3 light and simple Tuscan recipes for summer

When summer arrives it can be a chore spending too much time in the kitchen when you want to be outside making the most of the sunshine. These Italian dishes are quick, easy, tasty....and healthy too!



Caprese Salad

The classic Caprese, this delicious salad always looks stylish on a lunch table

3 vine-ripe tomatoes,1/4-inch thick slices

1 pound fresh mozzarella, 1/4-inch thick slices

20 to 30 leaves (about 1 bunch) fresh basil

Extra-virgin olive oil and Balsamic vinegar for drizzling

Salt and pepper

Layer alternating slices of tomatoes and mozzarella, adding a basil leaf between each, on a large, shallow platter. Drizzle the salad with extra-virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Grilled Zucchini & Summer Squash

(By Stefano Coppola)

A simple enough recipe, this grilled zucchini is positively bursting with flavour from the marinade and a quick char from the grill. This makes a fabulous side dish, hot, at room temperature, or the following day cold. You´ll have leftover marinade too which you can re-use to grill more vegetables or drizzle over salad.

2 zucchini, cut into 1 inch cubes

3 summer squash, cut into 1 inch cubes

3 garlic cloves, minced Ask a question about this ingredient.

2 sprigs rosemary, chopped Ask a question about this ingredient.

1/2 tablespoon crushed red chile flakes Ask a question about this ingredient.

1 sprig oregano, chopped Ask a question about this ingredient.

3 lemons Ask a question about this ingredient.

1/2 cup red wine vinegar Ask a question about this ingredient.

2 cups extra-virgin olive oil Ask a question about this ingredient.

salt & pepper Ask a question about this ingredient.

2 red onionsAsk a question about this ingredient.

Make Marinade: combine garlic, herbs, chile flakes, lemon juice and zest, and vinegar in a mixing bowl. Whisk in oil. Ask a question about this step. Place zucchini and squash into a large re-sealable plastic bag, pour marinade over and seal. Allow to marinate at least 30 min, preferably for a few hours.

Ask a question about this step.

Preheat grill to high. Ask a question about this step. Remove zucchini and squash from marinade. Cut unpeeled onions in half and place on grill, turning occasionally. Remove and place into a bowl, covered with plastic wrap to steam. Meanwhile grill the zucchini and squash until slightly charred. Ask a question about this step. Ask a question about this step. Peel and slice onions. Toss all vegetables together and season with salt and pepper.

White Bean Dip

Dips always go down well with adults and children alike and this one is tasty and healthy, especially if you serve it with crudités.

1 can 450 g Cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (or other white beans, but cannellini are traditionally used)

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp olive oil

2 Tbsp basil, fresh, thinly sliced

1/2 tsp rosemary or sage, fresh, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Good pinch of salt

Ground black pepper

In a large bowl, mash the beans with the back of a fork or a hand-held potato masher. Stir in the vinegar, olive oil, chopped herbs, garlic, and pepper flakes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately with ciabatta or focaccia bread and crudités.

Hope you enjoy these summer recipes wherever you are in the world. Don´t forget to leave a comment if you try any of them.

Take advantage of the Tuscan land with Coocking Classes

Tuscan traditions are strongly bound to the roots of Tuscan cooking, its flavors and the cuisine.
A famous travel agency in Siena, the Cor Magis, offers to its customers the opportunity to take part to tailored cooking classes.

The spirit of this cooking school is based on the Tuscan tradition, therefore the ingredients used during all classes are those that throughout the centuries have come to be part of the Tuscan tradition.
The recipes are of course the most traditional ones. Here you will learn how to cook the true and simple Tuscan way, without all the frills and compromising spices and foreign tastes that you encounter at most restaurants outside Italy and Tuscany.


Each class is designed around you and your group, so you will learn to love what you do and have lots of fun, whether your dish is a success or a "fiasco"!

Some examples of what you will be able to learn are from the very basic bruschetta (pronounced brusketta), or the many appetizing sauces to create "crostini" (bread tarts), to the simple yet elaborated preparation of handmade pici.

What is more fun than learning such a pleasurable thing such as Tuscan cooking? A healthy and tasty way of life without messing up your kitchen.


The course of Cor Magis includes:

-Transfer from your accommodation to the cooking school (and return to your accommodation, of course!)
-A professional chef that speaks several languages, so you will have all the instructions crystal clear.
-A professional kitchen able to accommodate your group that will allow you to learn comfortably.
-The final dinner, where you will enjoy the dishes you have prepared.

A taste of Porcini

When you visit Tuscany you can pick up these wild mushrooms. But do pick up the young small ones as the older porcini mushrooms may have maggots and do not taste as good. The best place to find these mushrooms is under an oak or chestnut tree in the wild forests in the Hills of Tuscany on a warm day after a fresh spell of rain.

Mushroom hunting is like a national past time in Autumn in many parts of Tuscany. Many locals and tourists enjoy exploring the forests to pick up these brown, ochre or rust coloured specialties. Chocolate brown coloured ones are the most highly prized mushrooms.

Many traditional Tuscan dishes are made using these mushrooms as one of the main ingredients. You can also use it to make a porcini mushroom sauce, for soups, in salads, in pasta dishes, stuffed porcini mushrooms or you can even grill it or fry it and lightly season it with olive oil and a hint of garlic.

Coniglio con Miele e Verdure - Rabbit with Honey and Vegetables

In some countries rabbits are considered pets just as cats and dogs, however in countries like France, Spain, Italy and there fore in Tuscany, the rabbit is not considered a pet but live food stock. Some may be express some concerns about this, but if you visit Tuscany and end up in a restaurant where rabbit is among the entrees you may want to give it a try, or at least consider that you may end up eating a close relative of the rabbit, the hare. Very common are the Pappardelle with hare sauce, indeed!

To those who do not have problems with eating a rabbit or have changed their minds over this, I would like to propose the recipe of rabbit with honey and vegetables, for 4 people.

Ingredients:
1 whole rabbit
80 grams of butter
4 carrots
4 turnips
100 grams of peas
100 grams of green beans
Half a glass of vinegar
1 table spoon of honey
Tarragon, Salt and Pepper

Chop it up:



In a medium size pan warm up the butter with the honey with the chopped up rabbit until the latter is lightly cooked on the outside.
Just as the rabbit pieces start to golden, add salt and pepper and remove from the pan keeping them in a warm place (a preheat oven at 50 Celsius is fine).
Lower the heat under the pan and pour the vinegar in. Let it evaporate slowly.
Meanwhile, boil the vegetables on the side for 5 minutes. If you steam them add some extra minutes. As soon as the vegetables are done put the rabbit pieces back into the pan and add the vegetables and minced tarragon.

Spigola Cipolle Pomodori - Sea Bass with Tomato and Onions

A very common fish that you will be able to get with your fishing rod (or buy at the fishmonger!), is the sea bass.

The ingredients for 4 people are:
1 sea bass (2 pounds)
3 tomatoes
2 onions
2 lemons
I glass of dry white wine
Thyme
Bay leaves
Parsley
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Wash the sea bass and set it in an oven pan on a bed of freshly sliced onions. Slice the tomatoes removing the seeds and set them around the sea bass. Slice the lemons thinly and cover up the sea bass with the slices. Add salt and pepper according to your taste.
Pour a tablespoon of olive oil on top of the lemons, adding the glass of white dry wineand add one whole bay leave on top.
Set the sea bass in the pre heated oven at 200 Celsius or 392 Fahrenheit for 20 minutes.

Tagliata Senese di Maiale - Sienese Pork Chop

The cinta senese breed, native to the Montagnola Senese area and the Chianti area, is the mother of all pork breeds in Tuscany.
The Etruscans already reared it and then it was among the Romans during their migrations; the farmers of the Middle Ages survived plagues and famines thanks to this animal.

Video preparation of Tagliata of Cinta Senese pork chop


It was a good reserve of food for everybody as it could be reared in the wild state for its resistance to bad weather.
In the past times, for the slow growing up of this breed (slaughtered after 12 months from its birth), quicker growing up breeds were privileged.
Following the trend of the most recent times towards a re-discovery of ancient values and tastes, the Cinta Senese is now breeded again.
The "Cinta Senese" breed is reared in a wild or in a half-wild "controlled" state.
The breeding area must be characterized by woods, sowable lands and grasslands; the feeding is integrated with vegetable origin flours as barley, corn and fava bean flour.
Nowadays every pork is registered in the Genealogy Book (as it is for Chianina breed) existin ever since 1934 (date of first breed selections); the Book is kept by the Agriculture Itinerant Chair of Siena.

The Cinta Senese meat is homogeneously veined of fat, while in the other breeds the fat side and the lean side are sharply separated.

For that reason the cinta senese meat is extraordinarily scented and tasty.

As the old saying goes, "of a pork, you never throw anything away"; so many different salami products can be prepared: bacon-fat, bacon, hogs jowls, ham, sausages, coppa and many others.

Ancient recipes of the Templars: Biscuits

These bay leaf Tuscan cheese biscuits are easy to make and the video is full of useful information on the everyday life that templars would experience to get the nourishments during their journey to the Sacred Land and the Crusades.

The video is about 5 minutes long. Enjoy!

The slad for those who wish to have a spicy day

Well do not get my word for it! Even the cook master in the video underlines that the aphrodisiac propertis of this salad have to be taken with a question mark.

Anyhow, the white truffle is famous in Tuscany for being aphrodisiac, and true or not, if you like truffles, this salad is spectacularly good.

Most of all, this is an experiment to help you non-Italian speakers (I should say understanders) to get what this great guy has to teach to the world on hidden Tuscan recipes. My previous videos of him where without English translations. Let me know if you like it, any advice you have. I will then go back and have the others dubbed too.

Thank you, enjoy, and also let us know if this really was an aphrodisiac salad!! :P

Exitement over your table with the Truffle Tarts!

Black truffles are called "scorzoni" [skowrzohnee] as refferred in the video.

This video in Italian language from Casa Tocci shows a very simple way of preparing black truffle tarts.

If you do not know Italian, I have written down here the recipe for you:

Set a handful of black truffles (dry ones, not the pickeled ones in a jar) and set them in a glass of "Vino Santo" (a sweet Tuscan dessert wine made from raisins and aged two years in small barrels) overnight.
Get some good quality pork lard and slice it thinly. Wrap each truffle with the slice of lard and then wrap the whole thing with a layer of tin foil.
Set the wrapped truffles under hot ashes (do not set besides live charcoal!!!) in your fireplace and leave there until soft (depending on the teperature it may take two hours).

That's it! Enjoy!

Hand Made tradition of Tuscan pasta

Simply work the dough with flower and eggs until it's smooth and soft.
Flatten it, spread a little olive oil...Oh well, you will be better off just watching the video. Just 3 minutes in length, it tells you a bit about olive oil, too.


Enjoy!

Tortelini Pasta hand made

Some details will escape your attention, like the grated nutmeg or some dialog that is not properly translated, but watching this lady preparing Tortellini for Christmas and New Year's is very relaxing, and if you follow what she is doing and the subtitles you will have great homemade tortellini yourself

The traditional way of making Bruscheta

Mixed Bruschetta


Ingredients:

Goat cheese and tomato (self explanatory)
VEGETABLE PUREE - FOR 10 PEOPLE:
8-1/2 oz (250 grams) Lentils
8-1/2 oz (250 grams) Chick Peas
8-1/2 oz (250 grams) Cannellini beans
salt, extra vergine olive oil, tomato concentrate--to taste
2 cloves garlic
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 hot pepper (peperoncino)

Preparation:
Boil the vegetables and drain them; meanwhile fry the garlic, rosemary, and some of the hot pepper in the olive oil and then add the vegetables with a bit of their water. Add salt to taste and tomato concentrate for a touch of color. Pass through a food mill and add a bit of oil. Place on top of the toasted bread slices with a piece of bacon on each.

Ricotta Cake

Ricotta Cake


Many times the Italians just lump all cheese in the salata category - thinking that it is best eaten with the main course but there are some special exceptions on the menu where the cheese can go either way depending on the condiments served. Ricotta cheese is great with either salty foods or sweet foods and in this receipe it is great as a dessert.


Ingredients:

500 gr. of fresh, creamy ricotta cheese
100 gr. sugar
150 gr. whipping cream
2 eggs whites
Whip egg whites and set aside.

Mix ricotta cheese, sugar and whipping cream together. Mix well.

Add egg whites.

Served chilled with fresh fruit (strawberries, peaches or raspberries).

It has a rich creamy texture like a thick vanilla pudding!

How to make Panzanella

Origins of this dish go back to the sheep herders who while moving the sheep long distances had very little food - and that which was to be had was normally stale bread and the local vegetables found along their trails. This dish makes the best of both ingredients.

Ingredients:

Weights are approximate, this will make enough as a pasta dish for about 3-4 persons.

approx. 2 cups - hard bread - best to use bread with as few base ingredients as possible - flour, yeast, water is the best.
tomato - cut into cubes and take out excess juice and seeds
cucumber - peel and cut into little cubes
iceberg lettus - cleaned and cut into mouth size pieces
onion - cut into small pieces. Though many would want to leave this out, it was probably one of the few veggies that the herders were sure to find along the trail
basil in abundance, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt
Mix salad ingredients and basil together and dress lightly with extra virgin olive oil, vinegar and salt. There is no right or wrong way to dress the salad, it is all done to taste. For example the Italians prefer more oil than vinegar - yet most others go a little heavier on the vinegar. By mixing the salad first with the dressing you don't risk the bread getting too dressed and thus a heavy flavour out of proportion with the rest of the salad.

Cut the bread in 2 - 3 inch cubes and soak the bread until it has absorbed the water (hint: don't let it absorb too much water - just enough that it is damp) - squeeze excess water out and crumb lightly into a bowl. Mix well with salad.

Some variations include adding tuna fish and or white navy beans - however the traditional recipe is very simple.

Serve immediately.

How to make Tuscan Ravioli Nudi (or Gnoochi gnudi)

Ravioli Nudi (or Gnoochi gnudi)
Perhaps one of the more classical and antique dishes in all of Italy, first mentioned in a cookbook from the 1300's written in the old Tuscan language. These small shaped dumplings are traditionally from cheese and flour and have changed over the years to include potatoes or as in this case spinach and ricotta cheese.

Ingredients:

Weights are approximate, you can vary according to the density of the final mix. This will make enough as a pasta dish for about 3-4 persons.

approx. 2 cups - Spinach and Swiss chard, boiled and pressed so that no excess water remains, they should be finely chopped and mixed well together.
approx. 1 cup - soft and creamy - but not to liquid - ricotta cheese
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
flour (enough to thicken the mix but not more than 3/4 of a cup)
salt, pepper, nutmeg (to taste)
Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. You will find that the final consistency should be firm not mushy.

Use a soup spoon to divide out little pieces of the mix to make small meatball shape gnoochi. Roll the balls lightly in flour so that it is not too sticky. Don't make the balls too large, it you will have a greater chance of them coming apart.

Normally the balls are placed in boiling water until they float to the top and served with your favorite sauce. Meat sauce is a classic however in Italy many like to use simple butter and sage so that the true flavour of the "pasta" comes out.

For those of you who are having problems keeping the pasta together - or if the consistensy just doesn't look promising, many Italians will spoon the gnoochi into a baking dish, a little bit like cookie dough. Then they lightly cover the balls with a besciamela sauce (either white or with meat sauce) and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top - 30 minutes in the oven at about 300°F and you have a great dish--with a little less work.

Delicious recipe of Rice with Nero - Risotto al Nero

Ingredients:
400g (2 and 1/2 cups) of rice, 500g (one pound) of small squids, 500g (one pound) of spinach, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 onions, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, 1 liter (1 qt.) of vegetable broth, half glass of decent white wine.

Preparation:
Clean the squids, remove the bone and the eyes. Put aside, without breaking them, the bags with the black ink and rinse the squids under running water.
Dice the squids to small pieces and throw them in a pan where you have previously set the chopped onions and garlic to gently fry in 5 spoonfulls of extra virgin olive oil.
Gently stir the mix until it resumes boiling, then throw in the pan the spinach that you have previously washed and chopped.
Add salt and pepper to taste and cook at medium-low heat for at least 30 minutes, half covering the pan with a lid.
After 30 minutes add the rice, the white wine and the black ink that you have gently gathered from the bags extracted from the squids. Let the ink soack the rice evenly.

Finish cooking the rice slowly adding the vegetable broth (which should be almost at boiling temperature, not to let cooking change in temperature). Keep adding the broth each time the rice absorbs it, and until the rice is completely cooked.

The traditional steack fiorentina

Jucy and Tasty, the Easy Way

Since 2001 the Fiorentina Steak has been newly legalized.

The secret to have a great Bistecca alla Fiorentina is the cooking process. The meat needs to remain raw in the middle, just seared on the sides.
This is a test for your trusted butcher shop!

Well, here the receipe, or better, the procedure!

Ingredients:
- One T-bone steak weighing at least 1200 gr. including the fillet. The beef must be rather young.
- Pepper
- Salt

Cut to the steak 2 inches thick.
Put the steak on the charcoal grill, paying attention that there is no flame whatsoever; however, the charcoal must be bright.
Cook exactly 7 minutes on each side (or until you see that the glir has left its mark.
Remove from the grill.

Add salt to taste on both sides, only sfter you have removed it from the grill.

Slightly sprinkle with freshly grinded black pepper, if you wish.

Serve the Florentine Steak without any other condiment.

Cavallucci are the tradition of Siena

Today, enriched with some better ingredient than the original receipe had, I present to you the Cavalucci of Siena!

Ingredients for 30 cookies:

150g of flour, 25 g of candy orange rind, 7g of anise, a teaspoon of cinnamon, half teaspoon of mixed spezie, 50 g of walnuts, 150g of sugar, half glass of water, one egg white, butter in order to grease the pan.

The procedure:

Put in one bowl the flour, the minced candy orange rind, the crushed anise seeds, the minced cinnamon, spices and walnuts.
In a casserole mix the sugar with the water and put on the fire to boil.
When boiling mix in all the ingredients that you have prepared before, stir well and remove from the fire.
Turn this dense paste upside down on the table that you have previously covered with a thin layer of flour, left to cool down.
Then with your hands wet with egg white work in the dough to form a homogenous mass.
Spread the dough with the wooden or pin roll to obtain small rumbles of the height of half inch.
Put them in the oven on one buttered and flour-sprinkled oven pan for half hour approximately at the temperature of 160 Celsius and let the cavallucci dry, avoiding to let them darken.

Tuscan Spaghetti Tomato Sauce

Tasty Spaghetti Sauce

Easy, 123 steps to make a great tomato sauce for your spaghetti atr home.
The tuscan way calls for very simple ingredients and little effort. Nonetheless the resulting taste is great.

For four people you will need half a kilo of peeled canned tomatoes (pastene, cirio, pinecone are pretty good. Campbell's are just bad tomatoes) or canned cherry tomatoes, or fresh red flavourful tomatoes. Three cloves of garlic, a pinch of salt, three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and few lwaves of fresh basil. At this regard I have to warn you: do not use dry basil. It spoils the whole thing.

Open the can of tomatoes, pour the oil in a large frying pan, chop the garlic and set it in the oil until golden. Pay particular attention not to have the garlic become brown or even burnt. Pour the whole content of the tomato can in the pan and stir. Add the pinch of salt. Some also add a little sugar (half a teaspoon) if the tomatoers are not that good.

Let the sauce become a little thicker stirring it every now and then. When it has reached the desired consistency remove it from heat and add the basil leaves that you can simply reap to large pieces with your hands. Stir then cover for five minutes, then stir again. The sauce is ready! Pour the spaghetti in and mix. Enjoy!

Tuscan Bread Salad - The real deal

Stale Bread to taste!

If the Tuscan Bread Salad recipe is not enought for you watch the video recipe in English!

Since there is much ado about very little, because the real Tuscan bread salad is really simple, here you have the original recipe:



Ingredients: Ripe red tomatoes, better if Vesuvian ones, celery (even the leaves if you like them), peeled cucumber, lettuce, just few chopped leaves, basil 10-15 leaves, red onions to taste, one clove of garlic, olive oil, salt, vinegar, black pepper. Last, but the most important, the bread, one whole loaf of STALE artisan bread. Why stale (not moldy!!) ? Because you have to wet it and squeeeeeeze it with your hands so that it becomes moist crumbles and larger moist chunks. Fresh bread gets moist in a whole different way, and it just becomes soggy bread. If you have fresh bread, dry it in the oven.
To wet it, break it in large pieces, let it soak in the water until you feel the water has arrived to the core of the piece. Remove the pieces from the water and sqeeeeeze away the water with your hands.
Put all the bread in another large bowl, and throw in there all the previously chopped up vegetables.
Add any vegetable to taste and to have a uniform consistency.
Add salt, oil, vinegar (quite a bit of these last two) and sprinkle with black pepper.
Toss very very very well, then let it rest 10 minutes in the fridge. Toss again and then serve.
Makes for even more tasteful leftovers!!!