Piedmontese describes anything from Piedmont, the mountainous region of northwestern Italy at the foot of the Alps - most often either the region's cuisine or Piedmontese cattle, an Italian beef breed prized for its naturally lean, tender meat. Piedmontese cuisine draws on the region's rice, corn, truffles, hazelnuts, and dairy, and its proximity to France gives it a butter-and-cream richness unusual for Italian cooking; signature dishes include brasato al Barolo (beef braised in the region's Barolo red wine) and bagna cauda, a warm anchovy-garlic dipping sauce for raw or cooked vegetables. The region is also the source of prized white truffles, centered on the town of Alba, and of Nutella and gianduia, the hazelnut-chocolate paste and confections invented there. Piedmontese cattle, a separate but related use of the term, carries a genetic double-muscling trait that produces unusually lean, tender beef, and the breed is now also raised outside Italy, including in the United States.