Tasting menu at the agreed price of 35 euros, menus in which agnolotti and ravioli are enhanced in different recipes and accompanied by local wines.
ALESSANDRIA – On the occasion of the “Birthday of the City of Alexandria”, ideally placed on May 3rd and celebrated with a City Council open on the same Friday morning, a series of events is developed which have as their common denominator the valorization of the Alexandrian cultural heritage, understood as an essential component of the City’s identity.
The protagonist of three days of celebrations is one of the most typical products of the area: the agnolotto.
“San Giorgio 2024 presents elements of innovation”, states the Mayor of Alessandria Giorgio Abonante, “Art, territory, gastronomy are linked by the common thread of a tradition that is close to 500 years of history and therefore presents itself as an element of city identity ”.
“As councilor for trade, agriculture and craftsmanship, I wanted to involve in this process the subjects who represent the important agri-food chain in the various territorial declinations”, he adds Giovanni Berrone, “The farmers’ associations responded with enthusiasm and on the days from Friday 3 to Sunday 5 May they will be present with various interesting initiatives which Alexala will launch in the structure specially set up in Piazzetta della Lega with the journalist Luca Ferrua among others, to talk about the different aspects of the agri-food production of our lands. The most “iconic” product of our gastronomic tradition, the agnolotto, will be exalted in its delicious variations”.
To worthily celebrate this culinary tradition, thirty-one Alessandria restaurateurs responded enthusiastically to the appeal launched by the Administration, teaming up to propose tasting menus at the agreed price of 35 euros, menus in which agnolotti and ravioli are enhanced in different recipes and accompanied by local wines.
Agnolotto, history and legends
According to popular legends, agnolotti take their name from the inventor of this stuffed pasta: a chef from Monferrato named Angiolino, known as Angelòt. Another story claims that the name comes from the Piedmontese anolòt, an iron tool used to cut ring-shaped pasta.
In reality, the origin of the agnolotto is much older, so much so that in the Grande Dizionario della Lingua Italiana (1961, Salvatore Battaglia) agliotti is attested starting from Michelangelo Buonarroti, the artist’s great-grandson, who lived between 1568 and 1646 .
Gastronomy, but also contemporary art
A weekend also dedicated to art with the exhibition of contemporary works of art with particular symbolic value, such as the “San Giorgio” by Lucio Fontana, a precious glazed terracotta inspired by the iconographic theme of the “Holy Knight” strongly linked to ancient San Giorgio fair established in 1525, courtesy of Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan. It will be exhibited in the Civic Museum of Palazzo Cuttica from 3 May to 7 July, alongside a work with which the Alessandria artist Mario Fallini intended to pay homage to «Lucio Fontana», founder of the spatialist movement.
An event which on the afternoon of Friday 3 May will be preceded, in the courtyard of the Town Hall, by the presentation of the work-installation «9 chairs» by the Alessandria artist Carlo Ciarli, representing a direct dialogue with the surrounding space capable of making the Pay attention to what we wouldn’t notice.
With the San Giorgio there will be the opportunity to rediscover the historical-architectural heritage of the city; on Saturday and Sunday the doors of the city’s historic buildings will open for free guided tours of Palazzo Comunale, with frescoes by Pietro Sassi, and Palazzo Cuttica, where each room is able to tell a story; as well as two new features: the possibility of accessing two precious sacristies, that of the Cathedral and the church of Nostra Signora del Carmine.
