Tessin

Merlot and Ticino go together just like brasato (braised beef) and polenta. 80% of vineyards are given over to the Merlot grape – with growing success, thanks to innovative winemakers: wines such as Sassi Grossi can compete with the best from Bordeaux. Ticino's liquid sunshine tastes superb in a romantic grotto (traditional inn), enjoyed with alp cheese and salametti sausage, but Merlot also goes well with gourmet dishes. And it makes exciting blends, too – such as with Bondola, Ticino's only native grape variety.

Whether eaten roasted, in the form of chestnut gnocchi or as marrons glacés, chestnuts are enjoying a renaissance – as are many traditional Ticino delicacies. Once chestnuts were the "bread of the poor", roasted in old smoking huts or "grà". Today, chestnut trails lead through the forests, and in the autumn, chestnuts appear on the menu of just about every restaurant.

Preparation of Ticino polenta requires an element of culinary magic. The ground maize is cooked in a copper cauldron over an open fire, just as it was in the old days. The golden-yellow cornmeal bubbles for hours, even scorching a little at the bottom of the pot to get its full taste. The polenta is served up thick – and proves that the simplest food is the best.

Ticino is famous for its cheeses: such as the Piora, for example, made beside Lake Ritom in the Valle Leventina. This alpine cheese is so popular that the entire production is often sold out a year in advance. No less delicious is a cheese from the Valle di Muggio: the pyramid-shaped Zincarlin, which matures in the rock cellars of Monte Generoso.

The Ticinesi love their soil. Many families have their own vineyards, make their own nocino (walnut brandy), and in summer send a few pigs up to the alp – which are then slaughtered in the autumn. From them comes the famous Ticino "mazza" – meats including lardo and pancetta, and homemade sausages such as salami, luganighe and liver-enriched mortadella.

There is hardly a restaurant in Ticino that does not serve a home-made risotto. And hardly a Ticinese who will not philosophise for hours about which rice variety, which white wine and what cooking time are the only "right" ones. The fact that the first and only Swiss rice is cultivated in the Terreni alla Maggia is a matter of special pride for them all.

The celebrated torta di pane is made from old bread and is a favourite speciality in the Sopraceneri region. What was once a way of using up leftovers has become a dessert masterpiece, which in its finest incarnations can also contain amaretti biscuits, almonds, raisins, nuts, marsala, rum and a shot of grappa.