In Calamandrana, tradition goes by the name of Ristorante Violetta by Auri Stilla

History
The restaurant, opened in the 1960s, was named for a house long known as “Ca d’viuletta” where farm wagons (given the name “violette”) were built. Attached to it were a little grocery store and the local bar.
When the store closed, the Lovisolo family converted the bar little by little into a trattoria and then into the appealing restaurant we see today.
The cookery, typically Piedmontese, is always in the sure and capable hands of Maria Lovisolo, while son Carlo and daughter-in-law Silvana wait on tables.
All the ingredients, like the final dishes, are excellent in quality.
La Violetta won first prize at the 15th Festival of Italian and Regional Cooking.
The restaurant has ample parking and an outdoor dining area, a large dining room and two smaller ones.

“The classic cook works years and years to perfect certain dishes, mastering the recipe…” When we left La Violetta after dining there this phrase accompanied us like the proprietor’s calling-card, in the same way as the word “gentlemen” befits Carlo Lovisolo, who served us impeccably and lingered a while to chat.
As many food critics have already stressed, in this gracious restaurant you will fine the roots of a cuisine that has made local traditions (the most straightforward and organic) a flag flying over the warmest of welcomes and the most sedate and appealing elegance.
Here you feel trulyat home, in a family atmosphere, with the “added value” of the professionalism of the host, who helps you discover the inner workings and particularities of a type of cooking that, to be fully appreciated, has naturally to be plumbed.
And so here we have the refreshing, homemade aspic of vegetables and ham in a tasty tartar sauce, very delicate sliced raw meat with Parmesan cheese and celery and then the classic and balanced bell pepper.
As everyone knows, agnolotti are Piedmont’s glory, although there are many variations. The only thing that everyone agrees on is that they are squares of pasta filled with meat and vegetables. They are smaller than the plin, sometimes called ravioli. In the local dialect the plin is the pinch given to the corners to close them. Among the numerous restaurants in which to taste them many gourmets have chosen La Violetta, the Calamandrana restaurant near Nizza Monferrato in Asti province where “everything is traditional and prices are honest.” From the sliced raw meat Alba-style to bell peppers with bagna cauda (garlic sauce) to hand-cut egg noodles (tajarin) with mushrooms and truffles, to the mixed fry.
The braised veal with endive is expressly prepared each evening and the next day used to fill the homemade pasta agnolotti. Cooked and served in fine beef broth or with meat sauce or sage and butter, they are the first course most customers prefer.
And it is here at La Violetta that you can still find the by now rare “finanziera” (a meat and poultry stew), a hearty dish as are the beef cooked in Barbera and the rollata of rabbit.
Desserts are delightful: frozen nougat cream, Bavarian cream with Moscato d’Asti. Don’t miss the classic bonet.
Also highly refined are the herbal liqueurs tasting of bark and orange, another specialty of the house.
In any case, one of the restaurant’s most famous dishes is the stuffed guinea hen, whose recipe we give you.

Recipe
Stuffed guinea hen
Ingredients for 10 persons
1 guinea hen
200 grams of chicken breast
3 boiled carrots
10 boiled spinach leaves
rosemary, a tablespoon of fine bread crumbs
2 egg whites
salt and pepper

Carefully bone the guinea hen, leaving the thighs intact. cut the (raw) chicken breast and the carrots into strips, beat the egg whites with a whisk and add the previously minced rosemary, tablespoon of breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.
The result should be a firm paste; spread it over the guinea hen, cover it with a layer of chicken breast meat and carrot strips and finally a layer of spinach.
Close and recompose the guinea hen, sew it together and bind it with kitchen twine like a roast for easy slicing. Heat a bit of olive oil, add the guinea hen and when it has browned bathe it with white wine.
Cook gently for about an hour, adding a bit of water when needed.

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