D14 | Saturday/Sunday, December 1 - 2, 2018 * * * * THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

ON WINE / LETTIE TEAGUE

Why Oenophiles Flock toA Foggy Corner of Italy

The first in a three-part series onwines in Italy’s Piedmont.

It’s rainy, it’s foggy, its roads featuretight switchbacks that can be a chal-lenge to drive, and yet it’s a hugelypopular destination, especially rightnow, during white truffle season.

The Langhe, in the Piedmont re-gion of northwest Italy, offers muchmore than truffles: The hilly area at-tracts tourists with its two world-fa-mous wines, Barolo and Barbaresco,and its many Michelin-rated restau-rants, too. During the week I spentthere with my husband, we heard,over and over again, “You can’t helpbut eat well in the Langhe.”

The fog or nebbia that envelops

the Langhe in fall and winter is saidto have inspired the name of itsmost famous red grape, Nebbiolo. Ofall the varieties grown in theLanghe, it’s the most planted andthe most important, too, as it’s thesource of Barolo and Barbaresco.

Our first day in the Langhe, thefog was so thick I couldn’t see thevineyards from the window of myroom. We’d checked into the dis-creetly luxurious Corte Gondina, inthe village of La Morra. Formerly aprivate residence, it was turned intoa small hotel by Bruno Viberti andhis wife, Elena Oberto, in 2002.

As the fog slowly lifted, thesteeply terraced vineyards sur-rounding the town came into focus,

along with a view of the Alps be-yond. (The name Piedmont means“foot of the mountain.”)

Although the Langhe is home todozens of wines, it’s fairly compact.You can drive from La Morra andBarolo in the west to Barbaresco inthe east in about half an hour. Theroute runs past the city of Alba, a defacto truffle bazaar during the whitetruffle season, with sidewalk trufflesalesmen as commonplace as hotpretzel vendors in New York.

La Morra stands out among theregion’s charming towns with itswelcoming hotels and great restau-rants. Many of the latter are withinwalking distance of the Corte Gon-dina—a bonus after a long day driv-

ing those switchback roads. The Mi-chelin one-star Massimo Camia hasa long wine list and exceptionallygood pasta. And one of my favoriteLa Morra restaurants, Osteria Moree Macine, in the historic town cen-ter, serves excellent iterations of re-gional dishes, including vitello ton-nato (veal with a tuna sauce),agnolotti del plin (Piedmontese ravi-oli) and tajarin al ragù (thin noodleswith a meat sauce).

The owners, Fabrizio Borgognoand Stefano Carbone, have part-nered on a winemaking project withIsabella Boffa Oddero and PietroViglino Oddero, owners of Poderi eCantine Oddero, a favorite La Morraproducer. The partners are working

Total Time: 30 minutesServes: 4

Kosher salt and freshlyground black pepper

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced1/4 cup olive oil, plus morefor drizzling

1 medium red onion, diced1 pound sweet Italiansausage, casings removed

1 Fresno chile, thinly sliced2 tablespoon apple cidervinegar

1 (28-ounce) can crushedtomatoes

Leaves from 2 sprigsoregano, finely chopped

3 basil leaves

1 pound dried rigatoni4 tablespoon butter3 tablespoons finelychopped parsley

1 cup finely grated Pecorino,plus more to garnish

1. Set a large pot of saltedwater over high heat andbring to a boil.2. Meanwhile, set a large panover medium heat. Add garlicand oil and cook until aro-matic, 1 minute. Add onionsand sauté until translucent,about 3 minutes. Add sau-sage and cook, breaking upmeat, until lightly browned,about 4 minutes. Add chiles,

vinegar, tomatoes, oreganoand basil. Simmer to meldflavors, 15 minutes.3. Boil pasta in salted wateruntil just shy of al dente.Strain, reserving 2 cups cook-ing water. Transfer pasta topan with sauce and toss tocombine. If needed, addsplashes of water to loosensauce. Continue simmeringuntil pasta is al dente, about3 minutes.4. Off heat, stir in butter,parsley and cheese. Stir vigor-ously until cheese dissolvesand sauce cloaks pasta. Sea-son with salt and pepper. Gar-nish with more cheese.

SLOW FOOD FAST / SATISFYING AND SEASONAL FOOD IN ABOUT 30 MINUTES

TRENDS DON’T HOLDmuch sway with Da-vid Nayfeld. This chef cooks to connect on adeeper level. “A dish should sit on your pal-ate,” he said. “So when you’re done, you takebread and wipe the bowl.”

At his restaurant Che Fico, in San Fran-cisco, soulful dishes like this rigatoni with awarming sausage ragù draw crowds. “Beforewe opened, I thought a lot about what I wantto eat again and again,”Mr. Nayfeld said.

The version he makes at Che Fico involvesa few more rare ingredients and steps; thisquick-cooking recipe, his first Slow FoodFast contribution, is more like the one hemakes at home. “It’s a pasta that has roots in

Calabria,” he said. “When you eat it, yourmouth should hum.” The fennel-laced sau-sage simmers along with crushed tomatoes,Fresno chiles for mild heat and a splash ofvinegar for balancing acidity.

To make sure the rigatoni drinks upplenty of sauce, Mr. Nayfeld boils the pastathree-quarters of the way and lets it finishcooking in the simmering ragù. A final hit ofpecorino and butter further transforms thedish. “You toss and toss, off the heat, untilthe cheese melts and the sauce emulsifies,”he said. “I always tell my cooks, stir for moretime than you think is necessary and watchthe alchemy happen.” —Kitty Greenwald

Rigatoni With Pork Sausage Ragù

EATING & DRINKING

LA VINO VITA / WHERE TO SIP,STAY AND DINE IN THE LANGHE

Corte GondinaA wonderful small hotel run byBruno Viberti and his warm and car-ing staff. The rooms are well-ap-pointed, the location ideal for diningand winery tours, and the breakfastsuperb. A favorite of wine producers,wine importers and me, too. 100 ViaRoma, La Morra; cortegondina.it

Osteria More e MacineThis lively, casual restaurant in

downtown La Morra offers Pied-montese fare and a long and well-priced wine list, focused on theLanghe but with selections from allover the world. 18 Via XX Settem-bre, La Morra

Osteria VeglioA stylish countryside restaurantwith an extensive wine list and afocus on local ingredients and tradi-tional Piedmontese preparations,such as agnolotti del plin, with amodern twist. 9 Frazione Annunzi-ata, La Morra; osteriaveglio.it

Wine Bar Barolo FriendsA fun, modern spot housed in a for-mer bakery, next to Falletti Castle inthe heart of the village of Barolo.The list of wines, local and other-wise, is long, and the staff, warmand energetic. 3 Piazza Castello,Barolo; barolofriends.it

Locanda FontanazzaJust outside La Morra in the middleof the vineyards, this restaurant(which also has a few guest rooms)offers simple but very well-preparedlocal dishes and a short, well chosen,

fairly-priced wine list. 4 Strada Fon-tanazza, La Morra; locandafon-tanazza.it

Trattoria Antica TorreAcross from the tasting room of theProduttori del Barbaresco coopera-tive in Barbaresco, this restaurant isa favorite of local winemakers. Themenu features regional specialties,and the wine list offers a deep selec-tion of wines from the legendaryGaja winery and other Langhe pro-ducers. 64 Via Torino, Barbaresco,anticatorrebarbaresco.com

GAIN FLAVOR The pre-seasoned Italian sausage in the sauce helpsmake this quick-cooking dish taste like it’s been on the stove for hours.

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The ChefDavid Nayfeld

His RestaurantsChe Fico andTheorita in SanFrancisco

What He’s KnownForComfortingregional-Italian andAmerican classics.Obsessing overdetails that makesimple cookingremarkable.

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HILL YES Vineyardsoutside La Morra, inthe Langhe area ofItaly’s Piedmont.

together to produce Timorasso, awhite varietal rarely seen in Pied-mont today. While the food at Oste-ria More e Macine is quite good, thewine list is even better, largely fo-cused on the Langhe but with plentyof choices from other regions in It-aly and elsewhere in the world, allwell-chosen and reasonably priced.

The same is true of the wine listat Locanda Fontanazza, another ca-sual and very good restaurant, setamong the vineyards. The 2014 Bar-tolo Mascarello Barolo, goes for 125euros, less than half its retail pricein the U.S.; the equally rare 2014Bartolo Mascarello Langhe Nebbiolois priced at a mere 35 euros. “It’s mylast bottle,” said owner Mattia Mar-tinelli, looking as sad to see it go as I

was happy to drink it. The rich, sup-ple Nebbiolo proved a beautifullybalanced match for seared guineahen and truffles shaved over tajarin.

It’s crucial that the chef knowsthe truffle source, said KatharinaMarengo, an owner of Osteria Veglioin Annunziata, outside La Morra.Her restaurant, where her husband,Emanuel, is a chef and co-owner, isregarded as one of the best in theLanghe. We had impeccable trufflesshaved over a fried egg and a deli-cious stuffed Savoy cabbage. When Iraved over the meal, Ms. Marengomodestly described it as “simplefood from very good raw materials.”

We spent our days visiting winer-ies, from old school outfits such asGiuseppe Rinaldi and Bartolo Mas-carello in Barolo to more modernoperations such as Luciano San-drone, Vietti and Elvio Cogno. Manywere open only by appointment.Some offered free tastings, otherscharged a fee. The wines varied aswidely as the wineries themselves.

The next two columns in this se-ries will cover the wines of Baroloand Barbaresco in detail. But foroenophiles traveling to the region,I’d begin with the tip to make an ap-pointment far ahead with producerswhose wines you admire and toleave plenty of time to drive fromone place to the next—because ofunpredictable weather and roads,and because you will inevitably finda great restaurant and want to stop.

Email Lettie at wine@wsj.com.

Weheard,overandoveragain, ‘Youcan’thelpbuteatwell intheLanghe.’

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