A TAVOLA: Cities That Know How to Eat & Drink - Torino
Updated: 3 days ago
Where Aperitivo Grew Up
Torino doesn't eat like most Italian cities.
There's something slightly more elegant about it. Maybe it's the grand cafés, the arcades and the old Savoy court. Or perhaps it's because this is a city that gave us vermouth, gianduja chocolate and an extremely civilized habit of drinking before dinner.
The cooking underneath all that polish, though, is unmistakably Piedmontese: butter, anchovies, veal, hazelnuts, stuffed pasta and sauces with enough flavour to require bread nearby.
Torino knows how to be sophisticated.
It just doesn't believe sophistication should leave you hungry. Turismo Torio
1. The City That Helped Invent Aperitivo
Before aperitivo became an excuse for a Spritz and a bowl of olives, Torino was already taking the pre-dinner drink very seriously.
In 1786, Benedetto Carpano created his aromatized wine in a shop near Piazza Castello by combining wine with sugar, herbs and botanicals.
Vermouth was born in Torino. Turismo Torino
It became fashionable in the city's cafés and at the Savoy court, helping establish a ritual that feels completely Italian today: meet before dinner, order something bitter or
aromatic and have a little food alongside it.
The important word there is little.
Because aperitivo is supposed to make you hungry.
Somewhere along the way, the all-you-can-eat buffet missed the memo.
2. Agnolotti del Plin
Piedmont does stuffed pasta beautifully, and agnolotti del plin might be its finest example.
Thin sheets of egg pasta are dotted with small amounts of filling — traditionally involving roasted or braised meats — then the dough is pinched closed between each little parcel.
That pinch is the plin.
Once cooked, the pasta is tender but still has a little bite, followed by the concentrated richness of the meat tucked inside.
They might arrive with butter and sage, roasting juices or a meat sauce. Turismo Torino
But there's an even better Piedmontese habit.
Sometimes they're served simply on a napkin — al tovagliolo — without sauce at all.
Why?
So you can actually taste the pasta and filling.
Imagine that. Making something carefully and then not covering it up.
We like Torino already.
3. Vitello Tonnato
Then Torino gives you one of those combinations that sounds slightly questionable until you eat it.
Veal and tuna.
Vitello tonnato starts with tender veal sliced thin and served cool beneath a creamy sauce of tuna, egg, anchovy and capers. Turismo Torino
The first bite is surprisingly delicate. Soft veal. Creamy sauce. Salty anchovy. Sharp little bursts of caper.
It's rich without feeling heavy, savoury without becoming aggressive and exactly the kind of plate that quietly disappears while everyone at the table insists they're only having one more piece.
Even the dish has evolved. The original version didn't necessarily contain tuna; it entered the recipe during the 19th century, appearing in Pellegrino Artusi's famous 1891 cookbook. Turismo Torino
Which proves something useful: Italian tradition has never been quite as afraid of changing as people like to pretend.
4. Barbera & Vermouth di Torino
With Piedmont's enormous wine pedigree, we could make this section considerably longer than the entire blog.
We'll behave.
Pour us a Barbera.
Its bright acidity and juicy red fruit make it brilliant at the table, particularly with the rich meat, butter and cheese that appear throughout Piedmontese cooking.
Then, before dinner — or possibly after, because rules become flexible when the bottle is open — return to Vermouth di Torino.
Wine is aromatized with herbs, spices and botanicals to create something bittersweet, fragrant and wonderfully complex. Torino still celebrates vermouth as part of the city's identity; 2026 marked 240 years since its official birth there. Turismo Torino
Drink it chilled. Maybe over ice. Add citrus if you like. Or put it into a Negroni.
Now you've really got our attention.
5. Why Bar Corso Loves Torino
Torino understands something very close to the heart of Bar Corso:
the drink before dinner matters almost as much as dinner.
This is a city of historic cafés, vermouth, little plates, stuffed pasta, beautiful wines and chocolate made with Piedmontese hazelnuts — another Turin invention that officially became the gianduiotto in 1865. Turismo Torino
But what we really love is the rhythm. You don't rush straight into dinner. You meet. You order vermouth. Something small appears. Then another drink. Eventually somebody decides it's time to eat.
That transition from aperitivo to dinner to digestivo is exactly the kind of evening we want at Corso.
Come early. Have a Negroni. Order something small. Stay for pasta. Open a bottle of wine. Finish with amaro.
And if someone puts chocolate on the table afterward, nobody needs to pretend they're too full.
Torino certainly wouldn't.
Neither should you.
