Tuscany
Tuscan cooking is lean and short on ingredients: unsalted bread, excellent olive oil, beans, grilled meat and game. The famous bistecca alla fiorentina and the humble ribollita bread soup follow the same rule: good raw material, minimal intervention.
Tuscany is a catalogue of landscapes that translates almost one-for-one into recipes. In the north-west, the marble Apuan Alps and the chestnut valleys of the Garfagnana and Lunigiana. In the centre, the Chianti hills and the bare clay ridges of the Crete Senesi. In the south, the Maremma, drained only in the nineteenth century and still cattle country, worked on horseback by herders called butteri. Then the coast, Elba, the Val d'Orcia. These kitchens differ more than the postcard suggests, but they share a method: few elements, plain cooking, good oil added at the end.
Tuscan bread contains no salt, and an entire repertoire grew out of that. Stale, it becomes panzanella in summer, pappa al pomodoro, and ribollita, a soup of black cabbage, beans and bread, cooked again the next day, which is what the name means. Fresh, toasted and rubbed with garlic under new oil, it is November's fettunta. Around bread sit the beans: the tiny zolfino of the Pratomagno, the beans of Sorana, cannellini, chickpeas, and spelt from the Garfagnana.
The meat is Chianina, one of the oldest and largest cattle breeds in the world. Bistecca alla fiorentina is a T-bone three or four fingers thick, grilled over embers for a few minutes a side, served rare, salted at the end: a cut rather than a recipe, and not something to order well done. Alongside it: lardo di Colonnata, cured in marble troughs with herbs in a quarrymen's village above Carrara; Cinta Senese pork, the belted pig that appears in fourteenth-century frescoes; finocchiona salami scented with wild fennel flower; peposo, beef cooked with a startling quantity of peppercorns; and wild boar.
Each city then has its own register. Florence eats tripe and lampredotto standing up in the street and chicken-liver crostini at the table. Livorno, a cosmopolitan port, makes cacciucco, a fish stew requiring at least five kinds of fish, one for each c in the name. Siena lives on pici pasta, Pienza pecorino, panforte and ricciarelli; the Maremma on acquacotta and boar. The wine follows Sangiovese: Chianti Classico between Florence and Siena, Brunello at Montalcino, Vino Nobile at Montepulciano, while at Bolgheri on the coast, Bordeaux blends took over from the 1970s. Vernaccia di San Gimignano was Italy's very first DOC, in 1966.
Signature dishes
- Bistecca alla fiorentina (thick chargrilled T-bone)
- Ribollita (black cabbage, bean and bread soup)
- Pappa al pomodoro (bread and tomato porridge)
- Panzanella (summer bread and tomato salad)
- Pici all'aglione (thick hand-rolled pasta with garlic sauce)
- Cacciucco (Livorno fish stew)
- Lampredotto (Florentine tripe sandwich)
- Cantucci e vin santo (almond biscuits with sweet wine)
Foods from here
Cities
When to go
November is the month that matters: the new olive oil is pressed and eaten on grilled bread, and San Miniato holds its white truffle market on the middle weekends. October is the Sangiovese harvest and the Sagra del Tordo at Montalcino. Winter is ribollita season, since black cabbage improves after frost, and game season. In February the Anteprime tastings present the new vintages of Chianti Classico, Brunello and Nobile. Summer brings the Palio di Siena on 2 July and 16 August, a bistecca festival at Cortona, and panzanella, which needs ripe tomatoes and nothing else.
Frequently asked
What food is Tuscany famous for?
Bistecca alla fiorentina, a T-bone from Chianina cattle cut three or four fingers thick, grilled over embers and served rare. The other half of the tradition is peasant food: ribollita, a black cabbage and bean soup thickened with stale bread, panzanella, and cannellini beans dressed with new olive oil.
Why is Tuscan bread unsalted?
Unsalted bread is the regional standard, now protected as Pane Toscano DOP, made with a sourdough starter and no salt at all. The usual explanations involve medieval salt taxes and a quarrel with Pisa, but it survives for a practical reason: it carries salty pecorino, salami and soup without competing, and once stale it becomes panzanella, pappa al pomodoro and ribollita.
Is Tuscan food spicy?
No. Tuscan cooking is seasoned with salt, rosemary, sage, garlic and olive oil rather than chilli, and dishes are built on a small number of ingredients. The one exception is peposo, a beef stew from Impruneta cooked with a startling quantity of black peppercorns, traditionally in the kilns that fired terracotta.
What should I eat in Florence?
Lampredotto, eaten standing at a street cart: cow's fourth stomach simmered in broth, stuffed into a bun with green sauce and pepper. Sit-down classics are chicken-liver crostini, ribollita, pappa al pomodoro and the bistecca, which is priced by weight and meant to be shared between two or three people.
What wine is Tuscany known for?
Sangiovese-based reds: Chianti Classico between Florence and Siena, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. On the coast at Bolgheri, Cabernet and Merlot blends have led since the 1970s. Vernaccia di San Gimignano, a white, was the first Italian wine to receive DOC status, in 1966.