The Foods of Tuscany

Being that today is Thanksgiving and a day of food and feasting in the United States, I thought it appropriate to discuss the foods of this area in Tuscany.  In Italy, each area has its own unique specialties and dishes, primarily at a regional level based on the availability of good local ingredients.   Tuscan cooking is a cuisine that is based almost solely on local and seasonal ingredients. It is also reflects their frugality or perhaps better said would be their resourcefulness.  Therefore, stores and markets will only sell certain produce and ingredients when they are available during those particular seasons.  Yes, I can get bananas that come from Ecuador in my market but they are expensive. Priority in Tuscany (and really, all of Italy) is placed on using only the freshest produce. 

Tuscan cooking is basic, simple, and “unfussy”, without the heavy sauces found in other regions. Dishes are generally rustic and down-to-earth fare and the number of ingredients used to create a dish is relatively few but always the freshest!  The outcome is something that is truly wonderful, delicious and healthful.  Thrifty Italian cooks will use leftover Tuscan bread in a number of recipes such as Ribollita or Panzanella.  Many dishes are prepared only when their ingredients make their annual appearance.  For example, now that it is Fall/Winter, you will see lots of wild game meat: Cinghiale (Wild boar), pheasant, duck, rabbit and venison in the markets or in restaurants.  The black truffle and porcini mushrooms are in season (Oct/Nov) and many of the local restaurants have them featured on their menus as well.  They will show up in various pasta dishes such as tagliatelle with a porcini ragu or ravioli with shaved truffles.  They are also used regularly in the “secondi” or meat dishes.  There are a few restaurants here that serve an absolutely incredible “Porcini Fritte” or fried porcinis.  It is also Chestnut season, so they too, are highlighted everywhere; Boiled, roasted, in desserts, as polenta, etc.  It is the best of fall! 

In lieu of butter, Tuscans use olive oil generously for cooking and flavoring.  You will not find anything but vinegar and olive oil to dress your salad. No gloppy Ranch or Blue Cheese dressing here.   Without a doubt, Tuscan olive oils are highly prized and delicious.  We are now in the middle of olive picking and pressing season (late November) and one can find the “Newly Pressed” olive oils showing up in the markets.

Cooking with the seasons is a way of life for the people in Tuscany.  For example, when I drive and look around the countryside lately, I see some of the key ingredients used right now in their local cooking: olive groves, hillsides of chestnut trees, people emerging from forests with baskets overflowing with porcinis and other mushrooms, rows of grape vines, and sheep or Chianina beef in fields.  In the gardens, I see fennel, cardoons, black cabbage, and broccoli rapi, as well as persimmon and pear trees.  Every house seems to have fragrant rosemary and sage bushes as a matter of course.

Here are is moderate listing of some of the most important or most prominent ingredients or dishes you will find in this region:

• Cinghiale – Wild Boar
• Rabbit
• Veal
• Chianina beef
• Cinta Senese pig
• Pecorino cheeses
• Tuscan unsalted bread
• Farro – an ancient grain used like rice or in soups
• Black Cabbage
• Cannellini Beans
• Fennel
• Chestnuts
• Porcini
• Tartufi – truffles

Most restaurants’ menus in this area are also dictated by the seasonal fare and many simply have verbal menus of their daily offerings with only 3 or 4 choices.  They base their cooking on what they could get that day and what is fresh.  But those have been some of the best meals I have had. Here is a sample of what you mind find on a menu in my area:

Tuscan antipasti include:

• Crostini (toasted bread topped with chicken liver spread or pomodoro)
• Salumi ( cured pork meats such as prosciutto, capocollo or coppa and salame).
• Pecorino Cheese – made from sheep’s milk

Primi – The first course features hearty soups or pasta:

Three popular bread-thickend zuppe:

• Ribollita – translates to “reboiled.” A slowly cooked soup that consists primarily of stale bread, cabbage, and Tuscan white beans.
• Pappa al pomodoro – A soup made from stale bread and tomatoes
• Acquacotto -“cooked water” – Again a soup using stale bread and vegetables
• Tortellini in Brodo (Tortellini in broth)

Pastas popular here are:

• Pasta con ragu, porcini, or truffles

Secondi – Main courses include:

• Grilled meats cooked in a wood-fire oven
• Pork in many variations.  This is really the staple of meats in this region
• Game – Wild Boar or Cinghiale is featured now on menus and often in stews or ragus with pasta
• Rabbit – Roasted or stewed
• Veal – Tagliata of Vitello served with either Juniper berries or Rosemary and Olive Oil
• Occasionally Lamb and on Fridays, Fish. 
• Beef- Bistecca Fiorentina is the Tuscan T-Bone steak generally made from Chianina beef.  It is cooked over coals and flavored with only olive oil, salt, and pepper served on the rare side.

Many of these meats might be served with shaved truffle or a porcini ragu at this time since it is fall.  It is rare to see chicken on the menu. 

Contorni/Vedure:

• Salad
• Potatoes – fried or roasted
• Spinach or other sautéed green that is in season
• Cannellini Beans
• Artichokes
• Fried Porcinis

Dolce – Deserts are simple:

• Cantucci biscuits with Vin Santo is a classic
• Various Tortes/cakes – pine nut, chestnut, hazelnut
• Panna Cotta
• Gelato/Affogato
• Tiramisu
• Fresh fruits or nuts

Many of the artisan food producers of Tuscany still use traditional, methods of production. The quality of these foods is set well apart from the mass-produced commercial equivalents. There are several movements here to promote and protect these local foods, culinary traditions and some of the ancient ingredients:  “Antichi Sapori di Toscana” (which translates to the Antique flavors or tastes of Tuscany) and “Slow Food” as well as the “Ark of Tastes”.    The aim of the Slow Food Ark of Taste is, as they put it : “to rediscover, catalogue, describe and promote these almost forgotten flavors, including certain recipes and cooking techniques that are in danger of slipping away”.

Tuscan cuisine is unpretentious, humble and uses straightforward ingredients including leftovers. Tuscan cuisine expresses modesty, wisdom and inherent good taste.