Italian cooking with a focus on traditional meat dishes, polenta, and fine pastries defines a region with Turin at its heart
I was brought up in a village called Borgofranco in the Aosta valley. The area is practically made of food. Here you can eat wonderful stuff: polenta is a typical dish, as is chicken or sausage ragù– they do eat quite a lot of meat. You get amazing food knowledge just from standing in the butchers as people in the queue discuss how to cook a particular cut of meat.
Ivrea, near Borgofranco, is a little town that has wonderful markets, and where the seasonal ingredients are exceptional. Even the cabbage in winter is very good. During the carnival in early March the town is covered in Sicilian oranges – there is even a local tradition of fighting battles with them – and it makes Ivrea very pungent.
Fagioli grassi is a traditional dish, which is served on the streets during carnival: it's sausages and beans cooked in huge cauldrons over wood fires for about 24 hours. You take your pot along and fill it up then eat it at home – it is the best kind of food.
More than once when I was growing up I came home tipsy, having drunk the "must" – freshly pressed grapes – of the moscato wine made in Ivrea. It is sweet and non-alcoholic but it ferments in your stomach. Other great wines to try are barbera, barolo and dolcetto. Look out for wonderful wines by Luigi Ferrando and his son Roberto (ferrandovini.it) who grow a type of nebbiola called carema, which is sold in enoteche (wine bars) in Ivrea such as Nuova Enoteca Ferrando Di Cornelio Simone Antonio by the river at 1a Corso Re Umberto (+39 0125 641176).
The village of Andrate is a bit further up into the hills from where I grew up. At trattorias here you get very, very good local food – polenta with game, especially rabbit or jugged hare. It's not at all touristy because it is mostly only visited by walkers. Try La Cucina di Luisa.
In Settimo Vittone nearby, there are a couple of restaurants known for cooking very good Piedmontese food. Try, Osteria La Sosta, they serve chestnuts as a vegetable – and what chestnuts! They finish cooking them with cubes of fresh butter. Then there is the bagna cauda, an anchovy dip that you eat with raw vegetables, especially the wonderful local cardoons, which are related to artichokes.
Asti and Alba are both known for their truffles, but the people of Asti obviously think theirs are the best. I recommend the shop and restaurant Sandrino Tartufi. During the season (September-early January for the white variety), you can eat fabulous truffles in any trattoria in Asti.
Further south at Monforte d'Alba, the Trattoria della Posta is a fantastic family-run restaurant that serves traditional dishes, in particular ravioli, bagna cauda, game, truffles and mushrooms.
The Piedmontese capital, Turin, is where you will find what I think are the best chocolates in the world, especially those made by Peyrano (peyrano.com) and sold in its two shops (Corso Moncalieri 47, and Corso Vittorio Emanuele 76). There are lovely pasticcerie, sweet shops selling traditional sugared almond favours, and cafes.
A favourite is Caffè Torino, which is under the portico of Piazza San Carlo, near a bronze bull, the emblem of Turin. People say, "I'll see you at the bull." At the cafe – indeed all over Turin – they do incredible choux pastries called bignole, which are stuffed with custard. Or visit Barratti e Milano, the restaurant and cafe where they filmed part of the Italian Job.
• Antonio Carluccio's books, written with Gennaro Contaldo, Two Greedy Italians (£14.99) and Two Greedy Italians Eat Italy (£20) are both published by Quadrille. To buy for £11.99 and £16 respectively with free UK p&p go to guardianbookshop.co.uk