The Cooking and Cuisine of Tuscany

[cak]

I'd highly recommend the Vecchia Oliviera in Montalcino for lodging. It was very pleasant, an old olive oil 'barn' and very friendly owners.

[futronic]

Thank you for your recommendation. The hotel looks lovely, but I'm looking for an agriturismo-style apartimenti with kitchen facilities.

[Jim Foster]

Try La Pievina, a simple trattoria on the very pretty road between Asciano and Siena, for an experience that's like having a celebratory dinner at an Italian home. When you come in, the only decision you're asked to make is "carne, pesce o vegetariano?" Once you decide, the women in the kitchen, who drink wine as they cook and get louder as the night progresses, get to work.

Over the course of the next several hours, this is what you get: 10 antipasti courses; five primi, usually pasta; and three main courses. Then they drop a selection of about six desserts on your table. And finally, they bring a variety of grappas and vin santos, which you can sample at your leisure.

The courses are smallish, so don't let the big numbers intimidate you. Also, they're spaced out over the entire eventing. Also in included in the very reasonable price is wine, water and coffee.

Don't expect anything fancy, because it's not. What you get, though, is a lot of fun for the money.

[RRainey]

Have you looked at colle lungo yet?

http://www.collelungo.com/ It looks great Rr

[menton1]

I would agree that San Gimignano is a tourist trap. Although I would not recommend staying there, you shouldn't miss it. Especially for a first time visitor to Tuscany, it's a must see --- an unusual medieval hilltown, with towers that have made it known as the "Manhattan" of Tuscany. Make a day trip there for a few hours.

Actually, I respectfully disagree with this advice. Saying SanG is a tourist trap is like saying Venice is a tourist trap. Avoid the TT shops and bus tours and see the actual things that attract tourists there. The town is actually much better if you stay overnight, because the tourists leave at 4:30 and by 5:00 you have the town to yourself! You also have the better part of the morning to enjoy up until the buses arrive at 10:30...The restaurants open for dinner really cater more to locals and not day-trippers, so you can have wonderful meals there, as we have had-- and the view from the rooms at La Cisterna Hotel is breathtaking. SanG is a great place to stay overnight, and is centrally located for the rest of Tuscany!

[flushingflash]

With only 5 days and 4 nights in Tuscany )after we visit Florence...), we are findinf it hard to decide where to stay and for how long. Right now, it looks like we'll do 2 nights in Siena (still picking a place to stay and restaurants- thanks for all of you ideas folks!!), and then 2 nights in either Montalcino, San G, Lucca.....????

help us decide!

[menton1]

With only 5 days and 4 nights in Tuscany )after we visit Florence...), we are findinf it hard to decide where to stay and for how long. Right now, it looks like we'll do 2 nights in Siena (still picking a place to stay and restaurants- thanks for all of you ideas folks!!), and then 2 nights in either Montalcino, San G, Lucca.....????

help us decide!

As you can see, there is a bit of disagreement on this thread... So I don't know how much more help you can get;

Have you checked the Hotel La Cisterna link I posted on an earlier response here?

Restaurants in San Gimignano:

La Vecchia Mura, simple family resto right under the walls.

Il Pino, great Cingiale, more upscale

Ristorante Peruca, in an old palazzo, wonderful!

Al Beppone, casual, pizza and pasta, quiet part of town.

After dinner, a great gelato parlor on the main square (La Cisterna) open until midnight.

P.S. The local wine Vernaccia, is a superb white-- do not miss it!

Buon viaggio!!

Edited November 20, 2003 by menton1 (log)

[ann]

San Quirico d'Orcia would be a great choice for a couple for nights, and it has a lovely small hotel - Palazzo del Capitano. San Quirico is beautiful in its own right, and is located between Montalcino and Montepulciano so its location is superb.

Edited November 25, 2003 by ann (log)

[flushingflash]

Have you looked at colle lungo yet?

 

It looks great  Rr

RR- Thanks for the suggestion on Colle Luongo. Looks like it's going to be one of the places that we will be staying at. Our trip is shaping up (man do i need a vacation...). Thanks for your ideas!

-Steven

[Kevin72]

November brings one of my favorite regions, Tuscany. It’s another robust, straightforward style of cooking that fits perfectly this time of year. All those soups, bruschette, and roasted or grilled meats fill the house with so many comforting aromas. As I’ve said before, it’s the cooking style I often default to when cooking spontaneously with what’s available.

Judging by the bewildering number of books (156) pulled up on an Amazon booksearch, I’m not the only one who enjoys this cuisine! Where to even start? Hell, there’s three books on Tuscany just published this year! Needless to say, I won’t go through the effort of sifting through and replicating such a list here, but I’ll give highlights of what I have:

Pino Luongo has written a number of books on growing up in Tuscany. I have A Tuscan In the Kitchen and enjoy it immensely, but all of the other books of his I’ve looked at have appeal as well. As with many cookbooks I enjoy, he gives stories and histories at the start of his recipes, including an eye-opening account as a child of seeing a mushroom forager getting bit by a poisonous snake. Without hesitation, the forager grabbed an axe and lopped off the fingers he was bitten on to prevent the poison from spreading! Another amusing trait is that he, in true Italian form, doesn’t give precise amounts: he merely lists the ingredients and lets the cook decide what proportions to add to make it taste right.

Then there’s the Frances Mayes “Tuscan Sun” publishing empire and numerous other similar books, including a recent one by Marlena de Blasi (A Thousand Days in Tuscany).

One interesting book I have that I forgot to plug for Umbria as well is Italian Food Artisans by Pamela Sheldon Johns. While she does go to many different regions of Italy in her survey of people still making products “the old way”, she does primarily stick to the center and covers Tuscany, Umbria, and Emilia-Romagna quite well and offers several unique and appealing recipes.

Likewise, where to even begin with famous dishes?

Well, there’s La Fiorentina, the massive, steak-lover’s fantasy of a porterhouse, cut at least as thick as thick as your hand, grilled slowly and served al sangue.

We’ve discussed ribollata at length on the Italian Soups thread already, but I intend to make it soon. There’s a number of other famous Tuscan soups to try out as well. I’ve said it before, but Tuscans seems almost to be more inclined to have a soup as a primo than pasta, and several cookbook authors I’ve read have echoed that sentiment. Nevertheless, I do enjoy their recipes for papardelle with some sort of game.

A pot of cannellini beans, cooked with sage, a chili pepper, and a head of garlic would be a good start and can be then used in soups or as a contorno. Likewise, there’s the (in)famous saltless bread here, thought to be a good, neutral compliment to their robust salume.

This should be a fun month! Looking forward to it.

[Kevin72]

I jumped the gun and began "Tuscan" cooking last night with a bowl of pumpkin soup. On the side, we had crostini with mascarpone, rosemary, and black pepper.

We've been discussing pumpkin varieties lately, and I'd like to offer a plug for the Red Kuri variety. They are quite sweet and have a much more pronounced presence than the standard sugar or pie pumpkin. They're dark orange or reddish orange, kind of bumpy, and have tapered ends with a bulging, round middle. I'll try and get a pic of one posted if I use more this month.

[Pontormo]

Ummmm...

As you can see, I had plenty to choose from:

←

Until your next trip, this will do: red kuri's in the fourth basket (from upper left in background) in this photograph. Cooked one last night myself. Wonderful, smooth texture right in between butternut and buttercup, denser than the former but not as dry as the latter.

This month I am determined to use Ada Boni's book since I've only prepared a recipe or two. Looking through it a few days ago, I noticed that there are at least four recipes for soup. I'm also interested in Lucca now that we've referred to the city's specialties in this forum a few times.

P.S. Budini di riso !!!!

Edited November 1, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[NYC Mike]

Nice Soup Kevin!

A few months back I bought a lot of 40 cookbooks on ebay for $100. Aside from the assorted "Use only your blender" cookbooks were a few real gems. One of them is "Food alla Florentine" by Naomi Barry and Beppe Bellini the book is geared to entertaining and arranged in menus, the recipes look great so I can't wait to try!

-Mike

[Franci]

Kevin, thanks for the nice introduction. Your soup looks very nice.

This is a region I am not very comfortable with, for a very unreasonable and shameful reason...but there are good recipes anyway.

This need to be fixed a little. Barbotta

I love these rustic savory tarts. With variations they are similar in Emilia/Liguria and Toscana.

For this barbotta I followed the recipe from the link above, it is made with polenta, some milk and onions slowly saute' in oil. At home I had only polenta bramata and thinking it would be more suitable a finer ground, like fioretto, I tried to ground the bramata. A coarse polenta is trickier to manage in relation to the liquid needed. I felt I should have kept the mixture more runny, it was missing water...

Once I made a similar torta from Liguria called Baciocca, for which I used a very fine indian cornmeal, it came out so much nicer than this Barbotta.

Edited November 1, 2006 by Franci (log)

[Kevin72]

Your comments on Tuscan cooking are interesting, Franci, since I find both Tuscan and Pugliese cooking appealing for similar reasons: their straightforward, comforting, homey style.

Mike's post reminds me of yet another good book: the Florence cookbook from the Williams-Sonoma series on dining cities.

Edited November 1, 2006 by Kevin72 (log)

[divina]

Home sweet home... since 1984!

I will be here when things calm down a little! just got back from Salone del Gusto! and have a convivium here from Kansas City...

Dinner at solociccia tonight and then I am back to normal!

the weather right now is SOOOO warm still.

Had a fabulous grilled porcini for lunch today!!!

the new oil is out!!! and all is great in paradise.

Edited November 2, 2006 by divina (log)

[hathor]

Woo-hoo! Having Divina around this month will be a treat!!

I don't think I'll be able to concentrate until I have a bistecca florentine...I keep thinking about juicy red, bloody steak......

Nice soup Kevin! This should be a very fun month!

[JasonZ]

Guess what is on the "closeouts" list at Jessica's Biscuit, item 04729?

04729 La Mia Cucina Toscana :

A Tuscan Cooks in America

by Luongo, Pino

Published: October 2003

2004 James Beard Award Nominee for Photography

Price: $12.98

List: $40.00

You Save:

$27.02 (67%)

Pino Luongo has written a number of books on growing up in Tuscany.  I have A Tuscan In the Kitchen and enjoy it immensely, but all of the other books of his I’ve looked at have appeal as well.  As with many cookbooks I enjoy, he gives stories and histories at the start of his recipes, including an eye-opening account as a child of seeing a mushroom forager getting bit by a poisonous snake.  Without hesitation, the forager grabbed an axe and lopped off the fingers he was bitten on to prevent the poison from spreading! Another amusing trait is that he, in true Italian form, doesn’t give precise amounts: he merely lists the ingredients and lets the cook decide what proportions to add to make it taste right.

←

[Pontormo]

Franci, we won't pry, but I do hope that whatever caused your disdain for this region can be overcome.

While we're waiting for Divina to eat her marrow with Dario and sit down a spell, might I invite you to try this Tuscan salad?

Kevin mentioned how important beans and soups are in this region and Shaya photographed some gorgeous Tuscan kale in the thread about soups.

Something else I associate strongly with this part of Central Italy is the habit of eating little crostini while you're waiting for the kitchen of your favorite nearby bar to finish making that day's pasta at lunchtime. A good, strong chopped chicken liver spread is mandatory at this time of year, maybe a salty, garlicky spinach--chopped tomatoes with basil in the summer.

ETA: thanks for the info about the sale, JasonZ.

Edited November 2, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[FoodMan]

Guess what is on the "closeouts" list at Jessica's Biscuit, item 04729?

04729    La Mia Cucina Toscana :   

A Tuscan Cooks in America

by Luongo, Pino

Published: October 2003

2004 James Beard Award Nominee for Photography

Price: $12.98

List: $40.00

You Save:

$27.02 (67%)

Pino Luongo has written a number of books on growing up in Tuscany.  I have A Tuscan In the Kitchen and enjoy it immensely, but all of the other books of his I’ve looked at have appeal as well.  As with many cookbooks I enjoy, he gives stories and histories at the start of his recipes, including an eye-opening account as a child of seeing a mushroom forager getting bit by a poisonous snake.  Without hesitation, the forager grabbed an axe and lopped off the fingers he was bitten on to prevent the poison from spreading! Another amusing trait is that he, in true Italian form, doesn’t give precise amounts: he merely lists the ingredients and lets the cook decide what proportions to add to make it taste right.

←

←

Jason-

FYI, this is NOT the same book as "A Tuscan in the Kitchen". I've seen this one for sale at Half Price Books several times for under $10 but never bought it. You can say it is more of a modernized-Tuscan-inspired recipe collection. It looks very pretty and fancy, but I just was not too interested.

Thought you'd like to know before buying it...Anyone has this book and cares to comment?

[FoodMan]

A quick pasta dish to kick off Tuscany in my home. I did not follow any particular recipe, like Kevin Tuscan cooking is pretty intuitive to me..or at least what I think of as simple Tuscan. The dish consisted of a wide dried pasta (it had frilly edges...Ricciatelli or something like that) dressed with sauteed mushrooms, swiss chard, homemade Italian sausage, parmesan cheese and chili flakes. Tasted great, was ready in under 30 minutes and it seems Tuscan.

As I type a few loaves of saltless Tuscan bread are proofing...

[Kevin72]

Looking good, got your trademark chili blanket on the dish, I see!

I just remembered this morning that I wanted to do Tuscan saltless this weekend, and now I'm worried it's too late since I usually give the sponge a day to age.

[Pontormo]

I would rarely turn down a slice of fresh, homemade bread, but I would were it pane Toscana.

I'm all for the impulse that led Elie to sprinkle his pasta with chili flakes.

Fat, white beans with salt, pepper and a good olive oil, straight, yes, even if slightly scorched. Same with grilled porcini.

But saltless bread with unsalted butter and sicky-sweet preserves for breakfast? The butter is great, but give me fiocchi di mais, a banana, milk and a cereal bowl instead, please. Or go to the bar for a warm bombolino alla crema covered with sugar and filled with vanilla custard.

[divina]

In the saltless bread list...

when toasted of course with the new oil ( already out!) salted and a touch of black pepper, Fettunta or then topped with tuscan beans, zolifni from the val d'arno my all time favorite!... or really over cooked Tuscan Kale, cavolo nero... and some of it's cooking liquid.

same bread on the bottom of a soup bowl with Tuscan white beans on top... and their broth,Zuppa Lombada

and I must say... the saltless bread hold up for both the young and old... with Nutella for breakfast or merenda!

[Chufi]

I'm planning to make pappardelle alla (sulla?) lepre tomorrow. Recipes online seem to vary quite a bit. Does anyone have a good one? Oh, and should I serve with or without parmesan?