Tuscan recipes | PlanningaTour.com

Tuscany – The Great Italian Bread Myth

Come on, admit it, British bread is much better than this Italian stuf…
On a recent trip to the UK, i finally found something that i mis; it’s a nice fresh soft load of Mother’s Pride from the local supermarket.
Processed food, probably filled with all kinds of weird modified, life-threatening chemicals, but doesn’t it taste good? It makes perfect toast, lightly grilled with butter or, better still, a real treat with the centre pulled out and rolled into a ball in the palmo f your hands and then eaten in one mouthful. Delicious. It i salso a really good way of clearing your hands. Admittley, your local branch of Sainsbury’s or Waitrose is more likely to be offering French baguette or Italian ciabatta but at least you can still buy unhealthy bread in Britain if you go to the right places. You can even geti t in restaurants. Well, i say reastaurants but you know what i mean, those places where you can get a real English breakfast anytime of day.
Actually, Eglish breakfast is another thing i miss, but i’ll tray and stay focussed on the bread. On my recent trip, i was reminded that Englsh breakfast even comes served with a dollop of brown sauce, unless you are really quick and stop them, but who is that together at 8 am after the insanely early Pisa_Liverpool Ryanair flight? But then who said there is no remaining traditional colour in the UK? An equivalent activity in one of the villeges of the Garfagnana Valley would have us all trekking up there in search of some local caracter and maybe a glass of grappa as we head for the door. But try buying a grappa anywhere else in the world but Italy and you will run into problems there must be a reason for that? Sorry, i am getting diverted again.
Sure, you can get approximations of soft bread in Italy. Conad makes one which isn’t bad when it is fresh. Giusti’s, the excellent bread shop in Lucca, however, singularly, fails to come up to the mark in the field of unhealty processed bread, in spite of being an otherwise impressive operation.
Just off Piazza San Michele, i have never seen such a popular shop. It can be quicker getting served in the bank than buying your daily bread from them. They have an unusual queuing method where everyone who arrives after you seems to get served first.
But i suppose it at least helps you learn to mix it with the locals; either that or starve. They also have unusual names for the bread, boy Scouts? Militari? What is that all about? Give me a couple of baps every time.
But their bread is admittedly excellent; crusty, fresh, tasty, it even has salt in it. And Giusti’s flour is a prime ingredient, brought in fresh from the wheat fields of the Padana river basin, or somewhere, and lovingly prepared by committed professionals. Just think of a Mulino Bianco advert to get the full effect of the image i am trying to create here. You know the thing, crusty bread with rich green olive oil dripping down your chin as you take a bite, sorrounded by laughing children and old folk gathered around the farmhouse table.
So what is my problem? Why the login for the processed aquidgy stuff which is about as good for you as a dose of Swine Flu?
I’m not saying that Mother’s Pride is a real alternative to fresh Lucchese bread. Even if it does fit in the toaster it still doesn’t absorb the olive oil. I’ve tried; it still doesn’t absorb the olive oil. I’ve tried; it all just drips off leaving the bread completely unmarked.
So iìm not really sure where the login for nasty processed British bread comes from and what it says about my mental health. But it is there so i guess it is just something i need to deal with and try to accept what is probably obvious to all for you: That you cannot really compare production line bread with something produced by an artisan. It is like comparing a Ford Focus with a Ferrari.
But then again, which one would you choose if you actually needed to drive somewhere?
(Mauro Vincent)

Antico Forno Amedeo Giusti:
Via S.Lucia 18/20 – 55100 Lucca
Tel: 0583 496285

e-mail: fornoavapore-giusti@luccavirtuale.it

Tuscany recipe: “Pollo del vignaiolo”

Ingredients:
1 chicken weighing about 1 kg;
one bottle of Montecarlo Bianco wine;
one 400 g (approx.) bunch of Trebbiano Toscano grapes;
a little podere cinnamon;
3 glasses of brandy, salt, pepper, a little white flour, some bay leale.
Marinade the grapes in the brandy and cinnamon.
Place the grapes inside the chicken and close the opening. Add salt and pepper and brown the chicken in a saucepan with the bay leale.
When it is well browned, add a glass of wine and continue to cook for about 40 minutes in the oven.
Baste woth glasses of wine to keep it moist.
Carve, place on a serving dish and surround it with the grapes and sauce made by adding the flour and glass of wine to the coking juices.

Tuscany – Bruschetta or “fettunta”

Ingredients for 4 people:
8 slices of thinly sliced day old tuscan bread, 1 garlic clove, extra virgin oil, salt and pepper, 2 chopped ripe tomatoes (optional).
Lightly toast the bread under the grill (or on the BBQ), rub each slice with garlic and arrange on a service plate, sprinkle some salt and pepper on top and coat with extra virgin oil, oil add the tometoes.
Serve warm.

Tuscany – Cod cakes on chickpeas and rosemary veloute

Ingredients (servers 4)
250 gr. Dry chickpeas (or canned ones, but not so good)
½ kg. Baccalà (you can by it already soave to save time)
2 eggs
2 tbspoonfuls of parmigiano
1 carrot
1 celery stick
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
fish broth
withe flour
rosemery
parsley
1 bay leaf
salta and pepper
Have you ever eaten baccalà with chickpeas?
This recipe is a reworking of the traditional dish wich is so very popular in the Lucchesia region.
If you are using dry chickpeas, soak them overnight. Then bring them to boil in a large pan with the celery stick, half onion, carrot, bay leaf and three black peppercorns, and coock until tender (i twill take about an hour but depends on the type of chickpeas. If they still hard after that time you can put a pinch of soda bicarbonate to tenderize them.)
Keep the baccalà in the water for five hours (the water must be changed often).
Mince the baccalà in a food processor, add the eggs, parmigiano, masse garlic, minced parsley, and season with salt and pepper to your taste.
Add flour until the consistency is such that that combined ingredients can be formed into cakes. Fry the cod cakes in oil.
Liquidize the chickpeas with some fish broth. In a sauce pan fry a clove of garlic with some Rosemary in extra virgin olive oil until the garlic is lightly browned.
Remove the garlic and herbs and add the oil to the chickpeas, season with salt and pepper and bring back to boil for few minutes.
Serve the veloutè in a large dish with the cod cakes and decorate with a spring of fresh rosemary.

Tuscan Recipes, Chick Pea Veloutè with Vegetable Tartare and Basil Oil

For the chick pea soup
350 gm chick peas
1 stick celery, roughly chopped
4 shallots ,thinly sliced
1 carrot, roughly chopped
4 dessertspoons olive oil
A sprig of fresh thyme
A sprig of fresh rosemary
3 fresh sage leaves
2 litres water
salt

For the vegetable tartare
1/2 sick celery
1/2 courgette
1/2 carrot
2 shallots
1/2 red pepper
15 fresh leaves basil
50 ml olive oil
salt and pepper

For decoration
4 basil leaves fried in the little olive oil

Soak the stick chick peas for 12 hours or overnight, rinse and put them in the saucepan with 2 liters of water .

Add the carrot and the celery and pinch of salt and simmer for 1 and half hours. While the chick peas are cooking, gently fry the shallot in the little olive oil with the thyme leaves, rosemary needles and sage leaves.

Drain the cooked chick peas over a bowl keeping the cooking water for later. Add the chick peas to the shallot and herbs, add 3 or 4 ladles of cooking water and gently simmer for 10 minutes. Blend into a smooth cream or “veloute” using a hand-held blender, adding a little more cooking water if necessary.

To make the vegetable tartare,wash and trim all the vegetables, then cut them into small, similar sized cubes. Place the remaining ingredients- the fresh basil leaves, olive oil and salt and pepper-in a tall jug and blend using a hand-held blender.
Dress the vegetable with the basil oil.

Put a small amount of the vegetable tartare in the middle of each of your serving bowls. Its best to use a small metal ring to help keep the vegetables together and create a neater shape. Pour the chick pea veloute around the vegetable tartare, decorate with the fried basil leaves and serve.