Tuscany - The Basics - Part 8

Tuscany - The Basics - Part 8 cont.

Tuscan cuisine

One of most important ingredient of Tuscan cooking is olive oil and it seems to appear in almost every dish. You will find it as a dressing for salads, drizzled over vegetables and even into soups and stews just before serving.

November is time when you need to pick the olives before are ripe. The oil that you get from the first pressing is called extra virgin and this is the purest and most alkaline. The subsequent pressings cause the quality of the oil to go down along with the taste.

The region around Florence has been one of the biggest influences on Tuscan cooking. One of the most famous is bistecca alla fiorentina, a thick T-bone steak grilled over charcoal. The meat for this dish comes from animals in the Valdichiana area south of Arezzo, and none should be more than two and a half years old.

One of the terms that have spread worldwide is “hunters’ dishes” cacciatore, these would normally be wild boar cinghiale and chicken pollo. The locals also seem to like arista, which is a roast pork loin stuffed with rosemary and garlic, and a pollo alla diavola, which is a flattened chicken marinated and then dressed with herbs before grilling.

Every major town has its specialities; this is a throwback to the days when the whole area was split into city states.

Pisa’s local specials include a black cabbage soup, eels cieche fried with garlic and sage, and torta coi bischeri; this a cake flavoured with nutmeg and made with rice, candied fruit, chocolate, raisins and pine nuts.

Siena specialities date back even further and including dried sausages salsicce secche and panforte di Siena; this is a cake with lots of spice and nuts. You will also come across arezzohas acquacotta, a soup made from fried onions, tomatoes and bread which has been mixed with egg and cheese.

Soups are a big part of the food experience in this area. One that most people will have come across is ribollita, a thick vegetable brew made from leftover beans which is where it gets its name “reboiled”. Pappa al pomodorois is another broth with bread, tomatoes and basil but is like a stew than a soup. Typically of the region is spinach and you find it served with everything; as a side vegetable, in omelettes, with poached eggs or fish, or even as a filling for pancakes crespoline.

Wild chestnuts are another tradition with recipes based on dried chestnuts and chestnut flour such as chestnut cake castagnaccio.
Sheep’s milk pecorino is used in a lot of cheese; the most famous is the oval marzolino which is often grated over meat dishes.

Continued in Part 9