Experience Tuscany

The Sienese cuisine, and that of nearby areas, is much characterized by the research of natural flavors and the addition of special spices. The frequent use of wild fennel, tarragon, salad herbs that grow wild in certain fields, spices that elsewhere are forgotten, are a sign of loyalty to the most deeply rooted traditions of ancient Tuscan food, which have always been the subject of particular attention in the Sienese land and deserve a special recognition. How to forget old recipes such as the tarragon sauce, the Migliacci made with pig blood, and the Cipollata recipe?
Ultimately, the cuisine of Siena can claim to be the true Tuscan cooking, one that has been enriched over the centuries without ever abandoning the deepest roots of each dish. The people of Siena is well aware and proud of such tradition.
Here you can recover this tradition too, learning the delicious Cipollata recipe!

Ingredients:
- One kilo of white onions
- 400 grams of pork ribs
- 200 grams of stale home-style bread (stale)
- 100 grams of extra virgin olive oil
- 50 grams of bacon
- 50 grams of fresh Tuscan sausage
- A stick of celery
- A clove of garlic
- A carrot
- Salt

Preparation:
Place the pork ribs in a pot, add the carrot cut in half, a piece of celery and half onion, then cover with a liter and a half of water. Season with salt and set the pot on the heat and cook until the meat comes off the the ribs. Strain the broth, strip the flesh off the ribs and put the meat on a separate plate. In the meantime the pork was cooking you should have chopped all the onions, and placed them in a large bowl, then kept under a thin but continuous stream of running water for 15 minutes. While the onions are washing, pour the oil in a saucepan, add the chopped bacon and the peeled and chopped sausage. Brown them for a few minutes then add the drained onions. Allow them to dry without a lid on, then pour two ladles of the broth you have prepared, cover and cook over moderate heat, occasionally adding more broth. After about an hour and a half of cooking, add the onions to the meat cut into small strips, then add the remaining broth and keep cooking for about 15 minutes. Get a soup bowl and cover the bottom with toasted bread slices rubbed with garlic (rub after toasting), then pour the Cipollata in over the bread. Let it rest for a few minutes before serving, to allow the bread to absorb the broth.

Cinestrata is a very old Tuscan recipe. The tradition reports its origins back during the Renaissance period. This recipe is actually most typical of the Chianti region, and is has been almost completely forgotten even by Tuscan people, which over time have neglected this quite particular but excellent soup. During the Renaissance it was used to refund vigor into the body of the ill ones, or to replenish the energies of the newly wedded couples after their first night together.
There are still few families that today continue the Cinestrata tradition preparing it with chicken broth, egg yolks, Vinsanto, sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon. The result is a yellow soup that reminds the color of a quite common Tuscan plant the Ginestra, or scotch broom.
If you feel like exporting this recipe from Chianti to your home, below is the recipe. You will find it peculiar but good, and especially reinvigorating!

Ingredients:
- 50 grams of butter
- 4 Eggs
- Half-cup of dry Marsala liquor or Vinsanto
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- 1 pint of chicken stock
- White sugar

Preparation:
Separate the white from the yolks of four fresh eggs and set the yolks in a bowl. Add the Marsala or Vinsanto and the cold chicken stock. Mix everything thoroughly adding a pinch of cinnamon powder. Then filter everything with a sifter letting it drop into a pan. Set the pan on heat, add the butter cut into small pieces and cook, stirring often, until the mixture has thickened a bit. Now pour it into broth cups and sprinkle the Cinestrata with a little sugar and nutmeg, then serve.

With Ashes Wednesday Carnival is over and Lent starts, the forty-day period that precedes Easter Sunday five weeks from tomorrow. There is a very Florentine biscuit that is prepared only during this period of the year, the Biscotti Quaresimali, or Lenten Biscuits. They are without doubt one of the most typical sweets in Florence during the Easter period.
Delicious chocolate cookies shaped to resemble the capitalized letters of the alphabet are prepared by the best bakeries and also sold in supermarkets only during this time of the year.
If you are looking for traditional flavors of the Florentine cuisine during Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, then you should stop in one of the several good artisanal bakeries of the city and experience the delicious Lenten Biscuits. By the way, children love them not only for the chocolate but because they are great to play with and eat! The best thing to do is try homemade biscuits, but grocery stores in the city carry Lenten biscuits made by small local businesses that keep the quality level high.
But of course if you are not going to be in Tuscany or anywhere near Florence during this time of the year you will need to prepare the biscuits at home, and if you like cooking here is the traditional recipe for the Florentine Lenten Biscuits.

Ingredients:
- 150 grams of white flour
- 2 egg whites
- 180 grams of powder icing sugar
- 30 grams unsweetened cocoa
- Orange peel

Preparation:
In a bowl, mix the sugar, flour and cocoa. Separate the egg whites from the yolk, and in another bowl whip until they have assumed a quite stiff consistency. Then mix the egg whites with the mixture of sugar, cocoa and flour until you get a creamy and not too solid dough. Now add the orange rind that you have previously grated. Be careful not to grate the white part but the orange peel only.
Grab your pastry bag (if you do not have one you will have to get it) and start shaping the dough into alphabet letters straight on the baking pan. Set a baking sheet on the pan first for best results. Heat the oven at 150 Celsius then set in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Your Lenten Biscuits are ready!

A classic Tuscan recipe combining all the simplicity of the Tuscany cooking with a delicate taste and a hearty dish, excellent during these cold winter days. Just imagine coming home from a chilly, or even storming day to find a deliciously hot farinata cooking on the stove. Just the thought of it makes the image of a snowy winter seem more agreeable and welcomed. It is also a very inexpensive dish as the most pricey ingredient may be the pork rind and lard, actually not expensive at all! The pork meat and lard could also be bypassed and this recipe would become 100% vegan. You could substitute the lard with some butter to get a vegetarian recipe.

Ingredients:
- 500 grams of yellow corn flour
- 500 grams of fresh beans
- 50 grams of lard
- a small kale
- two-or three potatoes
- garlic
- fennel seeds
- onions
- celery
- parsley
- carrot
- some pork-rind
- salt

Preparation:
Pop the beans and drop them into a saucepan, pour over two and a half liters of water, season with salt, add some pork rind and cook on medium high. Chop the lard with a small onion, some celery, a carrot, a small bunch of parsley and a clove of garlic (some omit the garlic and add basil or rosemary) and stir fry it in a skillet. When the vegetables are sauted add the cooked beans and their liquid (without the rind). Cut the cabbage into strips, the potatoes into small pieces and a pinch of crushed fennel seeds. When the vegetables are cooked and you have approximately one hour of time before your meal, shower in the boiling soup the cornmeal and cook for 40 minutes stirring constantly. The result will be a kind of polenta soup that can be eaten hot or warm. If you let it cool down completely it can be cut into slices and fried into a lot of oil or some lard, eaten hot.
Variations: There are some optional variations you may want to try. sSome prepare the Farinata leaving it quite liquid, serving it hot with fried croutons. Many use turkey broth, others omit the garlic and add the rosemary or basil. You make the choice, as this is a traditional recipe and the many local variations make all the more interesting to experiment and try the best for you.

Gnocchi is an Italian word that indicates a lump of fresh pasta ready to be cooked and tasted right away. There are many a way to make each kind of gnocchi, and there are many kinds, prepared with a quite varying range of ingredients. Of course, here you will find the recipe of gnocchi with potatoes the way they are prepared in Tuscany.
The recipe is extremely easy humble, but you need to follow quite several little tricks during the preparation for the dish to result tasty and soft.
This recipe is made with potatoes, white flour, and salt. Nothing more! The very first tip is on the kind of potatoes to use. Always try to use the most common potatoes, the yellow ones. They are sweeter and firmer than other kinds while gnocchi are cooking. Feel free to experiment though! The next tip is to steam cook the potatoes, not to boil them. This will increase their water content by a minimum, as opposed to boiling them. Do not puncture their peel with a fork before cooking, do not overcook them. The fork needs to stick in nicely but the potato has to remain firm. Another tip is to peel them after cooking. Other tips are mentioned in the preparation bit.

Ingredients for 4 people:

- 800 grams of potatoes
- 250 grams of white flour
- salt to taste
- two cups of semolina flour (optional)

Preparation:
Steam cook the potatoes, peel them while hot, then let them cool down naturally. You may cook and peel them the previous day if you wish. Now you have to mash the potatoes. You may use a potato masher, a food processor, or a food mill. The latter is better as it produces fluffier mashed potatoes. Now prepare a clean working surface where you will knead the potatoes with the flour. Set the mashed potatoes on the surface and start adding the flour a little at a time, always using a soft touch to mix them together. Salt to taste. Keep adding flour until it is over, then set to rest for half hour. Now it is time to prepare the gnocchi!
With a knife cut a fist size portion of dough, then set it on the previously flour dusted working table and start rolling it into a long string about half inch in diameter. You may decide the size of your gnocchi by the thickness of your dough string. Make it as homogeneous as possible, then start chopping away bite size pieces of dough (about one inch). Grab a largetray or several medium ones, and dust them with the semolina flour or the regular white flour. Gently set the cut gnocchi on taking care that they never touch one another to prevent sticking together. Distribute one layer only and dust over with a light dusting of semolina. Continue until the dough is over.
Now fill a pan with 4 liters of water (a gallon), better if a tall and not to large one. Add salt to taste and when it is at a rolling boil drop in the gnocchi a few at a time (about twenty to twenty five). They are cooked once they come to the surface. Use a small colander or a perforated scoop to remove the cooked gnocchi and set them in a bowl with meat sauce or butter and grated Parmesan cheese. Repeat until you run out of raw gnocchi.

A very typical Tuscan winter recipe!

Ingredients for two people:
- 2 pork chops
- 200 grams of tomato pulp
- 40 grams of dried mushrooms
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- half liter of red wine
- 2 cloves
- 2 juniper berries
- 1 tps of pink and black pepper
- 1 clove of garlic
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Prepare the marinade the night before to flavor the meat. Use a glass container where the meat will result completely covered by the wine. Arrange the spices and the meat alternating layers, then cover with red wine. Seal with cover or plastic film then set to rest in the refrigerator overnight. The following day soak the mushrooms in warm water, then wash and chop the onion and carrot and set them in a large pan with oil to stir fry them over low heat. Now remove the pork chops from the marinade then drain them and beat the meat to soften it. Set the pork chops in the pan with the onion and carrot and brown on both sides to close the meat pores and prevent the juices to come out while cooking. Now add the tomato pulp and mix in, then add the filtered marinade. Cover and cook over very low heat for a couple of hours, turning the meat a couple of times. When the sauce has thickened, add the dried mushrooms and cook for another ten minutes. Season with salt and serve hot with a side dish of polenta (corn meal) with beans.

Polenta with Beans Recipe

- 500 grams of corn meal
- 1 pinch of salt
- 5 liters of water
- 300 grams of cooked beans
- one glass of milk

In a large pot, preferably of copper, boil the water. The doses are important, to determine the consistency of polenta. As soon as the water boils, add the salt and wait until it returns to a rolling boil. Add the corn meal vigorously beating the water with a large whisk to avoid lumps, then continue to stir, first with the whisk, then with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes until the water stops splashing. Now you only need patience and a good cooking glove to stir always in the same direction at a steady pace for another 45 minutes. The right consistency will be reached once you see that a small crust of corn meal forms on the rim of the pot and polenta tends to fall detach from the sides. 10 minutes before the end of cooking add the cooked and drained kidney beans, stirring gently. Softened the polenta with hot milk, where you have previously dissolved the salt and serve. A tip for cleaning the pan easily is to put set it below a stream of very cold water as soon as you are done emptying it. The thermal shock will detach the polenta crusts immediately.

They have gained wide fame as one of the most typical Tuscan dessert. Most often accompanied by Vin Santo, Cantuccini, also called Biscuits of Prato, are a traditional ending to a Tuscan dinner or lunch.
Golden, quite hard to the bite, incredibly tasty and rich of almonds that give them a delicious consistency. Many people often dunk Cantuccini in Vin Santo to combine the two flavors and soften the biscuit to the bite, but this totally spoils the many years of work and dedication that go into creating a great Vin Santo, therefore the advice is to sip it along a bite of Cantuccini without dunking.
While Vin Santo is quite hard to accomplish at home, Cantuccini is an extremely easy recipe to make. Creating a batch of these typical Tuscan biscuits will give you a long lasting supply of them. Cantuccini are indeed very dry, therefore will last in your cookie jar for quite a long time, even months!

Ingredients:
- 500 gr di farina 00;
- 500 gr di zucchero;
- 250 gr di mandorle sgusciate;
- 3 uova intere;
- 2 rossi d’uovo;
- 1 bustina di lievito;
- sale

Preparation:

Place the flour on the table and shape it like a volcano. In the well you formed set the the sugar, 2 whole eggs, 2 yolks, the yeast and a pinch of salt. Mix all the ingredients together then knead for a while, then add the slightly oven-toasted almonds without removing the peel, then continue to knead thoroughly.
Shape the dough into long loaves, three fingers wide and one finger thick at the center. Set them in a baking pan that you have previously buttered and dusted with flour. Set them at sufficient distance from one another, otherwise while raising they will stick to one another. Beat an egg and brush them with it. Now Bake at 175 degrees Celsius for about 20 to 25 minutes.
Once they are cooked, remove them from the oven and cut them diagonally, so to get cookies of about half an inch in thickness. Let cool then serve with your best Vin Santo.

This is a quick version of the fried rice dough frittelle. You will need much less time and the result can be just as satisfying. The main difference is that instead of rice here there is regular flour, with an addition of pine nuts and apple pulp. The result is a somewhat stiffer dough than rice frittelle, therefore it is better to eat these when they are still quite hot, accompanied by a good Vin Santo.

Ingredients for 6 people:
- 100 grams of flour
- 30 grams of backing powder
- Milk
- 3 apples
- 2 eggs
- 50 grams of raisins
- 25 grams of pine nuts
- Powdered vanilla sugar

Preparation:
Shape 40 grams of flour like a volcano and put inside the yeast with few tablespoons of warm milk. Mix well until the dough is smooth and then let it rise for 20 minutes in a warm place. Meanwhile, mix the remaining flour with the 2 egg yolks, the grated apples, raisins, pine nuts, a tablespoon of powder sugar and the raised dough. Mix everything in well and then pour spoonfuls of the mixture into a pan filled for three quarters with hot oil. When the frittelle become puffy and golden remove them from heat and drain them on a tray with paper towels, then dust with powdered vanilla sugar.

Carnival in Tuscany is very much celebrated through special carnival recipes that are prepared at home or that are easily found in shops, grocery stores, bakeries, street kiosks and restaurants. We have already seen the Cenci recipe and a variation of the same recipe. This article is going to be on Frittelle, or fried rice dough, a superb delicacy you won’t be able to stop eating. Like cherries, they tend to be eaten one after the other. A triumph for your tongue, and maybe a little less grand for your calories intake; but you can always sacrifice that pasta dish to balance out, it’s worth it. Try it yourself!

Ingredients:
- 150 grams of originario rice (or any long grain rice)
- Half liter of whole milk
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons of flour
- A small piece of lemon peel
- 1 whole peeled lemon zest
- 30 grams of butter
- 50 grams of raisins
- 1 tablespoon of Vin Santo (brandy or rum are also fine)
- 8 grams of baking powder
- Salt
- Frying oil
- Powdered vanilla sugar

Preparation:
Cook the rice in the boiling milk adding a glass of water, the sugar, the butter, and a piece of lemon peel, not forgetting a pinch of salt. Continue to cook simmering until all the liquid has been absorbed, then allow to cool down at room temperature. When the rice is cool enough, mix it with the flour, the egg yolks, the grated lemon peel, the yeast, the raisins, and the Vin Santo. Mix everything well without pureeing the cooked rice, which should preserve some integrity. Let cool for one hour. Meanwhile, separate the egg yolks from the whites, then beat up the whites untill they are quite firm and add them to the cooled rice. Prepare a frying pan with abundant oil, filling the pan for 3/4, then when the oil is very hot, use a teaspoon to gather a small amount of dough and quickly throw it in the pan in fast sequence. Fry until they are brown. Serve hot on a paper towel sprinkled with powdered vanilla sugar.

Carnival is a period of dancing and parties, and what is a party without pastries and cakes?
Do you remember the Cenci (also know as Frappe, Stracci, and so on) recipe? This one is a variation that uses chickpeas flour to give a sweeter and more protein-rich twist to these carnival pastries.

Ingredients:
- 250 grams of white flour
- 100 grams of chickpea flour
- 80 grams of powdered vanilla sugar and a little more for sprinkling
- 20 grams of butter
- 6 yolks
- Vanillin
- Orange peel
- Anisette
- Oil for frying
- Salt

Preparation:
Mix the flour on a pastry board with the chick pea four, add a pinch of salt, and the 80 grams of powdered sugar, the egg yolks, the softened butter (just leave it at room temperature for a while), a packet of vanillin, the grated orange peel., 20 grams of water and 2 tablespoons of anisette.
Start kneading the dough as you would for making pasta noodles, then set to rest for about 30 minutes. Now you can use the pin roll to flatten it in a thin sheet, or it may be easier for you to use a pasta making machine. Once you have the flattened out sheets of dough, cut many diamond-shaped pieces of dough (measure approximately 5 centimeters or 2 inches per side) and set to rest with a thin layer of flour to avoid them sticking together.
Now get a large frying pan and fill half of it with frying oil. When the oil is boiling hot, set the diamonds in it in batches. Remove from the oil when they are golden and set to rest on paper towel to absorb the excess oil. Sprinkle with powder sugar and serve, hot or cold!