I am totally meteoropathic… I can only function if my natural rhythms work, if my reference points are right. A year like this, with a never ending summer and a never coming autumn confuses me. And my stomach.

Normally, I would welcome the first cold days happily snuggled under a blanket on the sofa with a cup of thick hot chocolate in my hands.

Or toasting bread in the fireplace to prepare the first bruschette with our bright green new olive oil. Or maybe roasting a sausage on slow burning embers… That is November comfort food to me: the smell of food must mix smoothly with the smell of burning firewood.

This year, it has been too warm to even cook a soup… and I have… but we have had to eat it with our windows open!

When I sat down to write this post for this month’s Italy Blogging Roundtable, I realized that all food is comfort food to me (and that is not necessarily a good thing… LOL), and that different seasons come with different comfort foods.

Fall Comfort Food

When the autumn comes, there are three things that really need to be on our table at a certain point: polenta with wild boar, castagnaccio and pumpkin risotto.

I grew up in a family of hunters, so game meat has always been available in our home. As soon as the first clouds start gathering upon the Cappelli family’s roof, my mum digs out corn flour and my dad is sent out to shoot some stuff! The fireplace is lit and the first layer of hot polenta appears soon after on the old wooden pastry board, where my grandmother gravely proceeds to cut it with a piece of cooking string. Apparently that is a sacred operation and there is absolutely no other way to test the quality of the polenta… Portions are distributed on everybody’s plates and literally buried under wild boar stew! The occasional guests might ask for the vegetarian option… polenta with olive oil and parmesan cheese. They are usually indulged, but they are likely to get my mum’s and grandmother’s sullen look, which unveils a mix of wonder, astonishment, pity and condescension and translates as “Who could possibly not want to stuff his face with wild boar stew?! There must be something wrong with them… maybe they might prefer a bit of sausage instead?! ” (I know Rebecca and Alexandra will cringe when they read this! LOL)

(Photo by Okapix)

They will be ok with castagnaccio and pumpking risotto, though! Castagnaccio is a thin, dense cake made with chestnut flour, water, olive oil, raisins, pine nuts or walnuts and rosemary. Very simple, but another “must” of my autumn cravings. As soon as the first chestnut flour is available on Monte Amiata, out comes the old castagnaccio baking tin! It’s perfect with the first vino novello!

(Photo from Tuscanfoodie)

I won’t say much about pumpkin risotto as it is not really a traditional Tuscan dish, except that in our variant, the pumpkin is likely to be sautéed in olive oil rather than butter.

(Photos from Memorie di Angelina)

Winter Comfort Food

Winter is a terrible season for my figure (not that the other seasons are any more merciful…). As soon as winter arrives, so does Christmas with the holiday sweets: ricciarelli, cavallucci and panforte. No point in even trying to resist: I have to have ricciarelli at least. For those of you who don’t know what these heavenly sweets are, well, they are traditional Christmas almond cookies typical of the Siena area. You can buy the industrially prepackaged ones, but if you happen to spend some time in a place where there is a bakery that makes them fresh every day, stock up.

(Photo from MyMySays)

Of course, with Christmas also comes the traditional boiled meat meal: you use the meat to prepare broth where you cook some tortellini or home made egg pasta, and then you eat the boiled meat as a second course with some sauces (usually home made mayonnaise and salsa verde, a green sauce made with parsley). This for me means essentially fighting with my cousin over a plate of boiled tongue. I know… it does sound revolting, but it is one of those things that I need to have before the holiday season is over (did I mention that besides being hunters, my family is also a family of butchers?) and it’s delicious!

Then New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day come. And there is no lucky end or beginning without a steaming hot plate of zampone or cotechino with stewed lentils!!! “Every lentil is a golden coin“, my great-grandmother used to say, and who doesn’t need that or the high cholesterol level brought about by a large portion of cotechino?!

Then Carnival comes (I told you winter was tricky…) with all the traditional fried sweets: crogetti (the local name for cenci – thin fried pasta covered in pastry cream, or honey and icing sugar), zeppole (small balls of fried pasta filled with pastry cream and rolled in sugar), and bomboloni (doughnuts or cream puffs).

(Photo from Amiche Cuoche)

Last but not least, Father’s Day comes on March 19 (St. Joseph’s Day) with the traditional rice fritters!

No wonder, the spring starts full of good intentions for future diets…

Spring Comfort Food

Spring means only two things to me: nespole (loquats) and strawberries. As soon as the first nespole become available I have to have them at the end of every meal. Too bad they don’t last for very long!

And of course strawberries with whipped cream, and maybe cherries! Lots of them!

Summer Comfort Food

Summer too is mostly about fruit and vegetables: the sweet tomatoes, the succulent peaches, and the watermelons!

But there are two things that I absolutely have to have: prosciutto and melone and ice-cream.

(Photo from Cool Cook Style)

I think I am a very generous person in many ways, but there is one thing I do not share: ice-cream. When ice-cream crosses the threshold of our apartment, I have no friends: I become territorial with the freezer and very protective! LOL

There is no sharing when it comes to gelato: it can take all my sorrows away, and it has to be all mine! My husband says that I “morph” when it’s around! If I am stressed, the smile comes back on my face after the first bite. If I am happy and he steals a spoonful of my ice-cream I turn into a real harpy! So beware!

Year-round Comfort Food

There is one thing that can always cheer me up and I think it’s pretty much a universal thing in Italy: Nutella. Nutella is a hazelnut chocolate spread, as if there were any need to introduce it…

It’s soul-healing power is such a stereotype in this country that there is a scene in Nanni Moretti’s movie “Bianca” which has become a symbol of this! If I had a euro for every time that I have dreamt of a jar of Nutella like his!!!

A Journey Down Memory Lane

There is one very Tuscan comfort food that I remember from my early childhood years and which my great-grandmother Tilde used to prepare whenever she was looking after me. It was typically my “merenda“, my mid-afternoon snack, and it has always had a special place in my heart and stomach: pane col vino e lo zucchero, that is a slice of stale bread soaked in red wine and covered in sugar.

(Photo from I love spaghetti and you)

I know that many of my non-Italian readers will be horrified by the idea of a granny incorporating wine in a child’s snack (probably as much as reading about my soft spot for boiled tongue! LOL), but, believe me, it hasn’t killed me or any other child over the centuries and I am ready to bet that that was a much healthier snack than most processed stuff that our children eat on a daily basis.

I remember licking the plate!

The winter variant, when it still used to snow regularly in the village, was to use  a glass full of the first snow from our kitchen’s window-sill instead of bread!

Delicious, and unforgettable!

Italy Blogging Roundtable

This is the sixth post in a monthly series called The Italy Blogging Roundtable. Here you can find the posts of the other bloggers who participate in the roundtable. Our topic this month was “comfort food“:

Alexandra (Arttrav) – Minestrone: my winter comfort food

Jessica (Italylogue) – Comfort Food is a Cultural Thing

Melanie (Italofile) – Comfort me with potatoes: A tale of two tuber dishes in Italy

Rebecca (Brigolante) – Eating in the Comfort Zone

Halloween and the All Saints’ Day Weekend are here already!

I’ve just realized it’s that time of the year already… Halloween or the All Saints’ Day long weekend! To me, it usually marks the first holiday of the holiday season and the beginning of the olive harvest, but this year it has arrived so quickly upon us that I am somewhat disoriented.

First of all, I am on my maternity leave: this means that I didn’t go back to teaching in September, so I was not counting days to the first long weekend as I usually do. It also means that we have spent over two months in Civitella, except for this past week when we came back to Pisa and time has literally flown by since we’ve been here.

Second, because I am so pregnant, I can’t help with the olive harvest anyway this year, so I didn’t need to organize my schedule so as to be able to participate. Plus, this year the fall has been so warm (it was still 25°C/77°F in Pisa yesterday…) and dry that we my parents had to start picking early, because olives are just falling from the trees.

Third, I had a big job interview last week (that’s why we are in Pisa) and I didn’t really think of much else up until then… And when I finally had the time and energy to start thinking about something else… well, we realized our baby was supposed to arrive in a month and we hadn’t bought anything yet!!! So we dedicated this past weekend to baby shopping… and we were shocked by the outrageous prices of baby stuff!!! People are out of their minds!!! Being our first child, we have nothing… and we also had no idea what we might need (I know… we must be the worst parents-to-be ever!!). So we did a lot of window shopping and then went and bought the most expensive stuff online, where you can really get great deals…

On presents for our baby and other generous thoughts…

To all those of you who have generously asked us about presents, we would like to say that we really don’t want anybody to feel obliged to send anything. Presents are neither required nor expected. Your loving thoughts are more than enough for us.

However, since some friends and family members have asked repeatedly, we have created a wish list online which is more of a “memorandum” for us than a true wishlist. You can find it here (the name is “gloriamarcel”). We would like to thank you all in advance, and to repeat once again that you don’t need to send us anything, really. And that we are just as happy if you contribute something to the fund for the people who suffered the terrible flood in Cinque Terre and Northern Tuscany last week. Their children are certainly in more need than ours at the moment.

A traditional Tuscan recipe for an alternative “treat”

Anyway, this morning I suddenly realized that it was Halloween when I saw lots of pumpkins outside the local food stores. That’s funny because pumpkins are certainly in season (and we have already eaten an enormous amount – I also need to thank Alexandra and Tommaso for the delicious one they gave us last week!), but the habit of decorating with pumpkins is not really in our tradition. I certainly remember carving pumpkins as a child, but not necessarily on Halloween.

What really reminded me that it’s the All Saints’ Weekend was a phone call from my mother asking me if I wanted some of the Schiaccia dei Santi that my grandmother has made. Of course!!! That is the typical dessert we celebrate with. We make  Schiaccia dei Santi (a type of focaccia)  and Pane dei Santi (a type of bread). They are typical of Siena and some areas of  the province of Grosseto.

They both include more or less the same ingredients but the “schiaccia” is thin, crispy and a bit greasier, whereas the “pane” has the consistency of a loaf of bread, even though it’s much sweeter. The peculiarity is that the dough is enhanced with walnuts, raisins and dry figs: essentially all the “poor” ingredients that are usually available at the end of the summer.

Now I can’t wait to be back home to have some!

If you want to try the traditional recipe of the Pane dei Santi (All Saints’ Day Bread – also known as Pane co’ Santi in Siena) here it is!

Ingredients

• 400g  walnuts
• 250g olive oil
• 50g brewer’s yeast
• 400g warm water
• 1kg all purpose flour
• 250g raisins
• 200g of dry figs
• 10tbs sugar
• 3tsp salt
• 3tsp pepper
• 1 egg yolk (to brush the surface of the loaf)

Sauté the walnuts with some olive oil in a small pan for a couple of minutes and let them cool down. Melt the brewer’s yeast in warm water.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt, raisins, walnuts, olive oil and pepper. Add the yeast mix. Mix until you can make a ball with the dough. Cover and let it sit in the bowl for at least 6 hours.

When the dough has risen, cut it in 4 to 6 parts and shape them as you like (either as a ball or in an elliptical shape). Make a cross-shaped cut on the top of each one and let them rise for one more hour.

Brush with whipped egg yolk and bake for 30/35 minutes at 180°C (350°F).

Let the loaves cool down and enjoy!  You can store them in paper bread bags and they last for days.

You can eat them on All Saint’s Day or give your Halloween a Tuscan flavour!

Happy Halloween and Happy All Saints’ Day!

“Pane e coperto” literally means bread and tableware but it is essentially a service charge that restaurants add to the bill for each guest.  It can be as little as 50 cents and as much as 3 or 4 euros in more touristy places. If the restaurant applies these service charges, the amount is always indicated in the menu. Please note that it will be charged at village festivals too.

Up until a few years ago, restaurants were obliged to charge for “pane e coperto“, but now restaurant owners may decide whether to charge their clients or not. As a matter of fact, many of the restaurants that cater to locals or where people go for lunch on work days don’t charge it anymore. In Pisa, I haven’t paid any service charges for a long time at either Vineria di Piazza or Osteria dei Santi.

The most common complaints I have read online are…

Why should I pay for bread if I don’t eat it or if I didn’t order any?

The fee doesn’t really have anything to do with bread per se, even if the word pane is in the name. It’s is simply a service charge. It is part of the Italian way of life… you simply have to know that you might be charged for it, so make sure to check how much it is on the menu and deal with it.

Bread is brought to you whether you eat it or not. If you ask for more bread, you will not be charged extra, similarly to what happens with water in most north American restaurants.

Why should I pay for unsalted bread that I don’t like?

Bread in Tuscany is mostly unsalted. Restaurants serving you with unsalted bread are not trying to give you the cheapest stuff they could get: that’s what people eat here. Tuscan bread is not to be eaten alone. It is meant to accompany savoury food, such as cured meats, game meat, or crostini sauces.

The charge is too expensive

Charges will be higher in the most touristy areas. Restaurants have the right to choose their own prices. The only thing you can do is avoid restaurants in very popular spots (where people invite you in, or where you can see pictures of food…) and always check the prices on the menu before sitting down. Many restaurants publish their menu outside, and there is nothing wrong with asking to see a menu if this is not the case. Most smaller restaurants or restaurants outisde the touristy areas will in fact not have menus on display because they assume you know the average price for food in the area. If you sit down and you order, you commit to paying the service charge if applied.

I had no idea that I would be charged for pane e coperto

As I always tell our guests, if you don’t like finding out about cultural differences once you are already here, you need to “do your homework“. Most guidebooks will mention these charges. Every country has its own habits: when you visit you need to adjust to the local way of life. Please see my post about “Expecting the Unexpected” for further cultural differences which might come as a surprise to you.

Being charged for service is unacceptable

It always amazes me when I hear this comment from North American guests. I always need to point out how tricky it is for an Italian to go to a North American supermarket or restaurant and find out that the prices advertised are before taxes and that tips are mandatory, only when the check comes. All in all, pane e coperto is incredibly cheap compared to adding taxes and a tip to the final bill, and this way the price list is much more transparent.

It’s the way things are done in the States and Canada though, just like pane e coperto is how things are done in Italy. As we say… paese che vai, usanza che trovi, that is, when in Rome, do as Romans do… which is particularly appropriate in this case!

But at least at home I can choose not to tip for bad service

The “pane e coperto” service charge is not a tip.  The money goes to the restaurant, not to your server. Tipping your waiter is optional in Italy. Waiters, as a rule, don’t expect tips although they do appreciate them. If you get bad service you can choose not to tip your server just like you would back home, but you’ll still need to pay the “service” charge. It’s just the way things work here.

I associate that very special feeling with the ripe blackberries that all of a sudden cover the bushes that flank the countryside lanes around the village. Late August and early September is essentially that to me… the blackberry season!

I have very fond memories of the days around the time when the blackberries ripen.  First of all, usually, that is the time in the summer when the weather starts to change: the temperatures start to go down (not this year apparently…), days get shorter, thunderstorms start to give the countryside that very special smell of wet hay and of the end of the summer.

When I was a young child, I occasionally went for a “blackberry picking expedition” with my great-grandmother along the road that leads to the old abbey by the river Lanzo. I had a tiny basket and of course I never manage to fill it because blackberries are never incredibly abundant. And because we would eat half of what we picked!!! That’s why I was always amazed when I stopped and my grandparents’ place and saw the lady living above them (now actually above us!) making blackberry jam in a large pot in the street. The smell was divine! Her jam was famous in the entire village. She spent days picking blackberries to maybe make 20 jars of jam, one of which was always for me! It seemed such an amazing treat! I’ve never had such delicious blackberry jam after she stopped making it!!!

When I got older, I started to go on long walks with my friends. It was the first taste of “freedom” because we could walk to places where there were no “vigilant grown-up eyes” on us. We would walk for 3 to 4 hours and pick blackberries, and chat… those long, open-hearted chats you can only have when you are a teenager and your best friends mean the world to you. Those are the sweetest memories. With those few berries we would make a cake, or we would put them on fiordilatte icecream when we would finally be back from our walk and stop at the small bar at the entrance of the village.

The young kids nowadays don’t seem to be interested in going for a walk in the countryside anymore. Nor is it probably as safe as it used to be. But for those who, like me, grew up looking forward to “il tempo delle more“, the blackberry season, the end of the summer is always the time when you look out for those delicious wild berries!

Here are a couple of links to some delightful blog posts by a friend who like me shares this passion for blackberries!

• About hedgerows and blackberries: Macaroon Tart and
• Apple + Blackberries = Jam

by Giulia, aka the amazing food blogger of Juls’ Kitchen

My husband was brave enough to venture to the Coop supermarket in the nearest village, while I was left contemplating the sad state of our provisions. And then it is when I realized I had very little, but I had everything I needed to prepare pappa al pomodoro!

Pappa al pomodoro is a bread and tomato “minestra“, that is, a thick soup, and one of the oldest and most typical dishes of the Siena area. It is definitely one of the most representative dishes of the Tuscan cucina povera, the poor people’s culinary tradition.

I hadn’t made pappa al pomodoro in a long time, and it seemed the perfect choice to really get to the bottom of whatever was left of the food we had in the house before my husband came back with two large bags of fresh supplies from the supermarket.

So here is my recipe for a very authentic pappa col pomodoro, handed down to me by my grandmother!

Ingredients for 2 people

• abundant extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 small onion
• pepper or red pepper
• fresh or canned tomatoes
• 200 gr of stale unsalted bread
• 750 ml of broth or hot water
• salt and sugar
• fresh basil

Slice the garlic and the onion coarsely and sauté in abundant olive oil. Add pepper (or red pepper). Chop the tomatoes and add to the garlic and onions. Cover and cook for at least 10 minutes (fresh tomatoes might need 15 minutes) at medium-low heat, stirring regularly and adding a bit of warm water if the tomatoes start to dry up. Cut the bread into large cubes and add to the tomatoes. Mix and keep stirring for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the bread is well mixed in with the tomato sauce. Add 500 ml of broth or hot water and stir until the bread and tomato mix becomes a “pappa”, a mush. Cover and cook for 15 more minutes, adding an extra 250 ml of water if necessary. After 15 minutes,  take the lid off, taste and add some salt if you used hot water instead of broth and a pinch of sugar if the tomato still tastes too acidic. Keep cooking until most of the liquid has evaporated and the pappa is thick. Pappa col pomodoro is ready when all the broth has evaporated and the only liquid left is some olive oil. Add fresh basil leaves and… buon appetito!

I prepared a delicious pea cream with saffron with crispy pancetta and croutons on the side.

Here is my recipe! Let me know if you try it!

Ingredients for 2 people

• 50 grams of butter
• 1 medium sized onion
• 500 gr of peas (fresh or frozen)
• 500 ml of chicken stock
• milk (you can use fresh cream or Greek yogurt instead)
• saffron
• 100 gr of firm bread (better if at least a couple of days old)
• 1 small packet of pancetta cubes

Melt half the butter at a low temperature while you slice the onion. Sauté the onion in the butter until golden. Add peas and cook for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the chicken broth and let simmer at a medium temperature for 10 more minutes until the liquid is significantly reduced, but not completely evaporated.

While the peas cook, cut the bread into little cubes. Melt the remaining butter in a large frying pan, add the pancetta cubes and let cook at a low temperature so that the pancetta fat melts with the butter. Increase the temperature and add the bread cubes. Let them roast for 5 minutes making sure they don’t burn.

Pre-heat the oven to 250°C (480°F). Cover an oven tin with waxed paper and spread the bread and the pancetta cubes on it evenly. Place in the oven for 5 minutes and then for 2 more minutes under the grill. Turn the oven off, but leave the bread and the pancetta in it until you are ready to serve the soup.

Take the peas off the stove and place them in a blender. (I use an immersion blender: I find it much easier. If the pot you are using is tall enough you don’t even need to transfer the contents. Mine was a bit too low and I transferred everything in the jug that comes with the blender to avoid spattering my kitchen wall with pea soup!) Reduce to a smooth cream and place it back in the pot and heat it up at a low temperature. Add a bit of milk and stir to incorporate it well. Add saffron to your liking.

Pour the soup into two bowls, add the crispy pancetta cubes and the bread croutons and… Buon Appetito!

So I decided to make peposo and zucca al tegame! Peposo is a traditional beef stew… but I can’t give more details now because I have promised a guest post to my dear friend Letizia so… The recipe will be coming soon!

[UPDATE NOV. 22, 2011 - The recipe and my guest post on Letizia's amazing food blog is here: Gloria's peposo stew.]

Zucca al tegame is also a very typical summer side dish in Tuscany. Zucca means pumpkin but the dish is actually made with zucchini (or courgettes if you are from this side of the pond), and it essentially consists in slowly cooking coarsely cut zucchini, onions and tomatoes in a large pan (tegame) with a lot of olive oil and basil.

But besides the menu itself, the interesting thing (well… for me at least…) is that I realized that I was actually cooking a real “cena a km0″! For those who have never heard of this new “label”, “a km0“, it indicates locally produced ingredients. It’s a quality seal, usually it means that what you are buying or eating is organic, and produced by smaller farms.

In our case, though, the dinner was actually made with ingredients which were produced less than a km away!

The meat came from a farm 200m away from our countryside home. The wine, olive oil, zucchini, basil, onions and tomatoes all came from my father’s vegetable garden, vineyard and olive groves just outside the garden! And of course, we also had some delicious peaches and plums from our orchard!

Isn’t that cool? Ok… the peppercorns were not from our farm. But still, it seemed still very cool to be able to cook a full meal with what we and our friends actually grow and produce!

I always make fun of my dad who spends all his time in the countryside now that he’s retired. But if he didn’t, we wouldn’t be able to have such a wealth of organic products right in our backyard. And the things you produce yourself taste so much better than anything you buy at the supermarket! Too bad you are tied to the seasonal products, and they don’t last long. When they’re finished, they’re finished… But as long as the vegetable garden is in full swing, let’s enjoy it!

Now… the thing is I don’t even particularly like meringue. But the first and only time I tried to make it, the result was “less than satisfactory” to use a euphemism… (a disaster…). So when I stumbled on an older post by Giulia on her her beautiful blog Juls’ Kitchen, Ginger Meringues, I knew it was time for a second attempt. Truth be told, I had been thinking about it for a while, at least since I saw her Pavlova with strawberries… but yesterday it seemed the perfect day.

It was essentially the first day of summer weather here in our corner of Tuscany. We packed up and moved to my parents’ house in the countryside for the day, and since they were not there, we had it all to ourselves.  We had the full afternoon to relax and read in the garden, under the oak trees. We took a short walk with the dog, I baked my meringues and prepared a nice filet with green peppercorns and roast potatoes for dinner… It felt like being on holiday!

Back to my meringue recipe then!

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites (I used super fresh eggs… and when I say “super fresh”, I mean that the hen was still sitting on them when I got them)
• a pinch of salt
• 150 grams of regular sugar (50 gr. per egg white)
• a few drops of lemon juice

I got rid of the egg yolks and put the egg whites in a very clean glass container (there must be no traces of grease). I whipped them for 3 minutes with an electric whisk at a very low speed. When the whites started to froth, I added the pinch of salt and mixed some more. I then started to slowly add the sugar one bit at the time, and kept mixing at a low speed for 5 more minutes. I then added the lemon juice and increased the speed of the mixer for 5 more minutes until the meringue cream was smooth and so thick that it would not drop from the mixer’s whisks when I took them out of the bowl.

I preheated the oven bringing the temperature to 100°C (212°F). I then covered a flat baking tin with baking paper  poured the meringue cream in a pastry bag and made lots of little meringues (which in my village are called “signorine“, meaning “young ladies“!).

I put them in the oven and I left the door slightly ajar (10cm) so that the temperature could go down and the humidity could come out. I cooked the meringues for 2 hours, turned the oven off, open the door and let them sit in the oven until they cooled down.

The result was very good! I think the fresh, room temperature egg whites might have had something to do with it. Next time I think I will cook them for slightly less time, so that they remain softer inside.

I think what also made the difference from my failed first attempt was the egg beating at a very low speed, which allows the air to really get in there, and the oven door left slightly open for the humidity to get out.

Ok… now I will have to go eat one…! Let me know if you try!

Every Thursday, people can participate in a wine tour to one of the wineries of the area of Terricciola. Few people know this wine region: Pisa and its territory are certainly not famous for wine. As a matter of fact, the area is still within the Chianti denomination and the wines produced in the area belong to the Chianti Colline Pisane DOC region.

(Photo by Eric Perrone)

Every week the tour takes people to a different winery, so it might be nice to go more than once. The tour is very reasonably priced: it only costs 45 euros per person, which includes transportation, a visit to a winery, wine tasting and a visit to a cheese producer (Caseificio L’Avvenire) and to a bakery (Panificio il Quadrifoglio in Terricciola). Here is the program:

• La Spinetta (May 19)
• Badia di Morrona (May 26)
• Fibbiano (June 2)
• Tenuta Podernovo (June 9)
• Castelvecchio (June 16)
• Pieve de’ Pitti (June 23)

You can download a pdf flier here (250kb).

(Photo by HippyDream)

A great opportunity to see a different corner of Tuscany and to discover the wines of the region of Pisa.

Nothing you couldn’t buy at one of the bakeries in the village but so much better. No matter how “less perfect” they look: home-made traditional sweets and cakes are so delicious!

Maybe because they taste of home: if I close my eyes, I can almost see my grandmother and my mother working in the kitchen for a couple of days preparing trays and trays of sweets to give to friends and relatives! Plus, they are made with my dad’s hens’ eggs, with locally produced “unto” (melted and then filtered pork lard – the traditional alternative to butter in Tuscany), with home made jam. Nothing can beat that.

Ciambellini con l’unto and ciambellini rossi are the traditional sweets of my village, Civitella. They are biscuits which last for a long time. Traditionally they were made around Easter and they lasted for months. They sometimes constituted the whole meal in the fields, sometimes accompanied by whatever fresh fruit was in season.

My husband always makes fun of them, because he says they are just dry biscuits, but they are delicious, believe me! Ciambellini rossi are biscuits covered in sugar and alchermes, hence the red colour.They are perfect for dunking them in red wine or vinsanto!

It was only a few weeks ago that I was talking with Letizia of the beautiful Madonna del Piatto about how alchermes brought back memories of our childhood’s dessert and a couple of days ago I saw that she posted this delicious recipe on her blog: ciaramicola! I loved it!

I’ll have to ask her to make me one next time we meet!