Archive for 'Food and Wine'

Since you have managed to get to another Friday (well done, it's been hard lately) and since it has been a while, we thought we owed you another Italian cocktail recipe to congratulate yourself and toast the weekend. Especially as things start to slowly open up once more and all seems a little more hopeful, it is a perfect time to bring a little bit of Italy into your kitchen and look ahead to holidays in Tuscany that seem nearer by the day...

Sgroppino is a frozen cocktail that resembles a slushie or smoothie and is one of many cocktails that is said to have originated in Venice. While thought to have been originally a digestif served up to Venetian nobility, the exact origins of the drink are unknown but one thing is certain: it is a perfect summer refresher! Enjoyable both in its own right after a long day of work or as a palette cleanser between courses (if you are recreating a Tuscan feast at home to bring a little bit of Tuscany to you for now), this is light, delicious, completely refreshing, and incredibly easy to make. Here's a recipe to make it at home until you can enjoy the real deal while holidaying in Tuscany!

Apple harvests are normally associated with autumn in many parts of the world. However, apples of all sorts are readily available throughout the year nowadays and can be purchased whenever you feel like it. Apples and apple-based desserts are also often associated with comfort eating and hearty, wholesome treats....exactly the sort of thing that so many of us find ourselves in need of at the moment given the current global health pandemic and unprecedented stress and uncertainty that we are all facing. If you're looking for a little slice of comfort and to bring a slice of Tuscany into your homes, then we might suggest trying out this recipe for one of Tuscany's most beloved traditional desserts, the “torta di mele,” or apple cake. Rich, dense, buttery, sweet, and tart, it is exactly what the doctor ordered. You know what they say, a Tuscan apple cake a day keeps the doctor away!

With a lot of our holiday rentals in Tuscany, there are special add-ons that the owners of our villas can offer to further enhance and to enrich your trip such as tours of vineyards, having private chefs sent to prepare dinner in the villa for you, and cookery lessons exploring the best of local Tuscan cuisine. For many, these cookery lessons, in particular, are a very special highlight of their whole holiday in Tuscany that helps them learn more about, and learn to better appreciate, Tuscan cuisine and learn how to prepare delicious and authentic local dishes that they can then go and reproduce at home.

But just because so many of us are stuck at home at the moment, and this is not an option in person for the time being, it does not mean that we have to miss out! We have found a way to bring the experience of learning to prepare excellent local dishes from Tuscany with an experienced Tuscan cook to you at home! Have an authentic Tuscan cookery class virtually by checking out this series of videos from Irene, a villa-owner based in Valdarno in Tuscany. Irene has carefully designed a series of virtual cooking classes that she streams live, allowing us all to have our very own Tuscan cuisine experience from the comfort and safety of our own homes!

We owe a lot of things to the Medici family – artistic masterpieces they commissioned, collections they established that became the basis of museums, architectural gems in which they lived and which they sponsored, practices key to modern banking, and much more besides – but did you know that one of Florence's most beloved desserts, a precursor to the ice-cream cake, can also be attributed to that most illustrious of Florentine families? Zuccotto is still a beloved classic and was one of the first Italian “semifreddi,” or semi-frozen, cakes. Made in Florence during the Renaissance for the party-loving hosts that were the Medici, it was one of many foodie innovations that they had made to impress their guests. Made using ricotta cheese, cocoa grains, citrus peel, and Alchermes liqueur, it manages to be both refreshing and moreish, a delightful combination!

While zuccotto is a little tricky to make, it is well worth the effort and many of us happen to have more time on our hands right now anyway so why not give it a go and bring the flavours of Florence home to you in your kitchen until visiting Tuscany is possible once more...

If you like spaghetti then you'll probably like pici, which are basically super-spaghetti: a thicker, flatter, hand-rolled, handmade spaghetti that comes from an enduring Tuscan country tradition of making your own pasta from scratch at home. As we all have a bit more time on our hands at the moment during this time of social-distancing and may be craving culinary outings and travelling, why not combine it all and travel and experience something new with your tastebuds from the safety of your very own kitchen?

Pici, sometimes referred to as, “pinci”, are a kind of pasta that originated in the Montalcino area of the province of Siena in Tuscany. Made from a simple dough, typically made from only flour and water, though egg is sometimes added, it is one of those Tuscan dishes that is made in an endless variety of methods and has endless variations as each family usually has their own secret and specific recipes that are passed down through the generations. From the ingredients, to the proportions of ingredients used, to the way that the dough is rolled out, there can be all sorts of variations in how Pici are made. For example, to make the distinct thick, tubular shape, the dough must be rolled out in a thick flat sheet and then cut into strips but while some people roll the dough between a palm and the table while the other hand is wrapped with the rest of the strip, others simply roll the strip between the two palms.