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Food and wine in Florence and Tuscany, including food stories, restaurant reviews and wineries.
Although I love the song that made them famous in the USA, there’s a lot more to chestnuts than just roasting. Just ask any Tuscan cook. In fact, the old Italian saying, ‘polenta saved the north, fish saved the south, and chestnuts saved the center’, refers
Winemakers all across Italy are breathing sighs of relief as their grapes have been picked, pressed, and are now on their way to becoming 2007 vintage wine. Here’s a look at the grapes of the 2007 harvest, from the vineyard to your table. THE OUTLOOK Close to
I come from a Venetian family where the imperative of every meal was to create the perfect bite. For my mamma, it meant getting up at five in the morning, while my five siblings and I were still asleep, to make homemade tortellini filled with a minced paste of delicious
Winemaking on the island of Sardinia has a long and fascinating history that predates the Christian era. In fact, some of the most popular grape varietals arrived with the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians. Wine production stayed relatively unchanged until the arrival of conquerors from the Catalan region of Spain around
All right, we hit the Seattle all-time high-temperature record last week with an unprecedented 97 degrees, but it was absolutely bearable—sunny, dry, and breezy. I must confess that I was actually enjoying it. However, every single person I talked to during that day was complaining fiercely
Even though the lazy beach days of August are now behind us, there’s still a bit of summer left on our Tuscan tables. The last of the eggplant bounty will linger into September and it’s a wonderful way to gently bridge the gap between the lightness
What do you see when I say ‘cucumber’? Thin green slices, to put on your face and eyelids after a hard night out or a long day broiling on the beach? Thin green slices on thinly sliced bread, melting in your mouth at tea time? Thin green slices,
Less than one-half of one percent of Italy’s wine is produced in Liguria. Some may say that this beautiful coastal region is mainly tourist country—with the ever-popular Cinque Terre to explore—not wine country. And that wine produced there is rather pricey. So,
Summer is around the corner, and we can all feel it. Flowers are everywhere at this time of year, and I’m not speaking only of gardens or window boxes. In Italy, they grace tables as well. At a recent dinner, after admiring the stunning roses, wisteria and
Yes, the Piedmont region is famous for its bold, red wines. However, it also is home to some well known, and some lesser-known, wonderful whites. The cooler climate in Piedmont favours the crisp, soft and acidic taste of these light Italian wines. More importantly, they offer a vast array
Whether relaxing during a mid-day siesta or unwinding after a long day at work, Italians delight in sitting back and sipping a good drink. Though you may imagine them swirling a glass of Chianti or pouring a bottle of Nastro Azzurro, Italians have in fact been mixing up the
The season that graces Florence with wisteria, iris and roses has finally arrived. It’s spring! Every café, restaurant and bar is throwing open its doors and moving chairs and tables outside to fill each square inch of available space. Why? Because it’s time to
My first memory of eating an artichoke is an image of my mother showingme how to bite down on the leaf and pull it through my front teeth. I must have been very young, because myteeth marks were tiny compared to the others in that great heap of discardedleaves
It must be hard to be an excellent red wine but get virtually ignored because your ‘big brothers’ are so well known. This is the dilemma faced by the Barbera, Dolcetto, and Roero wines of the Piedmont region that are so overshadowed by the Barolo and Barbaresco wines
We all know Piazza Santissima Annunziata because of Brunelleschi’s beautiful Ospedale degli Innocenti, with its magnificent porticoed colonnade and Della Robbia’s blue-glazed terracotta tondos with cherubic babes wrapped in swaddling clothes. But next time you go there, stop a while to admire more carefully the
For cooks, one of the true pleasures of life in Italy is the bounty of beautiful fruits and vegetables that are so readily available throughout the year. I am always fascinated by the artfully arranged displays set up by vendors, particularly those on street corners. My local ambulante di frutta
The holidays evoke an inevitable urge to cook, not that I ever need much to be inspired here in Florence. I am almost thankful that there is no Thanksgiving here in Italy, as the feasting rites of Christmas almost put me under the table. In this country, food always seems
The Italian wine community is especially proud this year. The tasting panel at Wine Spectator, one of America’s top sources of information, sampled 13,500 wines from around the world in efforts to select this year’s ‘Top 100.’ Not only did Tuscan wines
When November approaches, umbrellas crop up all over Florence. I asked Elena Galluzzi, a busy Florentine who runs a family hotel here, what she likes to cook this time of the year. Her answer? ‘Hearty bean soups and stews,’ she said, ‘a truly traditional
Italian chefs live by the season. Every season signifies a change of the menu which reflects the produce found during each time period. For many chefs, October in Italy means truffle season. Truffles, or tartufi, date back to the times of the Greeks and Romans and were historically perceived as
The beach house is closed for the season. The rientro is complete and everyone is back in the city where school and work schedules once again dictate the rhythm of daily life. What’s the first thing a Tuscan cook thinks about in autumn? That’s the question
