The Novara and Vercelli Plains of Northern Piedmont

The rural and agrarian landscape

The plains of Vercelli are made up of a vast flatland formed mainly by the actions of the Dora Baltea River and the glacial canals of the Morainic amphitheatre of Ivrea, delimited by important waterways.

Part of the Vercelli plains is characterized by farmlands conditioned by the ample gravel strips, with alternating areas of cereal, wheat and corn cultivation (Cigliano), fruit groves (Borgo d'Ale) and rice paddies (Carisio), mixed with marginal parcels of land with woods and meadows that are signs of the more typically morainic landscapes.

Between Livorno Ferraris and Trino, the average rice plain is characterised by extensive lots arranged in immersion portions, furrowed by numerous irrigation canals and some modest waterways (great irrigating canals traced to the 19th century and derived from the Dora Baltea River, such as the Canals of Cigliano, Ivrea and Canale Depretis, and deriving from the Po River, such as the Cavour Canal).

The rice paddies on the whole form a naturalistic and landscape relief, also for the resurgent and semi-natural humid zones, which are heron settlements, protected as natural reserves for the avifauna.

The ancient terrace of Turin, of a certain landscape value, is found at an altitude of 192 m above sea level, with a medium gradient over the surrounding plain of about 50 m, still partly covered by the historical Sorti Woods of Trino Partecipanza, one of the vastest and significant remaining plain woods of the Padan basin, and one of Europe's most important heron nestling areas.

The entire Dora Baltea River in the Sesia area was seen to have been covered in prehistoric times, by a marshland forest transformed from the 12th century onwards, thanks to the reclamation works of the Cistercian monks who undertook to create a water regulation system and a reclamation system which took a few centuries to complete, and which made the land suitable for farming activities.

This is why cultivation of rice was made possible and explains the territorial system built around it, with a series of smaller settlements but of remarkable historical and documental features, composed of historic rural buildings (farmhouses, rationalized farmsteads of the 18th and 19th centuries) in which rice cultivation gives way to dry cultivation of fruit and vegetable orchards and cereal crops (e.g. Borgo d'Ale and Alice Castello).

Particularly important was the second biggest settlement in Italy set in Lucedio by the Cistercian monks from France, and who developed a farming system in which the lands were subdivided and parceled into "Grange," the farming units that were located 5 km from the abbey, though they were run by and depended on the Abbey.

Routes

Products

I prodotti, attribuiti al territorio sulla base dei comuni elencati e definiti dal Piano Paesaggistico Regionale, possono essere segnalati anche in territori in cui la produzione è marginale.

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Recipe

Brodera

Preparation

Se necessario sgrassate le costine, lavatele, sgocciolatele e mettetele in una pentola con una delle cipolle, la carota e il gambo di sedano tagliati a pezzettoni. Salate, coprite con acqua e cuocete a fiamma bassa per almeno due ore, schiumando di tanto in tanto.
A cottura, dopo avere prelevato le costine, che terrete da parte al caldo, filtrate il brodo e riportate a bollore.
Sbucciate l'altra cipolla, affettatela sottile e fatela appassire dolcemente, senza che prenda colore, in una casseruola con una noce di burro. Versate il riso e fatelo insaporire, rigirando con un cucchiaio di legno. Sempre mescolando, aggiungete poco per volta il brodo. Regolate di sale e a cottura unite il burro rimasto, il formaggio grattugiato e una macinata di pepe.
Trasferite il risotto nei piatti, disponetevi sopra le costine e servite.
Complemento tradizionale della brodera, che nelle zone risicole del Vercellese e del Novarese si preparava il giorno dell'uccisione del maiale, era il sangue dell'animale ancora caldo, con cui si irrorava il piatto al momento del servizio. Un'abitudine tramontata nell'era dei macelli moderni, per la difficoltà di procurarsi il sangue e perché sono cambiati i gusti.