L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano D i d y o u k n o w t h a t , o n c e u p o n a t i m e , t h e r e w a s a way to turn a Piedmontese snowfall into dessert? Yes: people in the I t a l i a n N o r t h w e s t w o u l d spoon fresh snow into a b o w l a n d m i x i t w i t h cugnà, a dark, dense pre- serve made after the grape harvest from cooked must, late-season fruit and nuts. The concoction was eaten like a sorbet, cold as a win- ter day but with the taste of fall. Cugnà (written cognà in t h e o f f i c i a l P i e d m o n t e s e product register and pro- nounced much as it looks in English) still survives across the Cuneo and Asti areas, while farther east, around A l e s s a n d r i a a n d C a s a l e Monferrato, a close version is usually called mostarda d'uva monferrina. It is rec- ognized today among Pied- mont's Prodotti Agroal- imentari Tradizionali, the official register of foods whose methods belong to established local practice. A word, here, about the word m o s t a r d a , w h i c h c a n b e v e r y m i s l e a d i n g : I t a l i a n mostarda doesn't contain any mustard at all; the Ital- ians call mustard "senape." But let's leave behind lex- i c a l i s s u e s t o f o c u s o n recipes and ingredients. The b a s e o f c u g n à i s g r a p e must, usually from Barbera, D o l c e t t o , N e b b i o l o o r Moscato, cooked down until most of the water evapo - rates. Fruit is then added along with nuts and whatev- er else the household recipe requires, and the cooking continues for hours. There is no specific fruit to choose nor spices to add: you just added whatever was avail- able. Cugnà was made in the days after the vendemmia, w h e n t h e b e s t f r u i t h a d already been set aside for winter, and there were still pears, quinces, figs, plums, pieces of pumpkin, walnuts and hazelnuts to be dealt with, while grapes missed d u r i n g t h e h a r v e s t m i g h t still be hanging on the vines, s o t h e a b s e n c e o f a f i x e d recipe belongs to the history o f t h e t r a d i t i o n i t s e l f . I t comes from how and when the land offers its bounty. T h e r e g i o n a l r e c o r d p r e - serves the old description of cugnà as "the sauce of the poor," an accurate defini- tion when considering the d e e p e s t m e a n i n g o f t h e a d j e c t i v e " p o v e r o , " h e r e understood as an economy w h e r e f o o d r e p r e s e n t e d work and, therefore, could not casually be thrown away. But the key ingredient of the cugnà was must, which was boiled until its volume fell to roughly one third, to concentrate sugars and fla- v o r . O n l y t h e n w e r e t h e f r u i t s a d d e d i n c o a r s e pieces: quinces and pears gave body, while figs and plums brought sweetness; p u m p k i n a l s o a p p e a r s i n many recipes, while toasted hazelnuts and walnuts went i n t o w a r d t h e e n d , w i t h o r a n g e o r l e m o n p e e l i n some versions and spices in others. Old kitchens used broad, shallow pots because more surface exposed to the air meant faster evapora- tion, but even with the right vessel, the fruit could cook f o r a n o t h e r f o u r o r f i v e hours. Today, modern mass producers using large stain- less-steel basins may stretch t h e w h o l e p r o c e s s a c r o s s something close to a day. All that evaporation did another job besides intensi- f y i n g t h e t a s t e : i t h e l p e d m a k e c u g n à r e m a r k a b l y d u r a b l e ; t h e P i e d m o n t Region's traditional-product record gives about a year for jars filled hot and sealed, three years if sterilized, then adds the extraordinary detail that experiments and the discovery of old jars suggest some examples may remain preserved for more than forty years. That is no invi- tation to open whatever has been sitting at the back of a cellar since 1986, of course, but it says a lot about how well the recipe responded to the necessities of our grand- parents' daily lives. But when did you have c u g n à ? W e l l , i t w e n t o n bread, beside polenta and with boiled meats, where its sweetness could sit against the richness of the Piedmon- tese bollito misto. People who had been children in the Langhe in the 1950s still remember a richer, sweeter version spread on bread for a s n a c k , a n d w h e n s n o w came there was the winter sorbet. Beautiful memories, and very tasty, too. Today, the humble cugnà turns up in rather grander c o m p a n y : c h e e s e b o a r d s across Piedmont pair it with Castelmagno, Murazzano, R o b i o l a d i R o c c a v e r a n o , R a s c h e r a , B r a a n d b l u e cheeses, because the concen- trated fruit and must can s t a n d u p t o s a l t , a g e a n d s t r o n g e r f l a v o r s o f t h e s e d a i r y s p e c i a l t i e s . C u g n à moved from being a farm- house necessity to specialty f o o d s e r v e d i n t h e b e s t r e s t a u r a n t s o f P i e d m o n t , along the region's best meats and cheeses. Cugnà, however, has one last little secret to share: we don't really know when the Piedmontese started making it. Preparations based on reduced grape must are old, and Piedmontese historical inventories mention equip- ment used for mostarda in t h e m e d i e v a l p e r i o d , b u t that is not enough to give t o d a y ' s c u g n à a s e c u r e medieval birth certificate. Recipes passed from farm- house to farmhouse, chang- ing with the fruit available and with family habit, how- ever, tell us something just a s i m p o r t a n t a s a d a t e : cugnà has been blessed with c o n t i n u i t y . T h e m e t h o d never changed, and neither did its flavor, nor the slightly n o s t a l g i c a u r a a j a r o f i t brings to the table. Cugnà never depended on one exact list of ingredi- ents, only on a sequence that changed every fall, based on w h a t M o t h e r E a r t h w a s offering: must was always p l e n t y i n t h e h i l l s w h e r e wine production has always been a symbol of tradition and, today, regional wealth, and fruits could be different one year from the other, but there was always enough left from the summer to ensure a good cugnà supply for the rest of the year. W h a t a j o y t o h a v e a spoon of it with snow. Old- fashioned, you may say, and perhaps you're right, but is there anything better than getting the full taste of two seasons into a bowl and hav- ing it for merenda? FRANCESCA BEZZONE A jar of cugnà, the traditional Piedmontese preserve made from cooked grape must, seasonal fruit, and nuts. Originally prepared after the grape harvest, it was eaten with bread and polenta or served alongside meat and cheese (Original image created for L'Italo-Americano with the assistance of AI) LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES C u g n à : P i e d m o n t ' s s w e e t secret for making dessert out of snow

• Cover