Growing up around olive oil: “My grandfather and uncle made oil and always took me to the mill; it’s a world that has always fascinated me. Pressing olive oil was ...
It’s exactly 101 years since the Negroni was first created in a Florence cocktail bar—a heady mix of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth mixed up for Count Camillo Negroni by ...
It’s that time of the year when we crave comfort food and warming recipes. In Tuscany, the fall is perhaps the most exciting season for foodies as nature unfurls the ...
In late February, the alarming news of the rapid spread of Coronavirus in Italy brought the beginnings of a new reality for all of us in Italy. Suddenly we became ...
Learning to make a quiche crust from scratch is a really useful skill, and simpler than you might think. With just butter and flour and a few minutes of ...
Onions are my current obsession: I cry while cutting them, having tuned into the latest 6pm death toll, and my other half thinks I’m just preparing dinner. One bone-chilling ...
“The new Caffè Italiano concept was thought up by Umberto Montano, the food entrepreneur behind the Mercato Centrale brand. There’s a Neapolitan-only pizza corner headed up by Guglielmo Vuolo, Sicilian ...
Carmelo Pannocchietti, chef patron of restaurant Arà: è SUD, serves up his take on Sicily's classic parmigiana using Ragusano cheese.
“I started cooking because I was really into it, then I studied I.T. at university and I became passionate about being in the kitchen. I’ve been lucky enough to find ...
Chef Michele Leo, of Santarpia, shares his tricks of the trade to make the perfect pizza at home, as the pizzeria opens for lunch on Saturdays and Sundays. The secret ...
Italian cooking traces its origins back to a Florentine noble lady, Catherine de’ Medici. Born in Florence 500 years ago, on April 13, 1519, Catherine de’ Medici created a world ...
“Focusing on seasonal produce was a choice we made to respond to what’s going on right now in the restaurant world; there’s a real need to do something original. Much ...
Waste not, want not. Chef Andrea Campani, of Florence's Il Borro Tuscan Bistro gets creative with cold cuts by rehashing leftover chicken into a delectable chicken dog.
If your holiday season is anything like mine, you’ll find yourself inundated with yeast cakes and a certain Christmassy nougat. Honey, egg whites and almonds are shaped into an elongated ...
These autumn days, the sun is so bright during daytime hours we almost forget that we very well may be bundled into sweaters and blankets by nightfall. In this recipe, ...
In October, we find ourselves in the heart of autumn, a season of changing colours, cozy evenings and mug of hot tea in hand, watching the sun start its early ...
September is a month of memories: joy at the happy times spent among family and friends, sadness at the summer that has passed and energy as autumn knocks at our ...
Now that the summer heat has turned its thermostat to “on”, our taste buds switch their style to “tomatoes”. In my debut recipe for The Florentine, I’ve taken the ...
Summer’s (almost) here when apricots appear on supermarket shelves. We love their natural blush, as if the fruit’s feigning embarrassment at their own goodness. These fragrant orbs are loved ...
When five stories break a day and Florence’s events scene enters sixth gear, I retreat to radishes. Packed with potassium and folic acid, radishes are the ultimate energy bringer and ...
‘Eat them now or wait for another year’ sums up the agretti affair. Depending on the weather, these grass-like leaves appear in greengrocers for six weeks or so every spring. ...
Topinambur is a beautiful word, conjuring up a wonderful world of princes and castles, unicorns and open-top silver carriage rides while snowflakes flutter on our faces. Then reality bites that ...
Forgive me while I wax lyrical about purple potatoes—again. One lunchtime, my excitement at this tubular discovery resulted in my foisting violet mash on The Florentine’s team at our usually ...
A post-Christmas return from England leaves me gasping for greens. Potato-ed out but curiously craving more starch than usually features in my predominantly Tuscan diet, my mind turns to a ...