Tuscany is famous for giving us both the momentous Renaissance and the musical Italian language, but its cuisine is actually quite simple and austere. A variety of meats, beans, salt-less bread, seasonal vegetables, pecorino cheese and olive oil are the main staples of the Tuscan diet. The result is a rustic, but hearty cuisine that is especially welcomed in the cooler months of the year. Below are a few classic Tuscan dishes that I hope you will enjoy at your table as the winter nears.
I’ve included links to recipes from Eataly, which I find to be a great resource for Italian cooking, and suggested wine pairings.
Ribollita
Traditionally, this Tuscan soup was a blend of reboiled (“ribollita”) odds and ends, along with day-old bread—a common practice in cucina povera (peasant cooking). Nowadays, stale bread is still used, but it is combined to a freshly assembled pot of vegetables and cannellini beans. Get the recipe HERE.
Wine Pairing:
An evolved Vernaccia di San Gimignano or a youthful Sangiovese aged in steel.
Pici all’Aglione
(Pici with Garlic Sauce)
Combat the common cold this winter with Pici all’Aglione. This recipe takes a significant amount of garlic, tomatoes and a pinch of heat by way of crushed red pepper flakes and smothers thick, delicious strands of pasta. You can even try making your own pici, which requires just flour, water and a drizzle of Tuscan olive oil.
HERE is the recipe for Pici with Garlic Sauce. If you are looking for something heartier, try the Pici with Duck Ragu in THIS RECIPE from the We Are Never Full blog. To make Pici from scratch, head HERE.
Wine Pairing:
A young Chianti would pair well with both dishes, though some aging in oak would benefit the pairing with the Pici with Duck Ragu. Rosso di Montalcino would be another excellent choice!
Bistecca Fiorentina
Bistecca Fiorentina is arguably Tuscany’s most famous dish. Here again, a mere 5 ingredients are needed and less than 20 minutes of cooking time (if you like your meat al sangue or rare). THIS RECIPE uses sage and rosemary, but you can also keep it clean with just olive oil and salt. Serve with roasted potatoes and grilled vegetables to complete your spread.
Wine Pairing:
Many would choose a Brunello di Montalcino or a Super Tuscan red blend with some Cabernet Sauvignon in the mix, but many Tuscans think a good Chianti Classico with some age on it (even just a few years) is Bistecca Fiorentina’s match made in heaven.
Cantucci
with Vin Santo
What Tuscan meal would be complete without cantucci and Vin Santo? Cantucci are a revival of the twice baked cookies or biscotti (bis “twice” - cotti “cooked”) originally created to feed Roman soldiers who would travel long distances and needed some kind of sustenance that would not spoil. (Pliny the Elder claimed they could last for centuries.) Their renaissance came about during the Italian Renaissance, in Prato, when a baker started making them as an accompaniment to the local sweet wine.
Though Vin Santo was rumored to have cured plague victims (or at least numb their pain) in the Middle Ages, nowadays, this labor intensive, dessert wine, which is made from late-harvested local Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes that are air-dried on straw mats and aged in small barrels for 3 to 12 years, is enjoyed by Tuscans alongside cantucci or deservedly on its own.
Wine Pairing:
Vin Santo!
