I had my first “Oh My God” meal in Annunziata Italy, outside Barolo.

We’d been introduced to OMG meals through Stanley Tucci’s “Searching for Italy” series on CNN. In every episode, at some point Tucci would go “Oh my god” fawning over the dish he was just served.

To prepare for our month long trip to Italy in October 2023, we watched episodes from Season 1 and Season 2 of the regions in Italy we expected to visit.

• Milan
• Tuscany
• Bologna
• Piedmont
• Umbria
• Puglia

When we arrived for our stay in Barolo at the Red Wine Bed and Breakfast, we asked if they had any recommendations for restaurants. At the top of their list was Osteria Arborina. They suggested since it was warm weather that we eat upstairs on the terrace, and that we make reservations.

We arrived at the appointed time just as dusk was shifting into night. Our table on the terrace overlooked the Barolo valley with vineyards in every direction as far as the eye could see.

Our wait person and wine steward, Juan, left us with the specials board. We had to Google a few words but the menu looked good.

Juan, gave us a wine list, but I didn’t recognize any of the brands and only one of the wine hill towns that we recently visited – Serralunga d’Alba. I shared that was the only wine I recognized, but did he have any recommendations. He laughed and said “I can’t let you order the Serralunga d’Alba. The terroir there is much more rocky than here in La Morra. In La Morra, we believe in soft wines. I would recommend the Burzi wine. They are a very young winery with the grandson and granddaughter of the founder making wines now. The grandfather planted the vineyards 70 years ago, but the children didn’t start making wines until 10 years ago. I know you will enjoy their wine with what you have ordered.

I couldn’t resist the steak tartare on the menu. It was exquisite.

My main course was the “pasta potatoe a cesci”. The entry translated to small pasta with tiny cubes of potato with a few requisite green things. It only took one bite for me to involuntarily exclaim “oh my God!” The sauce was a simple butter and cheese sauce (likely parmigiana). The pasta was so simple and yet so amazing.

Or maybe it was the magic of a Piedmont warm fall evening with my wife of 52 years and an amazing wine.

Since the entrees were so good I had to order a chocolaty cheese thing. Of course, it came with an espresso to drink. I was clearly not worried about sleeping on this evening.

In Milan, prior to arriving in the Barolo area, we’d discovered the digestif Amaro. So I asked if they had an amoro. “Of course,” Juan responded. “Would you like one of our local Amaros?”

Sure. The local herbal bitter sweet liqueur was as excellent as the rest of the meal.

It had not taken long on this visit, but we were really enjoying the slow food movement Italian style. As we drank our espresso and Amaro, we simply enjoyed the moon lit vineyards.

We had already scheduled a cooking class in a few days time with Chef Fabio. We decided we would take as many cooking classes in the different regions we were visiting as we could work in. I vowed to learn enough to recreate this wonderful pasta with potato dish.

After learning to make pasta from scratch and how to do simple Italian butter and cheese sauces, I am experimenting my way to recreating my OMG meal. After two tries, I am getting close. Hopefully, the third time will be the charm. We shipped home a case of Burzi wine so that when I am able to recreate the pasta and potato dish we will have the appropriate Barolo wine.