Aolmaia Tuscany cuisine recipes

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Specialities of Tuscany Cuisine
A vacation in Tuscany usually starts by enjoying its gorgeous landscape and certainly ends up eating at a table. A great love for good food is the 'DNA character' of the local people also because there is such a wide range of typical dishes to choose from. The basic ingredients besides good olive oil are other products of the earth such as cabbage, beans and other vegetables which along with bread make up ribollita, delicious if seasoned with chopped onion. Hardened bread is also the main ingredient to prepare pappa col pomodoro which also requires tomatoes (typical ribbed kind) and herbs. Bread is again the basic ingredient of panzanella (see recipe), a fine substitute for pasta in summer. Dark cabbage soup, instead, is more suitable as a winter first course.
Empolese-Valdelsa, around San MIniato, is a game land, so no-one should leave it without tasting a game dish. There are so many of them and sometimes the same game is prepared in different ways from one town to another. Particularly appreciated in the Certaldo area is the woodcock cooked in a strong and sweet sauce, that is, with spices and chocolate. In Montaione there are restaurants which serve fagiano alla montaionese (pheasant in the Montaione mode). Hare and wildboar meat makes tasty dishes cooked such as stew with olives in which the pappardelle pasta is cooked: a real treat! The presence of a marsh nearFuchecchio makes it possible to offer typical game and fish dishes. In summer try ranocchio fritto (fried frogs) and chiocciole in umido (stewed snails). More difficolt to find in restaurants is risotto con le tinche (rice with tench, see recipe). Then we should talk of the uncomparable cold cuts of different salted pork products typical of this area: prosciutto (more salty than the "parma" one), mallegato (pancake made with pig's blood and enriched with raisins), wild boar sausages, finocchiona (a fennel flavored salame) and soppressata (a wonderful big salame made with the head meat of pork). Among the vegetables zolfino beans are a special treat almost impossible to find which is now being re-introduced by local restaurants, either boiled, with pasta or as a cream. Among the 303 traditional products recorded by Arsia (Regional Department for Agricultural Development and Research) there are the artichokes from Empoli and San Miniato, famous for being tender and compact and for not having thorns. As for desserts, there are delicious biscuits such as the cantuccini made especially to be dipped into the vin santo and many others baked on different occasions of the year: the zuccherini which one may taste in Fucecchio at the Carnival, the schiacciata di Pasqua, an Easter cake typical of the whole area and castagnaccio, a pie made with chestnut flour and pinenuts, very popular in autumn.
....We have forgotten to talk of the fish cuisine of the coast, that is another interesting story... and about... and also of... too much to say. Come over and enjoy your meals!

SAFFRON

Penne Primavera with Saffron

Spring first course of pasta with vegetables in season (for 4 persons) - time: 35 minutes

350 gr of pasta (penne or tagliolini) 6 leeks
6 zucchine
2 table-sp of mascarpone
1 gr. of saffron
2 table-sp of hot milk
3 table-sp of olive oil
grated parmigiano cheese

Wither the sliced leeks in a pan with olive oil, add the zucchini cutted in cubes and cook for 12-15 minutes, then add the mascarpone and the saffron melted in hot milk. In the meantime cook the pasta in plenty of salted water. Strain the pasta, add the vegetable sauce, sprinkle some grated parmigiano and serve at once.

FISH

Baccalà alla livornese

Ingredients: 1 kg baccalà, oil, parsley, garlic, tomatoes, flour, salt and pepper. "Baccalà" is codfish preserved in salt. It must be kept in water for at least 12 hours, changing the water several times, before cooking it. Cut it in medium size pieces, dry them with paper, roll them in flour, fry in plenty of oil. Make the sauce: brown minced garlic and parsley for a minute in a pan, add tomatoes salt and pepper. Now put the fried baccalà in a casserole, cover it with the sauce, put in oven at 180° C for 40 minutes.

Zuppa di "pesce dimenticato"

Ingridients:
2 kg of fish, chosen among the varieties that a Mediterranean fisherman does not sell. You can choose the good but not commercial fish that is in your sea/river, better to mix 4 or 5 different varieties.
300 gr potatoes, peeled tomatoes, garlic, basel, cellery, carot, onion, asparagus, cauliflower, swiss chard, sage, zucchini, red pepper, olive oil, white wine, red wine, salt.

1) Gut all the fish.
2) Make the broth: fry garlic, carot, cellery, add half a glass of white wine and let it evaporate. Put the heads, bones and tails of fishes, fill the pan with water and simmer.
3) Mix the vegetables in a mixer.
4) Put garlic and fish in hot oil to white the fish, then add one glass of red wine and let it evaporate. Fill up half of the saucepan with the filtered broth. Take it to boil and add the mixed vegetables, plus red pepper and salt. Boil on low flame for 2 hours, adding broth when necessary, to obtain a slithly thick soup. Serve with a trickle of extravergine olive oil.

TRADITIONAL

Panzanella

It's a classic first course of Tuscany tradition. Nowadays is mostly served as antipasto or salad. It is fit for improvisation as long as you have good stale bread and fresh vegetables.

Ingredients:
500 gr of stale bread (three days old)
two onions
one cucumber
four tomatoes
basil oil, salt, pepper, vinegar.

Break the stale bread in big pieces and put it in fresh water for few minutes. Then squeeze it and crumble it. Chop up onions, tomatoes, peeled cucumber and basil. Add to the bread and dress with abundant olive oil, salt and pepper. Put in the fridge. Add vinegar just before serving.

Crostini traditional antipasto.

Ingredients:
300 gr of chiken liver
100 gr of minced beef
half Tuscan pork sausage
one anchovie fillet
five capers
half onion
one clove of garlic
1/2 of a carot
celery and parsil
one cup of broth
salt and pepper
olive oil
slices of homemade bread

Preparation: finely chop up the onion with the garlic, the carot, the celery, the persil and the capers. Cover the bottom of a saucepan with olive oil e put the chopped herbs to brown on a small flame. When the onion starts to brown, add some of the broth and let it evaporate. Wash and dry the chiken livers then put them to cook with the herbs together with the minced beef and the sausage, for some minutes, then add the rest of the broth. Let everything cook for 15 minutes then add the chopped up anchovie and cook slowly other five minutes. When it's done, beat everything and spread it warm on the slightly toasted bread slices.

Pappa al Pomodoro

Bread and Tomato Soup. (serves 4 - 6) This is an extremely thick soup. You can add more water to make the dish soupier if you like.

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 leek, white part only, washed well and chopped
1/4 cup chopped red onion
6 gloves garlic
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup fresh basil cut into strips
1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, peeled, chopped and seeded (if you have time)
1/2 cups ofwater
1/2 cups of cubed day-old bread
Salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiani-Reggiano cheese

Place 1/2 cup of the olive oil, the leek, onion, and garlic in a large pot and heat over medium. When the mixture starts to color, after 6 to 7 minutes, add the wine, and let it reduce completely, about 5 minutes. Reduce the beat to low and capp 1/4 cup of the basil, the tomatoes, and the water. Cook for 15 minutes. Add the bread, and stir occasionally for 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper, and cook for another 10 minutes. Then add the remaining 1/4 cup of basil, and cook for a final 10 minutes. The soup is ready. It will be very thick. Pour it into indiidual bowls and top each srving with a tablespoon of the remaining olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the cheese.

Bruschetta traditional snack

Ingredients:
Tuscany big loaf bread *
garlic
ripe tomatoes
oregano and fresh basil
salt and pepper
extravergine olive oil

Toast or barbecue the slices of bread, rub garlic over them. Chop up tomatoes, mix with oregano, salt and olive oil in a bowl. Spread on toasted bread. Pour some extra oil on top and grind some peppe rto taste. Top with basil leaves.
*Please note that Tuscan bread is baked without salt.

ETRUSCAN

Lepre all'etrusca

Hare with herbs Etruscan style. To soften the taste of wild, leave the hare meat deeped in 1/2 of water and 1/2 of vinegar with salt and several leaves of lauril for one night.

Ingredients
- hare meat, cut into pieces
- thyme or pepolino, terragon
- sage, 4 leaves
- rosemary 1 bunch
- parsley 1 bunch
- 2 carrots grated
- 2 onions finely chopped
- bacon cut into thin strips
- 1 stockcube per 1 litre of water
- 1 small packet of pinenuts
- 1 glass white wine
- salt and pepper
- olive oil

1) Pour enough olive oil in a casserole dish to cover the bottom well
2) Heat over medium heat
3) Fry bacon until golden
4) Add onion and fry
5) Add rabbit and brown over a medium-high heat
6) Add salt and pepper to taste
7) Cook until golden and add a glass of white wine, cook 2 minutes
8) Then add grated carrots, pine-seeds, herbs
9) Stir and cover. Simmer for 45 minutes, check occasionally and add some water if needed.

Cinghiale all'etrusca

The wild boar was the favorite meat in the Etruscan cuisine. Most of the territory was covered by woods where the boars were numerous and the Etruscans hunted them with the help of ferocious dogs- probably Assyrian mastiffs.
To soften the taste of wild, leave theboar meat deeped in 1/2 of water and 1/2 of red wine with salt for one night.

Ingredients:
boar loin
garlic
rosmary
cellery
carots
sage
onions
red pepper

Rinse the meat in water and vinegar, cut it in little pieces. Chop up the vegetables. Put everything in a pan with olive oil and cook slowly (about 40 minutes) adding red wine when needed. Add tomatoes, mustard, salt to taste and a drop of vinegar and cook 20 minutes more.

RENAISSANCE

Faraona alla prugna

Ingredients:
A boned guinea-fowl
Pitted prunes
Sliced red onions
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Mixed spice Consume String

Open the guinea-fowl like a book (or butterfly)
Stuff with prunes and sprinkle seasonings and spice over the prunes
Roll up and tie the fowl up in string
Put in a casserole dish with lots of onions, prunes and lots of olive oil and brown over the heat
Add consume little by little but not too much at one time, enough to cook in but not enough to cover
Cook over low heat for one hour
When consume is thick, pour into a sauce
This was served on a plate with a flower made from tomato skin in the center and the sauce was poured around the slices of "faraona" with prunes for decoration.

Insalata Reale

Ingredients:
1 large porcini mushroom
Apple
Pear
3 Chestnuts
Pinenuts
Walnuts
Pomegranate
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Don't wash the porcini as they fall apart, clean them with a damp cloth and slice thinly onto a plate (or how you like) so that the two colours are exposed
Then cut in slices of the apple, pear and parmesan over the porcini
Roughly chop the chestnuts and walnuts and add to the salad
Add the pinenuts and pomegranate
Pour the olive oil over, enough to coat
Gently toss and leave for an hour or so, to let the oil infuse into the ingredients
Decorate on a plate with walnuts and pomegranate

MYTHS

Cacciucco alla livornese by fisherman Ignazio

Ingredients for 6 pax:
300 gr gurnard ( broth fish, gallinella)
900 gr octopus (polpo)
750 gr cuttlefish (seppia)
600 gr tattler (totano)
6 prawns (scampi) 400 gr smooth hound (palombo)
6 big shrimps (gamberi)
300 gr clams
300 gr mussels (cozze)

Make the broth: boile the gurnard with carots, sellery onion and salt, then pass it in a vegetable mill. In a big casserole brown in oil plenty of garlic, parsley and hot pepper. Add octopus, cuttlefish, tattlers and clams and cook for 20 minutes (adding the fish broth when necessary Add some tomatoes and srimps, mussels, prawns, cook for other10 minutes. Serve with bread slices.

Cacciucco alla viareggina by chef Amelio Fantoni

Time: 30 minuts
The fishes mentioned in the recipe are local kinds of the Versilia sea of which we don't have a translation in English. So, as we have said, try with what you have or come over here to taste them.

Ingridients for 4 persons:
500 gr octupus
400 gr cuttlefish
300 gr cicale
1 pottino of150 gr
2 aluzzi of 200 gr
2 sugarelli of 150 gr
also 1 serra, 1 gallinella, ...
4 table-sp of olio etravergine di oliva
4 cloves of garlic
3 table-sp tomato paste
bread
salt and red pepper

First gut the fish and cut it in pieces. Cook everything in a little of water with garlic, tomatoe paste, red pepper and salt. Not more then 30 minutes. Serve over toasted slices of bread (Tuscan bread, baked with no salt at woodfire) with a generous trickle of olive oil.

Cacciucco is a very famous dish original of Livorno, now a big town on the Tuscan Sea. Etymologically speaking the name Cacciucco comes from the Turkish "Kuçuk" that means bits and pieces. Caciucco has a simple foundamental rule : use a variety of "pour fish", some of them with fish bones. Livorno's fishermen, as generally all fishermen, used to go fishing in the night and they were coming back early in the morning . Each variety of fished was exposed on the benches of the port and was sold directly to the consumers . The less valuable kinds of fishes that people didn't buy, were rinsed in the sea water and taken home by the fisherman to prepare the soup for his family.
So, on one side you would be able to make a real Caciucco only with the seafood of the Tuscany sea. On the other side you could make a good fish soup in the Cacciucco spirit using any fresh poor fish and seafood of your own sea.
Now, we can find many slightly different variations of the recipe, all along the Tuscany coast. Following are the recipes of the two main versions, one from Livorno and the other one from Viareggio. They are still arguing about which is the best and periodically they organize contests.

Direzione tecnica e commercializzazione di

Rocca Viaggi & servizi snc, San Miniato Basso, Pisa, Italy