Tuscan Food Diary

[Adam Balic]

I am staying with family for the next two weeks. We will will be based in Prato, which is just outside of Florence (actually in the industrial sprawl of Florence), although not really a destination, Prato is (by some accounts) the third largest city in Tuscany, famous for its textile industry, which exists to this day. Another item of fame is the 'Girdle of Mary', which was one of the most important Christian relics in Italy.

This is the special balconey, where the girdle is displayed once a year at the duomo:

But now the food. Today I actually had a hobbits breakfast, first breakfast was coffee at a local pastry shop:

Second breakfast was after a visit to the very famous biscottificio "Antonio Mattei". Inside the small shopfront is essentially the same as the 19th century original:

You may have heard of biscotti [di Prato]/cantucci. These shop is the origin of there popularity. More of the biscotti later, for today I had:

A sweet focaccia, still the same flat bread flavoured with olive oil and rosemary, but sweetened with grapes.

And also some "Brutto ma buono" ("ugly but good"), meringue of hazelnuts.

For lunch I had a slice of pie from the local forno, which was basically left over bits and pies from the forno/deli, but very good for that.

And also a simply pasta of the familys home made wild boar ragu.

And an aged piece of pecorino di Piacenza.

And wine obviously.

My hosts are putting on a dinner party tonight, the main event will be a seven kilo porchetta (which I am quite happy about, as it is from my recipe).

In the raw state.

One think to note is that Tuscan pork tends to be much darker/redder then the pork I have seen in Australia and in the UK.

Edited February 16, 2005 by Adam Balic (log)

[Jim Dixon]

Adam,

Those pictures make me hungry. When we stay in Chianni we drive to Pontedera to grab the train into Firenze, and there's a tiny bakery a block from the station (in Pontedera) that makes a great schiacciata con uve.

A Table in Tuscany, by Leslie Forbes, has a recipe for cantucci di Prato that comes close to those we ate in Tuscany.

Jim

[albiston]

Adam,

I still haven't had my second hobbit's lunch yet so your post is making me extremely hungry, especially the pie .

I'm looking forward to see what happens with that pancetta.

Any clue or hint about why the pork is redder in Italy? It is something I've noticed too, but I have no valid explanation. It is definitely not the race of pigs, most of those slaughtered in Italy are Large White, which I believe are quite common elsewhere too.

[divina]

I hope you also get to Luca Mannori, try some of his "nutella" I adore the salt and olive oil one, and the berry one is good too. I come from FLorence for his pastry's as well!

he is a world champion pastry chef!!!

his place is in front of the hospital

www.mannoriluca.com

[Adam Balic]

Mattei's biscotti are fantastic, I would love to make them, but I suspect that I haven't normally got access to the quality of eggs required. They taste veru much of egg yolks. While waiting for my order, I watched the production of the biscotti as they came out of the forno and finally were sliced.

I'm not sure about the redness of the pork in Tuscany either. Although there are native breeds, this meat appears to be from commercial large whites as you say. Normally I would put it down to exercise and a difference in the type of muscle developed, but this is belly meat and that is not something that I would think go that much exercise. Still I am thankful.

Divina - I have been to Luca Mannori's several times (in is just aoutside of the city wall from where I stay), he truely has some amazing products and that it one of the terrific things about Italy - world class produce and products tucked away where you least expect it.

[docsconz]

Nice fatcap on that pork too. I am very jealous.

I can't help but comment that the Cathedral was very reminiscent of the Cathedral in Siena.

[Priscilla]

Adam, incredibly inspiring, jealous-making photos. Looking forward to moremoremore. Any shots of markets in the offing?

[Adam Balic]

Nice fatcap on that pork too. I am very jealous.

I can't help but comment that the Cathedral was very reminiscent of the Cathedral in Siena.

←

It is a very common style in Tuscany, the Siena duomo (unfinished as it is) is interesting as it is largely black and white stone, where as many of the other structures have white, green and pink marble. My favourite is St. Croce, what a concentration of famous dead and wonderful frescos!

[Adam Balic]

Adam, incredibly inspiring, jealous-making photos.  Looking forward to moremoremore.  Any shots of markets in the offing?

←

Priscilla - depending on wheather my wife kills me or the egullet server collaspes, there will be about two weeks of images to come. God praise Olympus.

[Priscilla]

Adam, was the family's boar ragu from the freezer? Or some sort of cold larder? What is the traditional conserving method for ragu?

(Important research, for me: Froze my own ragu for the very first time recently, after nearly 20 years of making it and never ever freezing. It came out of the freezer perfectly -- having benefited, even, from the cold storage. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's influence has loosened my anti-freezing ethic a bit, and I'm experimenting.)

[Adam Balic]

Priscilla - the familys prefered method is to bottle ragu, sugo, costini toscana prepared liver etc, under large amounts of oil. The freezer tip is interesting, but I suspec that it will take some time to catch on in Italy.

[Priscilla]

And then cold larder for storage? Or refrigerated? (Not that there is anything resembline a cold larder where I live, even during [what passes for] winter here.)

In my kitchen the freezer is way underutilized real estate, and I am coming around to exploring freezing -- as long as the loss of quality that has kept me anti-freezer all these years is controllable.

[Ore]

Nice photos Adam. I hope I stop by Prato before leaving Italy. I want to eat like a hobit too!!

Any tips for Florence if you have been?? I will be there on the 25th of Feb. for the weekend.

Ore

[Adam Balic]

And for last nights dinner party of mainly Australian-Italians and hangers-on.

We had pecorino with chestnut honey.

Crostini Toscana (chicken livers with veg, olive oil, vin santo wine).

Spanakopita (OK, this isn't Italian).

For the main event there was the porchetta. The skin on this was so thin and crisp that it looked and crackled like toffee on a creme brulee.

Some of my half mangled porchetta, sauted rape and potatoes.

Dessert was simply the cakes from the shop that I had breakfast in. Small cakes are the alpha and omega of a days eating.

Although Italians don't drink to excess, Australian-Italians do. So after dinner we went to the pub, had many beers and as at some point it was revealed that "Bomboloni" (donut) is local slang for "blow-job" we ended up storming a bakery and chatting about this amazing new fact to the bakers and anybody else that would listen. I had a Bomboloni con crema. No photo.

[Adam Balic]

And then cold larder for storage?  Or refrigerated?  (Not that there is anything resembline a cold larder where I live, even during [what passes for] winter here.)

←

Actually, just stored in a normal kitchen cupboard. No deaths yet.

[Kevin72]

That meal looks great!

Was that skin or a fatcap on the porchetta, and does it always come with it on or did you have to special request it?

[Marco_Polo]

Hi Adam,

Thanks for sharing this - great pictures, great food!

In fact we used to live in the Carmignano wine zone not far at all from Prato. We were in a casa di mezzadro - a tenant farmer's cottage - on a wine estate in the small hamlet of Comeana. On the Fattoria di Calavria, home of our aristocratic landlords, there are some notable Etruscan tombs worth visiting. As far as eating, you may know already of Da Delfina, one of the best country restaurants around, in the little town of Artimino, certainly worth a visit. A less well known place that you should seek out if you have time is the Cantina di Toia on the Fattoria di Bacchereto wine estate in the hills above Carmignano itself. This was once a hunting lodge of the Medici, who had villas at Poggio a Caiano and Artimino. Today the Bencini Tesi family run this estate, the wine and oil is good, and the farmhouse restaurant certainly used to be very good - typical Tuscan foods such as fagioli nel fiasco cooked in a wood fired bread oven. The Cantina di Toia is perhaps most notable because it was actually the house of Leondardo da Vinci's maternal grandmother (Vinci is just over the hills) . So it's an out of the way, special place worth hunting out. Where else? Outstanding bistecca alla fiorentina at the Antica Trattoria Sanesi in Lastra a Signa (just below the Carmignano zone towards Florence, not far too far from Prato).

Keep posting the pictures, it's bringing back fond memories, not least of winter nights around the fire, with cantuccini di Prato accompanied by Vin Santo - our own Vin Santo from the Calavria estate, wholly traditional, made in minute quantity, the best ever.

Marc

[Adam Balic]

That meal looks great!

Was that skin or a fatcap on the porchetta, and does it always come with it on or did you have to special request it?

←

Kevin - we made this, rather then bought it, it is really a pseudo-porchetta, a compromise when you don't have an entire pig. Basically it is pork loin wrapped in pork belly. Personally, I could do with out the pork loin, but various members of the family don't like fat!

Edited February 17, 2005 by Adam Balic (log)

[Kevin72]

Thanks Adam. I'd heard about the technique of wrapping the loin in the skin or belly before, but now I can't remember where. I usually do a porchetta at Easter and use the loin, also. I got to finally try the real deal at Mercato Centrale but it was minutes before the stall closed and it was served cold.

[Adam Balic]

Marco - thank you for the king comments. You were very lucky to live in Carmignano, I think it is one of the most attractive parts of Tuscany, very dramtic views, especially from the patio of La Delfina! I also enjoy the wine of Carmignano very much, more so then many of the C.C.s, prehaps this is due to the cabernet content, but I find them delicious with food. I think that I may have been to Fattoria di Bacchereto, at least the Medici hunting lodge bit rings a bell.

Last night I had entirely too much grappa and vin santo, but I am sure I will have more in the near future...The think about vin santo is that when in it good it is so very good, but sadly most of the bulk stuff sold is really poor.

[Marco_Polo]

Last night I had entirely too much grappa and vin santo, but I am sure I will have more in the near future...The think about vin santo is that when in it good it is so very good, but sadly most of the bulk stuff sold is really poor.

←

I absolutely agree, Adam, a real, traditionally made Vin Santo is truly the nectar of the gods. Following the appasimento - the drying of the grapes on cane racks for a period of months - the brutal treatment the wine suffers - stored in caratelli in attics in the hellish heat of the Tuscan summer and the freezing cold of winter - results in a wine that is truly unique. I urge you to make the time, somehow, to visit Comeana, not least to see the Etruscan tombs but to knock on the door of the Fattoria di Calavria to beg to be allowed to purchase a bottle of their exquisite Vin Santo. The count and his two elderly sisters have now retired from grape growing and winemaking (Capezzana I believe rent the vineyards outside our old house), but I'm pretty sure they still have a store of Vin Santo laid aside. You could even try mentioning my name as they may remember me (Marc Millon) - if so, do send them my warmest regards.

[Adam Balic]

Last nights dinner was a simple meal of pizza and gelati. A local pizza place offers four different styles of crust, I prefer the Northern Italian (I think) version with a paper thin crisp crust. For some reason I had seafood pizza.

The gelati comes from a local shop that takes such pride in the produc that there is a glass observation window to watch them making it. Very few fruit flavours at this time of the year as they say that the fruit is not good enough quality. Icecream images are dull, but the wrapping of the take-away is cute.

This morning I did a little shopping, here is a small selection.

The beans are form the local baker, where they are cooked in the cooling bread oven.

And finally my breakfast. It is a good thing when blood oranges are €1 per kilo!

Edited February 18, 2005 by Adam Balic (log)

[spaghetttti]

This is an exquisite diary, you have transported me! Those zucchini blossoms are lovely, how will you prepare them?

[Adam Balic]

Well the zucchini were made into fritta for lunch. The most common zucchini used near Florence is odd in that in the unfertilised female floweres the "fruit" can be 6-8 inches long. In most cases the fruit is only an inch or so until fertilization. Hence in these local zucchini, you get the blossoms attached. In addition to the fritta, there is Mortadella di Prato (a local product quite distinct to the Bolongna type), wild boar salami and a bit of salad.

For an afternoon snackette, we had some local fresh curd cheese, with prosciutto san daniele, olive oil and rocket.

[Adam Balic]

Dinner tonight was simply some stuffed pasta and pesto, with salad.

Followed by Prato's most famous food product, cantucci from Antonio Mattei.

And obviously vin santo!