The Foodblogger's Guide to the Globe

Bonnie from Daydream Delicious tagged me for a very special meme: Things to eat before you die - started by Melissa from The Traveller's Lunchbox.

Uh, that's really difficult! Have a look at the list: until now I count 1090 things on it - and of course some of them I could also put on my top 5 list, but this would be boring...

So I decided to make a little change: I'll recommend only things I love to eat when we are in our holiday home in Ticino, a canton in the italian speaking part of Switzerland.

1. Pane Vallemaggia: a dark artisan bread with large holes in the crumb, made with natural levain, often served in grotti with coppa, salami, bresaola and a boccalino of Merlot del Ticino, the local red wine. A Grotto is a rustic restaurant where you usually sit outside in the garden. Often it comes with stone (granite) tables and benches under shady pergolas with grapevine.
   
2. Panettone: originally from Milan this dry fruit studded artisan cake has become a real speciality of Ticino. It is also made with natural levain (lievito madre) and there exists a quality label by the Società Mastri Panettieri Pasticceri del Cantone Ticino
3. Miele di Castagne: Chestnut honey, a dark and very aromatic honey. Best when bought from one of the producers in the beautiful valleys.
4. Capretto: kid roast, served with polenta or rosemary potatoes, a specialty of the easter season. This year we had Capretto and polenta with bear's garlic pesto
5. Bresaola ticinese or Bündnerfleisch from the adjacent canton of Graubünden, a dry-cured meat speciality

The blogger's I would like to bother their head about this theme are

1. Angelika in Wien, Austria is already on the list!
2. Karine in Dali, China
3. Petra in Hamburg, Germany
4. Ralph in San Francisco, USA
5. Zorra in Andalusia, Spain

As some of you may know we just came back from our summer holidays in Ticino. With me I brought some photos of the Pane Vallemaggia and the Panettone, both things I would love to bake in this perfection! I'm still looking for true recipes. Of course there exist heaps of recipes for Panettone - but unfortunatley the results don't reach the original.

This Pane Vallemaggia I bought in the famous Pasticceria-Panetteria Al Porto

The open crumb of the bread...

The artisan Panettone from Poncini in Maggia. The smallest they make weighs 100 g, the biggest 5 kg! They also sell different types of bread including Pane Vallemaggia as you can see here.

When I looked up the website for this entry I saw that they offer visits of the production where you can taste their products. This is on my to-do-list for next year!

If I have teased you: The Vancouver Courier has a nice story about a short sojourn in Ticino where you can learn a little bit more about this beautiful region.

Confiserie Al Porto SA
Via del Sole 1
CH 6598 Tenero
several shops and cafes e.g. in
Via Locarno 11
CH 6612 Ascona
http://www.alporto.ch/

Panetteria Poncini
Production (visits!) and Shop
CH-6673 Maggia
Shop
Via Borgo 32
CH-6612 Ascona
http://www.panetteria-poncini.ch/