<a target="_blank" href="https://www.trattoriadicampagna.it/">Trattoria di
Campagna</a><a target="_blank" href="https://www.trattoriadicampagna.it/">

</a>Frazione Saint Maurice, 57

11010 Sarre (AO)Tel. +39 0165 257448BY IAN D'AGATA | AUGUST 28, 2019The Food:

Saint-Oyen
cured ham with homemade Russian salad (Cuit
di Saint-Oyen alla brace con insalata russa della casa)

Tseur achétaye prosciutto of Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses
with raspberry vinaigrette and grana padano flakes (Tseur Achétaye di Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses con vinaigrette di lamponi e
scaglie di grana)

Country
greens salad with sweet goat cheese, pear, walnuts, strawberries and chestnut
honey (Insalatina di campagna con caprino
dolce, pere, noci, fragole e miele di castagno)

Polenta
with Bleu d’Aoste blue cheese (Polenta
con Bleu d’Aoste)

Ricotta
and spinach tortelli with Bleu d’Aoste blue cheese and Genepy (Tortelli di ricotta e spinaci al Bleu
d’Aoste e Genepy)

Salmon
trout filet with mountain herbs and lime (Filetto
di torta salmonata alle erbe di montagna e al lime)

Dessert
trolley (Carrello dei dolci)

The Wines:<table>
 <tbody><tr>
 <td>NV CoEnFer
 Cooperaive de l'Enfer Spumante di Qualità Mayolet Triskell</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;91</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>2018&nbsp;Château&nbsp;Feuillet Moscato
 Bianco Valle d’Aosta</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">87</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>2016 CoEnFer Cooperaive de
 l'Enfer Enfer d’Arvier</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">90</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>2015 Cave de Donnas Donnas
 Vallée d’Aoste</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">91</td>
 </tr></tbody></table><img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1567018299660-Welcome%21%21%21_copy.jpg"> Welcome to&nbsp;Trattoria di CampagnaTrattoria di Campagna will most likely&nbsp;not go down in the history books because of an
especially elegant setting or three-star service. In fact, it’s rather rustic
in its look and feel, and the friendly, easygoing service is more like that of
a family home than that of a chic dining destination. No matter, the place
offers an excellent, fairly priced wine list (especially from within the
region) and superb food served in a quiet environment (there is also a pretty
outside dining area when weather allows). But what really sets Trattoria di
Campagna apart from many other similar country dining establishments is the
quality of the ingredients.&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1567018407967-Cuit+di+St+Oyen_copy.jpg"> Saint-Oyen cured ham with homemade Russian salad Perhaps my favorite cooked ham in the
world, the cuit de Saint-Oyen is a
hard-to-find pork cold cut (cooked first in the oven and then finished off on a
charcoal grill) made only with Italian pigs and aromatized with a delicate mix
of Valle d’Aosta mountain herbs. As far as cooked hams go, its depth and precision
of flavor are thoroughly rare. Not that far behind it in my personal pantheon
of truly sublime pork cured meats is the jambon
de Bosses, another of the Valle d’Aosta’s many contributions to a sybarite’s
nirvana. Although hardly known abroad (a real shame), Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses is a
delightful mountain hamlet that is home to one of Italy’s best prosciuttos, DOP
since 1996 but already mentioned in documents dating back to 1397. It is cured
with Valle d’Aosta mountain herbs and marine salt and aged for 12 months on a
bed of hay. However, that is not the little town’s only claim to cold-cut fame. In fact, the tseur achétaye, a
gastronomic delight even less well known than the jambon de Bosses, is a cured, hand-salted bovine meat (it is also occasionally
made with sheep or goat meat; tseur
achétaye means simply “salted meat”) flavored with mountain herbs kept in
brine. Thinly sliced, it is easily confused with bresaola (even if only because authentic, high-quality bresaola is hard to come by and tasting
a really good one is easier said than done), but the two are worlds apart in
taste and texture.&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1567018516391-Tseur+Ach%C3%A9taye_copy.jpg"> Tseur achétaye&nbsp;prosciutto of Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses with raspberry vinaigrette and grana padano flakes Last but not least, Trattoria di Campagna has an especially
good Bleu d’Aoste, which can be one of the most flavorful, well-balanced blue
cheeses in the world, offering a creamier texture than other famous blue
cheeses, such as France’s delicious Bleu de Causses or Bleu de Gex, and
importantly, a much less obvious saline quality than others, such as the Fourme
d’Ambert. (Did I ever mention that I am actually a trained, certified cheese
taster in Italy? Well, now you know.) The polenta and Bleu d’Aoste dish I had
during this lunch, a perfectly cooked and heavenly mix of corn meal and blue
cheese, offered a depth and complexity of flavor that I have tasted few other
times in similar dishes, and so this is one I won’t soon forget; in fact, it
will undoubtedly make my list of top 10 best dishes of the year. The ricotta
and spinach tortelli I tried on this day were almost as good.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1567018553187-Polenta+al+forno+con+Bleu+d%27Aoste_copy.jpg"> 

Polenta with Bleu d’Aoste blue cheese If
food lovers are sure to leave Trattoria di Campagna happy at meal’s end, it is
safe to say that wine lovers will too. The wine list boasts numerous Valle
d’Aosta wines from different producers and vintages, and it offers a chance to
try many of them all at once, as prices are gentle. On this day, I kicked
things off with a real beauty, the NV CoEnFer&nbsp;Spumante di Qualità Mayolet Triskell, a simply marvelous sparkling
rosé made from the rare Mayolet variety. Bright and precise, not to mention
very flavorful, its aromas and flavors of wild strawberries and orange peel
provide an outstanding start to the meal but are robust and complex enough to
stand up to much sturdier dishes. And I am happy to report that the wine was
even better on this occasion than when I last reviewed it on Vinous in May
2018. Not especially well-known,&nbsp;CoEnFer&nbsp;is the shortened name of the
Cooperative de l’Enfer, a co-op located in the small town of Arvier that makes
mostly lovely wines from organically grown grapes. By contrast, I was slightly
disappointed by the 2018 Château
Feuillet Moscato Bianco Valle d’Aosta, which I found to be a little subdued
and less perfumed than I expected from a cool year such as 2018. One of my favorite
producers from the region, Château Feuillet excels especially with the Petite
Arvine, and their Moscato Bianco is usually not that far behind in the
enjoyment it offers. Not so this time.&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1567018598184-tortelli_copy.jpg"> Ricotta and spinach tortelli with Bleu d’Aoste blue cheese and Genepy I then went back to another wine from
the Enfer cooperative: their 2016 CoEnFer&nbsp;Enfer d’Arvier, which proved to be a lovely red wine not unlike a cheerful,
good-quality young Beaujolais. I followed up that 85% Petit Rouge and 15% local
varieties blend with something more substantial. The 2015 Cave de Donnas Donnas Vallée d’Aoste is one of my favorite
Nebbiolo-based wines (it’s a blend of 90% Nebbiolo, 5% Freisa and 5% Neyret)
made outside of Piedmont. The wine’s aromas and flavors were initially slightly
less bright and vibrant than usual, but it opened up quickly once I poured the
open bottle into a carafe to let it gain more contact with air. Still, I have
had better bottles of this specific vintage on other occasions.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1567018631100-the+wines_copy.jpg"> 

Upon
leaving the restaurant, I was surprised to see just how much spring I had in my
step – a good sign considering the very rich tortelli and polenta dishes I had
indulged in. It made for an effortless and satisfying remainder of the
afternoon spent visiting the Valle d’Aosta’s many outstanding Lilliputian wine
estates.

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