Tuscan Recipes
The Tuscan Pantry
back to gastronomy with Christoph Duermueller
Cuisine provençale
California cuisine

By Sharon Bowers

"Tuscan food is based more on superior ingredients than it is on fancy techniques," says Molto Mario's Mario Batali. Italian cuisines are based on the best ingredients local geography has to offer, and Tuscany has a little of everything in the landscape, with smooth beaches and rolling hilltowns cradling olive groves and grain-filled plains. Some of the world's greatest olive oils come from the terraced Tuscan hillsides, where the hardy, stubby olive trees concentrate energy on their fruit, not their height. Premium Chianina beef cattle graze near the plains where soft, low-protein wheat flour is grown for saltless bread, pane sciocco. Vineyards throughout the region produce exceptional wines, from famed Chiantis to deep, rich Brunellos.

Toscano cooks never squander ingredients, and that frugality leads to some of the best Italian cooking there is, austere and almost unadorned, with pure flavors perfectly balanced in each dish. Fellow Italians call Tuscans mangiafagioli, "bean-eaters." It's not a glamorous nickname, but Tuscans shrug it off. They know that their beans are cooked to tender, creamy perfection, accented with fresh sage and world-class olive oil. Ribollita (ree-boh-LEE-tah) is a Tuscan soup whose name translates literally to "reboiled." It's serious home-cooking, but you'll find a version on nearly every restaurant menu. That's because ribollita-thrifty, healthy, and utterly delicious-defines Tuscan food. Ribollita begins with vast quantities of minestra, a vegetable soup with lots of cabbage and beans. In its second day of life, the reheated minestra is layered with slices of saltless Tuscan bread, thickening the soup into proper ribollita. The third day, leftover ribollita is topped with onions and olive oil and heated in the oven. If any survives to a fourth day, it's fried in olive oil so the bits of bread take on a golden crust.

Tuscans know exactly how and when to use whatever is fresh and wonderful. The first fava beans of the spring are served raw, with nothing but sea salt and pecorino cheese. Perfectly ripe peaches or melon are served with paper-thin prosciutto. Simple flavor combinations predominate, but each element is always the finest quality available. Vegetables are often eaten raw or lightly cooked, perhaps with olive oil and a little garlic. Some vegetable side dishes can be more elaborate, such as a sformato, a molded blend of a cooked vegetable (such as cauliflower) and a thick bechamel sauce (besciamella), but this would then accompany a simply cooked piece of meat or fish. Egg-rich pastas are on every restaurant menu, but the home cook considers pasta more of a Sunday dish. Pappardelle, a wide noodle, is common, served with rabbit or boar sauce, or baked in layers with sauces. The main starch, along with polenta, has traditionally been Tuscany's unusual saltless bread, made only of flour, yeast, and water. Nothing must go to waste, so pane sciocco has a sturdy, dense texture that's good for cooking. Sliced and toasted, drizzled with olive oil and perhaps rubbed with raw garlic, it becomes bruschetta or fett'unta, literally "greasy slice." Acquacotta, "crazy water," is a staple soup of bread cooked in water with a simple flavoring such as wild mushrooms or garlicky wild ramps. Panzanella, "little swamp," is a wonderful salad of cubes of stale bread, fresh tomatoes, onions, and basil.

With such a bounteous spread of simple and delicious food, you'll be glad Tuscan desserts are simple too: a plain cake with fruit, a sliced pear and a dessert cheese such as Gorgonzola dolce ("sweet"), maybe a perfectly ripe fig or some cherries. Finish with a glass of the sweet dessert wine, vin santo Toscano, and you'll never wish for fancier food again.