Valchiavenna: gone to the ‘crott’
Gone to the what? Back in the old days, and still today, a crotto (or crott in lombard dialect), was a natural cave formed as a result of a landslide. Cold air streaming through cracks in the rocks allowed the cave to breath, maintaining an environment of 4-8°C that was ideal for storing foods such as cheese, wine and dried meats. These locations eventually gave way to restaurants where people could come to savor the local dishes, and crotti establishments abound in Valchiavenna, Lake Como and the swiss canton of Ticino (incidentally, crotto is called grotto there). I've always known about crotti since moving to this area, but the idea of dining at one never crossed my mind until recently.
The more elaborate crotti will have a wider menu to choose from, but as an ambitious, impulsive, come-on-let's-go-find-some-snow effort during the first week of 2012, we drove 50 miles north to Crotto Quartino in Santa Croce di Piuro. This place definitely looks the part with green moss growing everywhere and even on the roof, but once inside, the ambience is suddenly inviting with a fireplace smack in the middle of the room and light streaming in from large windows. The menu is as simple as it gets: salumi, chiavenna-style pizzoccheri, polenta, cheese, grilled veggies, ribs and sausages. Plates range in prices from 3-9€ and coperto/bread only 1€ per person. We ordered a half liter of wine to go with several dishes plus coffee and housemades dessert to end the meal. Total: 42.50€. Unfortunately no dogs allowed inside and FYI (because some people like to know) - turkish-style toilets.
Salumi with pickled onions; grilled peppers and zukes.
Pizzoccheri chiavenna-style: flour, milk and bread dumplings (gnocchetti) served with cheese and butter.
Grilled sausages, potatoes and an order of sciatt that are cubes of the local cheese dipped in a buckwheat flour batter and fried. Awesome stuff.
A simple cake (it had the flavor of anise) made inhouse and the locally produced cookies from Prosto that reminded me of butter shortbread.
Crotto Quartino
Strada dei Quartini, 5, Santa Croce di Piuro (Sondrio)
www.crottoquartino.it | no credit cards
scribbled from the chestnut forest by Rowena... at 10:55 PM
6 Comments:
looks and sounds like a great place. had to look up what a turkish toilet was, they are similar to japanese-style toilets here.
What a lovely place to visit someday.
Kat - I think I've lived here enough that those toilets don't even phase me, but reading some travel forums I realized that hole-in-the-ground toilets are serious issues for some people. I guess growing up near plantation houses (with the old outhouses) toughened me up a bit. I HATED those outhouses...full of cane spiders and B52's!
Karen - it's even prettier in the spring/early summer when the weather warms up and you can dine al fresco, breathing in all that alpine air.
I would really like to eat at this place. The food looks delicious! Really!
Maybe I can take a tour this Spring, and visit this area (I've never been in Sondrio)
PS turkish toilets are my nightmare, but better these than nothing...!
Isabel - on Corso Pratogiano/G.B. Picchi in Chiavenna there are several crotti in that area. I've got Crotto Torricelli and Refrigerio on my list of future visits!
Thank you so much! Have a nice we
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