The ancient taste of the Alba
...We arrive towards evening, when the restaurant is about to open.
We sit in front of Omar Bertoletti.
The phone keeps ringing.
He responds kindly, but the words are always the same, repeated: "I'm sorry, we're full, full." Many would like to come and eat here.
The Lombardy Region has declared this place ‘historical', and sure it is, as the restaurant has been open since 1850.
Six generations have passed the witness, from mother to mother, until the day when there were no more female daughters.
At that point, inevitably, the Bertoletti brothers took over.
Omar, in the hall, and Ubaldo, cook.
"Sons of art but not of school", as they like to define themselves.
They learned from their mother, Angela Corbari, and from the grandmother Maria the dishes of the truest tradition.
A precious, ancient baggage, but every day a little newer.
They work since the '80s, grandfather Alceste had three big heart attacks, the grandmother had closed the restaurant and after a year the licenses would have been lost.
This is how Mamma Angela decided to reopen the place with her children, who were just 18 and 21 years old.
Today that mother Angela is gone, dishes continue to be a hymn to peasant culture, a declaration of love for the surrounding lands.
Our dishes follow the season, but some proposals on the menu are always there.
Starters made of cured meats, gardener, tuna meatloaf.
The slices of lard on polenta.
The main course, with pumpkin tortelli, of course, but prepared following the real Piadena recipe, with the sweet tomato sauce.
Or the classic marubini, stuffed with beef stew.
And then the mixed boiled, the fish, the duck cooked under the ashes for ten hours, over a very slow fire. Finally, the desserts, the zabaglione and the sbrisolona cake.
The scent of knowledge
Recipes that know history, that smell of knowledge, sometimes rethought and enriched with researches that lead to include different products, such as the saffron of Pozzolengo or leading to revisit the processing, to make it lighter and more digestible.
In the background, a great passion.
"To think that I would never have believed to do this job" says Omar. But luckily, destiny has chosen for him.
And today he is there, in the hall, to welcome people, to tell the dishes that his brother Ubaldo, in the kitchen, prepares with love, dishes that speak about a long story, born a long time ago.
Peaceful pigs and happy hens
When Slow Food published the list of the best “Osterie d'Italia”, in 1990, the local cuisine, the genuine one, knew a new life.
Eating in places that use products grown and reared a short distance and cooked with traditional recipes has always been a smart and appreciated choice.
But now it becomes something more, the necessary step for those in search of the most authentic cuisine.
The dishes of Bertoletti / Corbari have all the cards in order to respond to those new needs.
The products make up to 15 kilometers of road to get to the kitchen.
The pigs, which come from farms in the Ostiano countryside, are healthy beasts, which weigh more than double those usually used for food processing, because they have been fattened calmly, for almost two years, they chill around, they eat well.
Eggs for making fresh pasta come from happy hens, raised on the ground, as well as geese.
The vegetables from local vegetable gardens.
There is also fish, which comes from the nearby river, the Oglio.
