Archive for 'Food and Wine'

Spinach in Florentine style.

Ingredients:

• Spinach fresh and clean 1 kg


• Olive Oil


• 2 garlic cloves


• Béchamel sauce (2 cups)


• Grated Parmesan


• Salt and Pepper

A hearty bread and vegetable soup; traditionally made from minestrone soup and the leftovers then layered with bread and baked for a dish on the second day, and then the third day ribollita was made. This is a recipe to get there a little faster. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• Dried white beans 400gr


• 1/2 Savoy cabbage


• 2 bunches black Tuscan cabbage


• 3 ripe or canned tomatoes


• 1 stalk celery


• 2 carrots


• 1 garlic glove


• 2 onions


• 1 peperoncino (red pepper)


• 4 potatoes


• 2 bunches beet or fresh spinach


• Extra virgin olive oil


• Whole wheat bread (pane casalingo)


• Salt and Pepper

Regional cuisines can develop for a myriad of reasons: types of food grown in the area, wealth of the area, or simple preference. Areas of great wealth are able to import exotic spices or ingredients and incorporate them over time into the normal meals of the area.

Regions with bland ingredients tend to more, and often hotter spices than regions with more rich and flavorful ingredients. The area now known as Tuscany has been populated since at least 1,000 B.C., though the exact history of the ancient Etruscan settlements there are unknown. Tuscany has had over three thousand years to refine the cultivation of its local ingredients and its own style of cuisine.

Tuscan cuisine is the epitome of rich ingredients. Often forgoing thick and heavy sauces or heavily spiced dishes, Tuscan cooks let “the food do the talking”. The region is well known for its hearty soups, olive oil, fine wines, delicious cheeses, unsalted breads and flavorful meats. Each and every element of the Tuscan kitchen has been refined over time to near perfection. The best way to ensure a delicious meal is to begin with the freshest ingredients of the highest possible quality.

Toasted bread with black sauce.

Ingredients:

• Chicken livers 200gr


• Bologna mortadella 100gr


• 1 onion, a small carrot, a stalk of celery


• 1 garlic clove


• Parsley


• 2 leaves sage


• 1 tablespoon capers


• 2 fillets anchovies


• 1 lemon juice


• olive oil


• salt and pepper


• 2 baguettes

Wine has been a part of life on the Italian peninsula for millennia, even before the Greeks brought the techniques for cultivation, the Etruscans made their wine from wild grapes that grew throughout the hills and mountains. The Greeks brought the knowledge of how to raise the grapes and also refine both the grapes and the wine itself. Carthage, in Northern Africa, was well known for its wine-making skills and after Rome sacked and destroyed the city, the Italian wine-makers began to excel in the trade. There was even a point during the Roman Empire that making wine outside Italy was illegal.