries, was the parish church of the village until the present one was built, after which it became the seat of the Confraternity of the Disciplinati or Battuti Bianchi. We will devote the second day of our stay to mountain-bike excursions and walks in the midst of nature, but first we decide to enjoy a tasty dinner steeped in the atmospheres of the Court of the Roero. From the garden of the Castle we admire a breathtaking sunset of a thousand colours, one of the most special attractions of Cortanze.

We settle into the evocative and very elegant Salone Pelletta, able to host up to 250 diners, and, as we begin to study the menu, we chat with the manager of the Castle, Mr Felice Cortese, and with the chef Pierluigi Vinciguerra, who has been in the restaurant trade for over twenty years and has worked here since February 2010 with his assistant Luca Moschetta. Our friend had already told us: since the kitchen has been looked after by them, the restaurant has literally bloomed again: everything is prepared fresh and the utmost care is given to cleanliness and the quality of the food. "Even when it comes to banquets for hundreds of people, everything is prepared the day before for the day after. The bread and focaccias, made by us, are served hot," the chef explains.

We start with the Castle Aperitif, that is, a buffet of ten different specialities, served on ancient coloured mirrors: an absolute delight both for the eye and for the palate. We then taste some oven-baked salmon with spices, served warm, a fassone roll, that is, slices of veal round with a blue goat's cheese with fresh herbs inside, and the pumpkin flan with a Raschera fondue. Besides their goodness, we are amazed by the beauty of the dishes, each decorated with an artist's care. After the starters we choose the Castelmagno risotto, wavy, and the plin with fine herbs. We follow these first courses with the larded braised meat in Barolo with medallions of polenta, new potatoes with rosemary and spinach sautéed in melted butter.

We wash it all down with excellent wines from the surrounding hills of Asti and finish with a home-made dark chocolate dessert, with Piedmontese hazelnut grain, while our friends enjoy a hazelnut semifreddo, a fruit tagliata and caramelised pineapple: true delights that even kings and queens would envy us! Francesca Bertha FOR INFORMATION: Hotel Ristorante Al Castello Via Marchesi Roero, 1 Cortanze (AT) Tel.: 0141/690917