pane sciocco

Cooking up a storm in Florence: review

  Have you ever dreamed the Italian dream? Waking up, let’s say in Florence, on a Saturday morning; taking a stroll to the local market to buy fresh produce; making fresh pasta with your own hands; having an aperitivo with friends before sitting down to enjoy the fruits of your culinary labours? Last week, I …

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Peposo: Tuscan beef, black pepper, and red wine stew

  Watch me make peposo, an amazing Tuscan winter warmer stew. This dish originated with the workers in the terracotta factories of Impruneta, near Florence, back in medieval times. Like them, I use a traditional terracotta pot, but you could make this in a slow cooker, or a normal dutch oven. Nowadays, some people add …

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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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Crostini: Five of the best (recipe)

  If you go into any restaurant in Tuscany and look on the menu, under antipasto you’ll find crostini. Rather akin to bruschetta,crostini are slices of Tuscan bread, lightly toasted, and then loaded up with a wide variety of toppings of which chopped tomatoes with basil is only the beginning. The usual suspects are, fresh tomatoes or tomato paste, …

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