Last Updated on June 1, 2026
This Alpine town has much more to offer than just skiing
Even now, Italy still holds a certain mystique for British travellers. Ever since the grand tours of the Regency, the British have made it over the Alps to discover the fascinating history and cuisine of this country. You don’t have to travel far from Mont Blanc, just to its base on the Italian side, to find the town of Courmayeur. The last town in the Italian Alps before France, nestled in the Aosta Valley, the smallest region in Italy with a population of just 125,000 people.
For years, Courmayeur has been a popular Winter skiing destination for both the French and Milanese, but their tourist board is now looking to Britain for its Spring and Summer seasons, for those without the need to ski down a mountain, a refreshing hike across one might be more appealing.
Courmayeur is not just a place to go skiing and hiking; however, there is also plenty of food and wine to enjoy from the region. It was with this in mind that we attended an event at the Enrico Rocca cooking school in Notting Hill, held in conjunction with Courmayeur, Fontina DOP and Cave Mont Blanc. Escaping from a drizzly May afternoon first to a walled garden and then to a gorgeous kitchen, we couldn’t have felt more Nigella if we tried.
We started with our first taste of the wines sourced by Cave Mont Blanc, a unique operation that bottles its sparkling wine at 2,173 meters. They work with over 70 growers and nearly 600 parcels of land. The mountainous terrain of the Aosta Valley means that smaller growers have been able to survive when larger ones have expanded down South. Their clean and fresh wines are a result of the cooler overnight temperatures of the Alpine air. Growing at 1200 meters and overnight temperatures of 11.5°C, this is quite a difference to the balmy summer nights in the rest of Italy at about 13-14°C.
We were also here to try the most famous cheese of the region, the nutty and bouncy Fontina. Sadly, this name does not carry quite as much import as it should, as in some parts of the world, you can name your product Fontina without it needing to originate in the Aosta Valley. We were trying the real thing, which is marked with the DOP symbol to show its authenticity. While mild and delicious by itself, it really sings as a melting cheese, especially in fondue, this Alpine tradition is luckily not limited to Italy’s Helvetic neighbour.
We learnt about Fontina and its history from Giuseppe Buondonno, executive chef of the Grand Hotel Courmayeur, who, having won a competition amongst his fellow chefs in the region to create the best dish featuring the ingredient, had been flown over to give us an introduction to a few of the key skills in Italian cooking.
This started with making ravioli. If you, like me, have tried to make filled pasta in the past, you will know that the process is mired with danger. The risk of overworking the dough, underworking it, that it is to hot or too cold, too sticky or too wet. These can feel insurmountable and the last thing you want to think of when you’ve finally finished shaping your dumplings and one bursts in the water, turning the liquid a murky and indignant grey.
Guiseppe shared with us a few tricks that made sure our ravioli were perfect, even for beginners. To start with, before your dough makes it to a roller, relax and flatten it by hand. Then roll it through the machine, at a narrower gauge each time, until you can see your hands through it and no further. This gives the perfect thickness for a pasta that needs to be filled and leaves you with that dreamed-of toothsome bite.
Dust away any excess flour and trim the edges. Then pipe the filling. Giuseppe had prepared a veal osso buco filling for us.
Brush the dough with water where it needs to stick and lay a second layer over the top, then press down to remove all the excess air and stamp with a cutter. Removing any air prevents the ravioli from bursting in the water. If the dough is still a little sticky, the stamp itself can be dusted with flour. Reuse the excess dough by rerolling and cutting a maximum of 3 times, as after this, the gluten will have developed too far, and it will become too difficult to work with.
This method was an easier one than the style he uses in his restaurant, but had a similarly pleasing result. Alternatively, you can cut the dough into a disc with a template, fill and fold over, then across itself, remembering to remove any pesky air bubbles, to make cappellacci (which roughly translates to ‘ugly hats’).
We enjoyed our handiwork topped with a bechamel flavoured with saffron and paprika.
Before we tucked into our pasta, we had to make our starter, a beef carpaccio with porcini mushrooms, caviar, parsley mayo and hazelnuts. Guiseppe showed us how to flatten the beef between oiled, greaseproof paper instead of with a deli slicer. Then we topped the beef slices with a vegetal parsley oil mayonnaise, briny pickled porcini mushrooms, crunchy toasted hazelnut, smooth oscietra caviar, Maldon salt flakes, and black pepper. Guiseppe explained that this dish was a meeting of the techniques from both Courmayeur and his home region of Campagna. It was of course, delicious.
We finished off with a chestnut and chocolate mousse with meringue kisses. This was a light and mountainous dessert not unlike the flavours of a buche de noel. We enjoyed this with a Chaudelune sweet white dessert wine, which paired very nicely.
Clearly, there is plenty to enjoy in Courmayeur at any time of year, whether it’s the hiking or the skiing, the food or the wine, this region is keen to share its bounty with travellers from across the world.
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