Ossola Valley bread

Thin sheets of dough made from flour and water, cooked on hot iron plates and seasoned with Alpine butter, are typical of Valle Vigezzo: in Santa Maria Maggiore, they are known as stinchéet, as runditt in Malesco and as amiasc in Coimo. They can be sampled, strictly as street food, at many village festivals and major events. The same dough is also used to make Gnoch da la chigiàa (“spoon gnocchi”, which has now returned to the menus of some local restaurants), a humble dish, which, like stinchéet, bears the Municipal Designation of Origin to protect the original recipe: it is a real delicacy when seasoned with Alpine butter, with a mix of lard and local cheese and with asparagus and sausage, or with bacon and cabbage.

Other traditional breads include Credenzin from Trontano (a sweet bread rolled in butter with walnuts, raisins and apple), Crescianzin (or Cràsanzin) from Valle Antrona (with rye flour and raisins, dusted with sugar), Crescenzin from Valle Vigezzo (with walnuts, figs and raisins) and Pupin, also from Vigezzo (puppets modelled with scraps of leftover bread).
Walser Krussli are also delicious: sheets of pastry made from water, flour, egg and a squirt of grappa, they are fried in pieces in lard and then sprinkled with sugar.