The nickname “Alba's ugly sister,” to which Bra has been maliciously referred, is undeserved. Okay: In Bra there are no medieval towers and alleys as in its neighboring twin city. And it doesn’t have a world-famous truffle fair that every year attracts celebrities from all over the planet. But instead, Bra has delightful baroque squares and churches, and a fair named Cheese (Sept 17-20 this year), which remains down to earth after more than 20 years of transforming the region into the world capital of artisanal cheeses for three day stretches at a time. It was also the birthplace of Slow Food, a grassroots organization for preserving traditional foods and foodways and promoting small-scale agriculture, and remains a showcase for Italian food creativity today.
Since its inception in the late ‘80s, Slow Food has employed food passionate people from all over the world in their Bra headquarters. (Bra is also the home of the International University of Gastronomic Sciences, opened by Slow Food, which adds to its high proportion of foreigners and correspondingly multicultural flair.) But even before the organization existed, parts of Bra’s history—including its very placement near the Alps and in the fertile hills and valleys of the Langhe—have long placed it on Italy’s, and Piedmont’s, culinary map.
To eat in Bra is a dialogue between the timeless farmers and producers who have sustained the region for generations, and the innovative chefs who have found ways to push traditional ingredients and recipes forward. A 45 minute drive south from Turin, at the entryway of the Roero and the Langhe, in this region, especially in and around the villages of Barolo and Barbaresco, some of Italy’s best red wine grapes and most proficient dairy cows have long thrived. Historically, Bra’s prosperity came about from the trading of these two products, a business and standard of quality which is still widespread in the area: meat and meat products, leather and, indeed, cheeses abound, and are some of the most defining features of northern Italian cuisine. In Bra as in much of Piemonte, the menus are strongly and proudly characterized by meat and dairy dishes.
In particular, restaurants, butcher shops, and cheese shops of Bra are centered around a local cattle breed called razza piemontese. The meat is served in town, for example, as bollito misto, where up to seven different cuts of beef are fished out of a boiling pot and served with simple sauces. But it is also appreciated as carne cruda battuta al coltello, a kind of beef tartare that’s chopped with a knife and—unlike tartare—served only with salt and a little olive oil, as well as salsiccia di Bra, a thin coiled sausage made of lean beef meat mixed with pork fat, which is also typically eaten raw and cut into pieces.
When in Bra, after cheese- and meat-centric antipasti, find pasta in the form of tajarin, a local and thinner variation of tagliatelle, made with heaps of fresh egg yolks. It’s usually served with, what else but, meat ragout, or with lots of butter and sage. Agnolotti, pasta painstakingly filled with meat or sometimes vegetables, are served with butter and cheese.
There are of course also excellent vegetables, although more sparsely than in some regions of Italy, in this case usually grown in the plain between Bra and Alba. And in late summer and autumn, plenty of mushrooms, with the white truffle takes a place of honor. Despite the fact that the rare mushrooms are also known as “Alba truffles”, they are by no means exclusively found in the supposedly "prettier sister town.”
What’s here that doesn’t exist anywhere else is a meeting place for some of the world’s most passionate culinary minds. Though you don’t need more than a day or two to get your fill, here is the best of where to eat, drink, sleep, and shop when you’re passing through Bra.
Where to Stay
All’Ombra della Collina
This simple, antique-decorated bed and breakfast in the town’s centro storico has a pretty courtyard and a pleasantly imposing fig tree. The building dates back to the 19th century. Via Mendicità Istruita, 47, +39 0172 424056.
