Before I was born, my parents bought a vacation home in Tuscany and from then on I've spent most of my vacations in Tuscany, included the most happy summers of my childood. Tuscany is one of the most beautiful regions in the world, with breathtaking landscapes (Chianti, Val d'Orcia...), amazing towns (Florence, Lucca, Siena...), some of the most beautiful art ever made (the Renaissance, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli, Pontormo, Piero della Francesca...), but Tuscany, for me, is also what Combrai was for Marcel Proust, an evocative place of lost memories, the place to which I periodically feel the call to return, the place where I find peace of mind, where my eyes find gratification, my ears find silence.
I mentioned Proust not only because he is the writer who became immortal by addressing the theme of memory, but also because no one like him has told the link between taste and memory.
And just as the contact of the petite madeleine with the palate, releasing its flavors, unleashed the memories and sensations of childhood places in Proust, for me even today, after 50 years, the taste of Tuscan bread with fresh sausage, ribollita, cacciucco or cantuccini are very powerful sensations that immediately evoke tangible visual memories of my summers as a small introvert spent on the beaches of the Maremma among juniper, pine and strawberry trees.
If the wine tradition of Tuscany, which is famous in the world for its wines and labels (Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Sassicaia, Ornellaia, Guado al Tasso, Rosso di Montepulciano, Nobile di Montepulciano ...) dates back to the times of the Etruscans, it was in the Middle Ages that Tuscan cuisine as we know it today had its origins. The tuscan cuisine is traditionally hearty and made with simple ingredients – ones easily found in the countryside – with bread, beans and roasted meats serving as the base of most traditional Tuscan meals.
Tuscany has two souls (not too distinct from each other): the rich and bourgeois, a little snobbish, heir to the great families that once dominated the world with art, culture and commerce and the rural, sanguine and rude one, of the butteri riding horses in Maremma, the Livorno port workers and the stonecutters of Massa Carrara. Although it is said that Tuscan cuisine is the progenitor of refined French cuisine (which would have had its origins when Caterina de 'Medici moved to France with her cooks following her) it is the peasant soul that dominates in the Tuscan culinary tradition .
Start your meal with an antipasto (appetizer) of cured sliced meats or affettati misti or try something more particular and order crostini di fegato, thin slices of lightly toasted bread spread with a chicken liver pate.
Tuscan cured meats are generally very spicy and tasty; Tuscan ham, for example, compared to the more famous Parma ham, is more seasoned, salty and peppery, with a stronger flavor. A very popular and appreciated variety of ham is the "cinta senese", produced in the province of Siena but widespread throughout Tuscany. Among the salamis, which, like the ham, tend to be very seasoned and spicy, in Tuscany there is one that is specifically typical of Tuscany which is the finocchiona, a large fresh salami flavored with fennel (one of my favorite dishes; below a picture of a little snack with some finocchiona on a beach).
The Tuscan cold cuts, with their strong flavor, blend perfectly with Tuscan bread which, unlike in the rest of Italy, is free of salt; that's a tradition that dates back to the Middle Age, when salt in Tuscany suffered a high taxation. Outside of Tuscany, many Italians do not like Tuscan bread, considering it too bland, but I love it, not only because it is perfect for Tuscan cuisine, very tasty, but also because when Tuscan bread is well made, it lets emerge. all the flavor and aromas of flour and yeast. When I come to Tuscany, it's hard to resist the temptation of a slice of Tuscan bread with freshly spread sausage; here's a picture of me preparing a slice on the hood of my car...
If you're not on a diet, get a slightly toasted slice of bread and put a slice of lardo di colonnata (white strips of cured pork fat flavoured with spices) on it while it's still warm; the fat will start to melt on the bread and as soon as you take the first bite of the crunchy bread flavoured with the melted fat you'll start to hear angels singing.
Bread is also king in fettunta, or bruschetta, a lightly toasted slice of bread, flavored by grating a clove of garlic, with fresh olive oil (oh God !, Tuscan olive oil ...) and salt. Since Tuscan cuisine has poor and peasant origins, it is very oriented towards avoiding waste; so, there are many dishes that use stale bread: ribollita, pappa al pomodoro, acquacotta, panzanella, cacciucco ...
Try the ribollita, a vegetable and bread soup that functions as a delicious and classic comfort food. Pappa al pomodoro, a creamy and tasty tomato soup with old bread, is perfect for the winter and during summer you have the panzanella, a kind of cold salad of bread soaked in balsamic vinegar and mixed with onions and tomatoes, basil all topped with olive oil of course!
The cacciucco is a fish soup, typical of the coast of Livorno, made up of different qualities of fish, crustaceans and molluscs, usually octopus, cuttlefish, cicadas, scorpion fish and other so-called "poor" fish varieties, cooked at different times, depending on the different cooking time required. from the type of fish, in tomato sauce and then placed on slices of toasted and garlicky bread placed on the bottom of the plate.
Coming to the pasta, a typical tuscan first course are the pappardelle al cinghiale, very wide egg noodles in a strong-sauce made from wild boar; the pappardelle are also frequently served with mushrooms (in the autumn, pappardelle with porcini mushrooms are a real treat!); another typical pasta in Tucany are pici, a sort of big irregular spaghetti.
Last but not least, the queen of the tuscan cuisine is the bistecca alla fiorentina; this large T-bone steak is widespread in all Tuscany but the original fiorentina has got to be eaten in Florence or in its countryside (Chianti, Valdarno, Mugello); the fiorentina is so thick that it must be cooked on its front, back and side and usually weighs three to four pounds. Don't try to ask it well done, if you don't want to upset the waiter, you have to eat it rare, soft and juicy! A variant of the Florentine steak is the tagliata, which is basically the steak served, rather than whole, in slices. One of the best dishes that I've ever eaten is the tagliata with porcini mushrooms at the Taverna del Vecchio Borgo in Massa Marittima (below, two pictures, on the grill and ready to be eaten!).
Finish your meal with classic Tuscan cantucci dipped in vin santo. Dunk these hard almond cookies in to a small glass of sweet dessert wine to soften them and clean your palate after a great meal! (Below a picture of the remains of a dish of cantuccini and vin santo beside my Nikon D7100 in San Giovanni d'Asso).
Here's a list of a few random restaurants in Tuscany that I recommend:
- Taverna del Vecchio Borgo, Massa Marittima; one of my favourite restaurants when it comes to Tuscan cuisine; the tagliata with porcini mushrooms is among the best things you'll ever eat in your life! Try also the melted pecorino cheese.
- Osteria del Mare, Castiglione della Pescaia; a great fish tavern; traditional fish cuisine cooked with modern technique.
- I' Ciocio, Suvereto; characteristic place with stone walls, high end cuisine, both fish and meat;
- Il Garibaldi Innamorato, Piombino; another fish tavern, less refined than the Osteria del Mare, but great value for money.