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Holy wine!: How Vin Santo is made

  In 1439, a council of the Greek and Roman churches was called at Florence. According to legend, during the meeting, the Bishop of Florence proudly served his local communion wine to one of the Greek bishops who proclaimed, ‘What lovely wine! It’s xantho! (yellow)’. The Florentines, mishearing the greek adjective as santo (holy), took this as a …

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Crostata di Ciliegie: Cherry Tart – Chestnuts and Truffles TV

  I’m delighted to present to you my first video recipe for Chestnuts and Truffles TV on YouTube. I really enjoyed making this video since I was able to go into a lot more detail about techniques, particularly with the pasta frolla, or shortcrust pastry, than you can in a recipe. You also get to see …

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Zuppa di marroni al tartufo: Chestnut and truffle soup

When I started this blog, I decided to call it Chestnuts and Truffles because these are the two major local products here in this corner of Tuscany. In fact the name Marrone di Caprese Michelangelo, (marrone being a cultivated chestnut) is protected in Italy with a DOP status. I could easily have called it Chestnuts …

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Five things you didn’t know about Italian food … probably.

  We all think we know Italian food. After all, there are plenty of Italian restaurants right down the road, right? Many of our big cities have got a ‘Little Italy’ and an Italian deli to die for. Travelling will tell us that Italian restaurants are the same the world over—except, that is, in Italy. Many …

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