Tuscany - The Basics - Part 7

Tuscany - The Basics - Part 7 cont.

Fresh takeaway food

There are options for takeaway food but not as many as you might find in the UK. You can find slices of pizza pizza al taglioor, pizza rustica just about everywhere, however you buy it by weight, an etto is 100g. You can get pasta, chips and even hot meals in a tavola calda. This is a type of snack bar and is at its best mid-morning to early afternoon when the major cooking has been freshly done. They offer things like rosti cceriais / spit-roasted chicken, alongside fast food like chips and burgers.
Deep pan is not a pizza option in most places as the only way you get your pizza is thin and flat. Many are cooked in the traditional way in a wood fired oven forno a legna. Pizzerias range from stand-up counters selling slices al taglio to a full sit down restaurants.

There are lots of other places to find takeaway but the local markets often have some good and/or local options. This would include focacce which is an oven baked pastry topped with cheese or tomato and then filled with spinach or meat. You could also try an arancinior supplì which is deep fried balls of rice filled with meat / rosso or butter and cheese bianco.

Restaurants

A traditionally Tuscan restaurant meal can be a pretty long process, which if you are on holiday is not a bad thing. After you have started with an antipasto, enjoyed a risotto or a pasta primo, you might just be ready for the fish or meat secondo. Then follow this with cheese, fresh fruit and coffee and you can see where the day has gone. Modern cooking styles have made their way into expensive restaurants, but at most of the local places things have not changes for years or even decades. If you’re booking remember lunch is pranzo, dinner is cena.

Restaurants are normally called either trattoria or ristorante. The distinction between these terms is one that has grown locally, a trattoria is often cheaper and has a more basic or rustic style of cooking cucina casalinga, while a ristorante is more like a standard restaurant you would find in any city worldwide. As with all things there are always exceptions and a few expensive restaurants have decided to call themselves a trattoria. It tends to be in the larger cities that this happens; in more rural areas you will find the older style original trattoria. Here you might easily find no written menu and the owner/waiter will just tell you what’s available at the time. They might have bottled wine but more commonly it will come from the vats at the local vineyard.

A ristorante will always have a written menu and a choice of bottled wines. However it’s worth remembering that you are near a lot of good vineyards, so the ordinary house wine is often very good. In popular tourist towns such as Florence some restaurants, especially in popular locations, only serve full meals at lunchtime.

Continued in Part 8