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!

Home is a feeling

Home is a feeling, is everywhere you feel comfortable, loved, respected, reassured, free.

Home, for me, is a table ready for breakfast in the morning: a neat tablecloth, a cup, a spoon, a tea bag and two cookies. It can be my mother’s caring and loving act, or it can be my sister’s thoughtful gesture, done to make me start the day with a smile. When I lived alone for 5 weeks, a few years ago, I used to set the table for breakfast the evening before: the first reason was to save precious minutes in the morning, but I reckon it was also to recreate a home feeling at the dawn of the day.

Home is my teddy bear, Tato. It was my first friend: I sleep hugging Tato during the winter, to keep me warm in my huge double bed, or I gently lay it on the ground during the summer, stealing a glance at it before closing my eyes to sleep.

Home is my favourite walk, wonderful and inspiring in every season. I could do it even with blinded eyes, I know every bend, every root coming out from the ground. When I want to catch up with my thoughts, I simply walk my way through this country road and everything falls at its place.

Home is a bedroom with a view, my bedroom with my favourite view: the cypresses on the far away hills, our orchard, my father cutting the grass, my dog, Kira, running as a puppy and now slowly pacing up and down her territory. Small stories unravelling in front of my eyes and immediately bringing me home.

Home is my kitchen, my tools, home is where I can cook for someone, spreading my love along with simple and fresh ingredients.

This is one of the easiest recipe you can choose, though this is the flavour that immediately brings me home.

Maybe it is the fact that it so simple to make, maybe it’s due to the act of peeling the apple, that reminds me of my grandma’s hands, peeling my fruit in my childhood.

Or maybe, it is all related to the warm bowl you wrap yourself around, sitting on a sofa and savouring that moment when you can finally call it a day.

This is my recipe for a reassuring and delicious bowl of stewed fruit, slightly spiced but definitely light, the perfect treat to indulge yourself in the evening.

Stewed apples

Ingredients:

• 1 apple
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 crushed cardamom pods
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 handful raisins

Peel the apple and slice it finely. Put it in a small pot with the cinnamon stick, the crushed cardamom pods, a tablespoon of brown sugar and a handful of raisins.

Cover the fruit with water and let it simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes, or until the apple is soft and almost all the liquid has been absorbed.

Extra flavours: you can add the grated peel of one orange or one lemon to add a citrus flavour. You can simmer the apple with a vanilla pod for a sweeter result or even add a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a delicious dessert.

A side-note: spelt is called farro in Italian. It is a very nutritious type of grain which contains high levels of proteins and vitamins. Spelt is the oldest known cereal and was already cultivated in 7000 BC. In Tuscany, the Garfagnana area near Lucca is probably the “homeland”. I discovered spelt only after I moved to Pisa. While it’s now quite popular all over the region, up until not too long ago it wasn’t very common in Italian homes. Luckily, it’s back in fashion and is very easy to find even in smaller stores.

Chicken spelt salad

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast
• 200g spelt
• olive oil
• garlic
• sage
• salt and pepper
• yogurt

Cut the chicken breast into small pieces.

Cook the spelt in a pot of boiling water for as long as indicated on the package (I use the pre-soaked spelt which cooks in 18 minutes, but most shops sell spelt that you need to soak overnight before cooking).

While the spelt is cooking, fry a clove of garlic and some leaves of sage in olive oil and add the chicken. Cook until the chicken is well cooked. Add salt and pepper and the yogurt. Mix with the cooked spelt. If you like the salad warm, sauté for a couple of minutes, otherwise let it cool down before serving.

Shrimp and pepper spelt salad

Ingredients

• 200 g spelt
• 2 red bell-peppers
• olive oil
• garlic
• 400 g of shrimp (fresh or frozen)
• salt

Cook the spelt in a pot of boiling water for as long as indicated on the package (see above). Slice and dice the red bell-peppers. Fry a clove of garlic in abundant olive oil. Add the peppers and let cook for at least 10 minutes. Add the shrimp. Let cook for 10 more minutes. Add salt and pepper. If there is water in the pan, make sure it evaporates. Add the spelt and let cook for 3 more minutes. I like this salad warm, but if you prefer it cold, it goes really well with mint sauce.

Not long ago, two friends living near Assisi, Letizia of Alla Madonna del Piatto and Rebecca of Brigolante Guests Apartments, got together to film the recipe for farrotto, the equivalent of risotto but made with spelt (farro). To watch this amusing video, check Letizia’s lovely food blog!

So here it is: my second “Tuscan cuisine for slackers like me” post. Who said we all have hours to prepare traditional recipes?!

Here is my recipe for Tuscany’s most popular antipasto: crostino toscano. Crostini, as many of you certainly know, are toasted slices of bread topped with a sauce. Crostini toscani are topped with a meat sauce made with chicken livers (in the Maremma area at least – in other areas it can be with spleen or just plain ground meat). Traditionally the bread was not toasted. People used stale bread softened with chicken broth.

The first immediate consequence of being the modern woman that I am is that I use freshly baked bread. I slice it and toast it. But let’s proceed in a more orderly fashion…

Ingredients for 2-4 people:

• 150gr of chicken livers
• red wine
• 1 onion
• olive oil
• 150gr of ground beef (if you think the flavour of liver might be too strong)
• chicken stock
• capers
• anchovies
• butter

This is the “politically correct” list of ingredients. If you are a lazy slacker or a plain bad housewife/cook feel free to substitute real chicken stock with powdered chicken stock, capers with caper paste and anchovies with anchovy paste.

Clean the chicken livers (they come with the heart as well). I use kitchen scissors to cut the meat in small pieces and to eliminate the fat parts. Put the meat in a bowl and cover in red wine. Leave it for at least 15 minutes.

Cut the onion in small pieces and fry it in a pot with abundant olive oil.

When they are a nice yellow colour, take the liver out of the bowl and add it to the onion. Stir and let fry for 5 minutes. If you want to use ground beef too, add it in now and let fry.

Cover the mixture with the red wine used to marinate the meat. If the meat is not covered, add more. Let simmer for 20 minutes.

When the wine has evaporated, add chicken broth or a cup of hot water with powdered chicken stock. Cover the mix with abundant liquid and let cook until it has evaporated.

Put the meat in a blender. Add a few capers, and a couple of anchovies (or a spoonful of caper and anchovy paste). Add a teaspoon of butter (it makes the mix creamier). Blend until the mix is smooth and suitable for spreading on bread.

Toast a few slices of bread and enjoy! Buon appetito!!!

If you like traditional Tuscan recipes which you can make quickly, check my first “Tuscan cuisine for slackers like me” post dedicated to Minestra e Fagioli (bean soup with pasta).

Then there are women like me… “lavative“, the slackers!

I love cooking, and I know the difference that comes from cooking with fresh ingredients or taking all the time it really needs. But hey, sometimes I just need to fix a quick meal before going back to my computer. Or, on days like today, we leave Pisa to come to Civitella and we arrive to a house with no food in it… too late to go shopping, too lazy to go out to the restaurant.

So here it is: my very personal politically incorrect guide to Italian cuisine, for lazy slackers like me!

Minestra di pasta e fagioli, bean soup, is the Italian sacred cow that I am going to kill today. It is one of the most popular Italian recipes thanks to Tony Soprano and thousands of other immigrants that left Italy to bring the marvelous tradition of “pasta fazool” to the rest of the world.

Now, the orthodox recipe says that you need: dry beans, sage, tomatoes, garlic, vegetable broth, salt, olive oil, pepper, pasta and… 24 hours. First you need to soak the beans overnight, then you have to fry sage and garlic in olive oil, then you need to add beans and cover them in vegetable broth and let simmer for 40 to 60 minutes and finally you have to add pasta and let it cook.

OR, you could come home, realize it’s almost 9 pm already and you are hungry, open every single cupboard and drawer in your kitchen and realize that all you have is a can of beans, a spoonful of pasta at the bottom of a box, a couple of garlic cloves and some home-made canned tomatoes. Life is good.

So here is what you can do:

• 8:59 pm – clean two garlic cloves and cut them in half
• 9:01 pm – heat up some olive oil in a pot and add the garlic and some dry sage. Boil 1 litre of water in a kettle.
• 9:06 pm – open a can of beans and pour them into the pot.
• 9:08 pm – add some hot water, stir, add a cube or two of frozen chicken stock and a spoonful of canned tomatoes.
• 9:10 pm – add more water and once it’s boiling, add 60gr of pasta
• 9:10 – 9:19 pm – keep stirring and adding water to make the “minestra” the right consistency and to cook the pasta properly.
• 9:20 pm – pour the minestra in a bowl, add some parmesan, some pepper, and some olive oil.

21 minutes flat: dinner is served and it tastes great!

When I am even lazier or if I feel no shame at all (like when I am really hungry or really busy), I use powdered chicken stock, commercial beans and tomato paste. It is probably not as healthy but it tastes good anyway!

Cipolle ripiene

Ingredients for 2 people

• 4 large white onions
• stale bread
• milk
• extra-virgin olive oil
• 100gr of ground beef
• white wine
• bread crumbs
• grated parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
• salt and pepper

I used white onions but you can use any other type I guess, provided they have a regular round shape.

Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Peel the skin off the onions and blanch them for 5 minutes in the boiling water.

In the meanwhile, put the stale bread to soak in milk. Drain the onions and, using a spoon or a small knife if they are still quite hard, remove the centres and put them aside.

Fry the onion centres in a large pan with some extra-virgin olive oil. Add the ground meat and cook for 2 or 3 minutes.

Add some white wine and cook for 5 more minutes – or until the liquid is completely evaporated – stirring frequently.

When the meat and onions are cooked, pour them in a bowl and add 1 egg, a spoonful of parmesan, some bread softened in milk and a couple of spoons of bread crumbs. Stir well, and use the mix to stuff the onions.

Put the onions on a greased baking tin, dress with a few drops of olive oil, a pinch of bread crumbs, and bake at 200°C (390°F) for 25-40 minutes (depending on the size of the onions)-

I am very sorry that I don’t have a photo of the final product! They were too good to take a picture!! We couldn’t resist and ate them all!!!

Biscottini al Vinsanto

Ingredients

• 250gr of  flour
• 100gr sugar
• a glass of vinsanto (approx.100gr)
• 100gr of oil, better if seed oil
• some baking powder for cakes (half a bag, approx. 8-10gr)
• a pinch of salt
• pine nuts
• raisins

Put the flour, the baking powder, the sugar and the salt in a bowl and then add the oil and the vinsanto. Mix well and then add the raisins.

With a spoon, pour small piles of the mix on a baking tin and decorate with pine nuts.

Bake at 180°C for 30-40 minutes, making sure they don’t overcook. The biscuits must be dry, and are excellent if you dip them in vinsanto.

You can add a sprinkle of icing sugar.

Ok, this photo is not mine… but they looked exactly like these. We couldn’t resist and we ate them all before I could take a picture!

They are excellent dipped in vinsanto too!

If you are interested in learning how to cook like a Tuscan, write to us! I give cooking lessons, and it’s a lovely excuse to spend some time chatting by the stove with a good glass of wine in our hands!

• Testamatta Wine Festival, July 2-23, Castello di Vincigliata, Fiesole (Florence)
• Sagra del Pesce (seafood festival), July 3-19, Badesse (Siena)
• Festa della birra (beer festival), July 10-12, Montemurlo (Prato)
• Festa della birra di montagna (mountain beer festival – mostly chestnut beer), July 11-12, Castagno d’Andrea (Florence)
• Sagra della zuppa (soup festival), July 11-12 and 16-19, Massarella (Florence)
• Jazz & Wine, July 15-19 and 23-25, Montalcino (Siena)
• Festa della musica (music festival), July 16-19, Chianciano Terme (Siena)
• Festa della birra (beer festival), July 17-19, Pieve Santo Stefano (Arezzo)
• Sagra del maiale e della pecora (pork and sheep meat festival), July 17-26, Monterotondo Marittimo (Grosseto)
• A pesca con il Montecucco (fishing with Montecucco wine), July 18, Cinigiano (Grosseto)
• Sagra della birra e dello gnocco (beer and gnocco festival), July 18-19, Roccalbegna, Grosseto
• Festa del tartufo d’estate (summer truffle festival), July 18-19, Castell’Azzara (Gr0sset0)
• Sagra del cocomero (watermelon festival), July 19, Rocca di Montemurlo (Prato)
• Festa dell’Unicorno, July 24-26, Vinci (Florence)
• Sagra del tortello (ravioli festival), July 24-26, Grezzano Borgo San Lorenzo (Florence)
• Sagra della patata (potato festival), July 24-26, Roccastrada (Grosseto)
• Torneo fra butteri (butteri tournament), July 27, Capalbio (Grosseto) – the Maremman butteri are like cowboys
• Sagra del fungo porcino (porcini mushroom festival), July 24-26, Palazzolo (Florence)
• Il vino e le stelle (wine and stars), July 25, San Casciano Val di Pesa (Florence)