In recent years, we’ve witnessed the rise to fame of ravioli al plin, a fresh egg pasta filled with a mixture of minced veal and pork and pinched into little dumplings with a movement known as “plin”. At first, as a provincial Piemontese, I was undeservedly proud that a Piedmontese dish was becoming a trend, but then I asked myself, when was the last time that my family had eaten ravioli al plin? Never.

Not that we didn’t eat ravioli, but back in the Province of Cuneo in the 1990s they were called agnolotti, and they were a more humble cousin of today’s popular plin. Ravioli al plin come from the Langhe, the UNESCO area whose fame has grown so much that all its territorial characteristics have become internationally known–wine and food especially–superseding all others in the Piedmont. Local delicacies from elsewhere in the region are now being sadly forgotten.