WHAZHOT · MADE IN FLO' · ONLY IN FLO' · DISCOUNT COUPONS
sections
Booking
.
culture
.
Fresh Summer food Salads and Beyond
[Maddalena Delli]
Tuscan cuisine is renowned for its traditional ingredients such as meat, game and legumes; it is rich of Mediterranean influences and offers a variety of recipes which are especially fit for the summer. Seasonal produce and typical dressings are mixed in different ways to obtain fresh and tasty dishes which most local restaurants will serve in countless variants.Why not try some typical summer combinations like ham and melon (prosciutto e popone) or broad beans and sheepsmilk cheese (baccelli e pecorino)? Besides you should not miss the many varieties of salad, including bread salad (panzanella) or spelt (farro) salad, simple preparations which you will read in most menus. Harder to find - but certainly worth trying - are cold tripe salad and boiled beef salad, in which the beef is frayed and mixed with red onions, oil, vinegar and salt.
But local cooking comprises much more than just salads, and some cold preparations of international cuisine
originate from Tuscany. To name but a couple of them, let us mention veal with tuna sauce (vitello tonnato) and chicken galantine (boned chicken in jelly stuffed with minced veal,pork and herbs). The sauce for the former should be made with tuna, capers, white wine and veal broth - strictly without mayonnaise! - while in the latter the jelly should absolutely not be made with isinglass and come from the broth of the same chicken instead.
Wind up your glorious summer meal with a tasty fragrant peach of one of the local varieties - like Regina di Londa or Burrona di Rosano - renowned since Medici times and still available from any good vegetable stall in local markets. Later in the Summer you can also enjoy an ancient countryside tidbit, in many ways a forerunner of modern trends for hybrid matches: salami and September figs, best accompanied with a good bottle of Pitigliano white wine.
MORE