TRATTORIA - ENOTECA LA BELLA ROSIN
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, n. 3
14036 Moncalvo
39/0141.916.098
www.labellarosin.it

Last autumn I stayed at Tenuta Guazzaura, a 300-year-old country estate of the Count Brondelli di Brondello in Piemonte. It’s a working farm – wine, wheat, soy, etc – and some rooms in one of the outbuildings have been converted for guest use. (The rooms are large, with a kitchen stocked with Illy coffee, cheeses, butter, homemade jams, fresh juice, and so on; one of the farmhands stops by the village bakery on the way to the farm in the morning and leaves fresh pastries and breads hanging on the door in a cloth sack.) The owners – Luca and his Austrian wife, Helen – are young and charming, welcoming, and ideal sources of local info. For dinner they sent me up to the nearby hilltown of Moncalvo for dinner at one of their favorite places, La Bella Rosin. Set in a recently refurbished 17th century bodega on the main square, it’s a sophisticated space – the design is elegant (brick arches, painted yellow walls), the wine list extensive (600 options, all selected by a panel), and the menu limited but interesting options – vitello tonnato all’antica maniera, cold duck salad, agnolotti piemontesi al sugo d’arrosto, etc. But that first visit I was there for white truffles. The season was just beginning (I had spent afternoon walking the fields of Tenuta Guarzzaura with dogs), and the enoteca offered them in two ways: shaved over the top of a plate of fresh tagliolini or steak tartar. I opted for the pasta with a bottle of lush Barbera d’Alba. There is nothing as simple, nor extravagant, than that for dinner. Nor as perfect.
Where to stay: Tenuta Guazzaura, Fraz. Madonnina, 15020 Serralunga di Crea. Tel: 39/0142.940.289. www.guazzaura.it