Tuscany food | PlanningaTour.com

Balsamic vinegar

Dark, glossy, sweetly sour, balsamic vinegar is the perfect condiment for both salads and desserts. Here’s how to choose a great one.

It costs more than many wines. It fills the rooms of a museum. It even inspired one of Italy’s greatest designers, Giugiaro, to create a bottle out of Murano glass. It’s hard to believe that aceto balsamico is a humble byproduct of grape must.
But then many elements conspire to make this vinegar special. Its history for starters—the very first grape must vinegars were made in the area in Roman times, although the qualifier ‘balsamic’ was only appended to the condiment in the 18th century.

Then its production method—must from Trebbiano, Lambrusco or Ancellotta grapes is cooked, then fermented and aged in progressively smaller casks made of chestnut, mulberry, oak, juniper, ash and other woods, for at least 12 years. And most of all, its taste—thick, viscous and glossy dark, it teases the mouth with a round, velvety texture and a complex flavour that has notes of must and of the many woods the vinegar aged in. And, unlike any other vinegar, the balsamico’s perfect balance of sweet and sour ensures it is just as good on salads, meats and parmesan as on strawberries, zabaione or custard.

However, not every aceto balsamico is the traditional, mouth-watering deal. Only balsamic vinegar made in the Reggio Emilia and Modena provinces, following the strict rules laid out by two local consortia—which include mandatory tastings of each vinegar before it is released to the public—can be called aceto balsamico tradizionale.

The traditional variety tastes much better than plain aceto balsamico di Modena (which is usually a blend of must and wine vinegar, sometimes with added caramel, and doesn’t require ageing in casks), and is a world apart from the cheaper, so-called ‘balsamic’ vinegars, which are just normal wine vinegar with caramel and thickeners.
Traditional balsamic vinegar are usually made by passionate small producers, like Modena’s Ermes Torricelli, who runs a garage by trade and makes vinegar for fun, and are covered by a European Protected Denomination of Origin, as well as its Italian equivalent, the DOP.

The label is not only a useful tool to help consumers distinguish the small-scale, cask-aged artisanal product from cheaper industrial versions, but also a recognition of the part the vinegar plays in the local culture—events such as weddings or births are often celebrated by acquiring new casks to use in the production process, or bequeathing old ones to grown-up sons and daughters.
So if you are after the richest, most complex balsamic vinegar flavours, look for an aceto balsamico tradizionale DOP. Then look carefully at the bottle to find out how long the vinegar is aged for and what flavour you can expect from it.

Among the Reggio Emilia vinegars, choose the lobster-orange label for those aged at least 12 years, which have a clear vinegary note (great on meat and fish carpaccio); the silver label for those aged at least 18 years, which have an intensely sweet and sour taste (perfect on grilled fillet); or the gold one, for those aged at least 25 years, which have the richest flavour (try them on strong cheese, ice cream, custard, chocolate desserts or even drink them on their own at the end of a meal). Among the Modena ones, those with the white cap are aged for at least 12 years, whereas those with the gold cap are aged at least 25 years.

But if you want to savour only the very best, choose those tradizionali that topped the rankings at the Palio di San Giovanni, the annual competition for artisanal balsamic vinegars that takes place in Spilamberto, a village near Modena, which is home to the balsamic vinegar museum.

Every year, tasting masters sample more than a thousand balsamic vinegars over the course of two months to select the twelve best, which are awarded a prize. Here are the winners of last year’s edition, but beware—like all artisanal products that take time and effort to make, these vinegars don’t come cheap. Expect prices in the region of €40-€100 for 100ml bottles.

Leslie Halloran
Please check out my website at: www.lihdesigns.net

“A frog in the well does not know the sea.” – Japanese Proverb

Tuscan products

Formenton Otto File
Somewhere it’s called “the King2s corn” afer the fact that King Vittorio Emanuele II, appreciated a lot this kind of cereal and encorauged the production in Piedmont.
In Tuscany, or better in the Lucca district, it’s called “formenton”. In the smallest sectors of history and culture the small corn of this wild cereal are still cultivated. Long and thin, sorrounded by eight ranges – not one more, not one less -of big grain, golden or red depending on the variety.
Once they’re grinded one obtains a rustic flour to prepare several delicious dishes: a classical “polenta” to serve a side of cured meat ad stewed, some cakes and a special bread enriched in zibibbo raisin, even served to accompany cured meat and cheeses.
The seeding is in may, after the ploughing ant the fertilization of the soil.
After the blossoming the young plants are thinned out and harvested manually.
After some 20-30 days of drying, the grains are picked and at last the griding, mainly in the old stone mills of the Valley.
The “ottofile” corn is a characteristic variety nowadays almost lost. Only 250-30 q. are produced every year and sold mostly in the area and in the rest of Tuscany after the growing success of the natural food.

Web-site: www.ottofile.it (only in Italian)

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.

Tuscany Trouffle season! Heaven can wait…

You’d think they were giving them away to witness the annual stampede to specialty restaurants and gourmet shops up and down the Italian peninsula where customers become positively unruly elbowing each other out of the way to get served first.

On the contrary, the divinely pungent white truffles of Piedmont and Tuscany are practically worth their weight in gold. In season, fresh, first quality truffles will easily fetch 3,000 to 4,000 euros a kilo, and it takes just one taste of a risotto or omelet dressed with shavings of white truffle to acquire a lifelong unbating passion for this shy tuber.

Truffle worship is not a new phenomenon – the ancients considered these delectable comestibles to be the “undisputed king of the table” and, better still, a potent aphrodisiac. In their writings, such luminaries as Pliny the Elder, Pythagoras, Epicurus, Plutarch and Nero waxed ecstatic over them.

Alexandre Dumas once declared that if a truffle could speak it would say, “ Eat me and adore God.”
No wonder there has been chronic skullduggery and backroom brawls among truffle hunters over the centuries.

Though recently formed professional associations have established standards, required hunter sto be licensed and keep a tight control over prices in order to eliminate disputes and other unpleasantries, each year the newspeapers carry shocking stories of hunting dogs being poisoned or other crimes of violence or intimidation in truffle country.

For all the hoopla surrounding them, truffles are a most unassuming plant. Potato – like in shape, they are a subterranean fungus which grows on the roots of poplar, linden, oak and hazelnut trees. They can bea s small as a walnut or as large as a grapefruit.

There are said to bea s many as seventy varieties throughout Europe, from Portugal to the Czech Republic, and they can even be found in North Africa and Sardinia. Entrepreneurs have long attempted to develop techniques for commercial cultivation, such as inoculatine soil with fungus spores, but the secrets of the symiotic relationship between the tuber and its host tree and the surrounding conditions continue to elude them and they have met with only limited success.

As it has been throughout history, durino the months of November through January when truffles reach their peak aroma and maturità, it still remains for the truffle hunter and his four – legged companion to forage in the wild, through forest, over hill and dale, in search of the elusive truffle. Traditionally, especially in France, it was the farmer’s pig on a leash who hunted the truffles, with the farmer in hot pursuit. When the pig started rooting in the soil to get at the subterranean treasure, the farmer would drag the pig away bifore it had time to consume the precious tuber and then he would finish the digging.

Nowadays, for the most part, the pigs have been replaced by well-trained trufflehunting dogs who are happy with only a dog biscuit as a reward. Of all the truffle varieties, the two most prized are the black Tuber Melanosporum pound primarily in France and the white Tuber Magnatum found i the Piedmont and Tuscan regione of Italy.

Surprisingly, the two are vastly different in every aspect, not just color. The black truffle, whose outer skin sometimes has a honeycomb-like texture, has a mild but distinct aroma and nutty flavor. It is almost always marinated or cooked and then added to patés, terrines or the classic Périgourdine sauce.

White truffles, on the other hand, have a smooth outer skin and an intoxicatingly strong, distinct, some would say, primal aroma. I’ve been told it is againts the law to carry them on public transportation in Italy. White truffles should never be cooked. They are shaved raw over cooked risotto, pasta, omelets, cheese fonde, Florentine steaks, cannellini beans and other vegetables.

Gourmet alimentari and butcher shops in Lucca, and hill towns such as Volterra and San Miniato al Tedesco ( which are the prime Tuscan areas for truffle hunting) offer for sale wonderful truffled pecorino cheese, fresh truffled pork sausage, fresh ravioli pasta filled with ricotta cheese and truffles butter. ( From personal experience, I do not recommend prepackaged jars of truffled butter or truffled olive oil. )

Many of restaurants in and around Volterra and san Miniato al Tedesco offer unforgettable truffle meals.
When purchasing fresh white truffles, be sure to choose ones that are firm to the touch with a distinct aroma. Spongy truffles, be sure to choose ones that are firm to the touch with a distinct aroma. Spongy truffles, like spongy potatoes, are too old. Fresh truffles are cleaned by brushing them lightly with a soft brush or soft cloth.

They should not be washed unless coated with dirt. Fresh truffles have a short shelf life – they should be washed unless coated with dirt. Fresh truffles have a short shelf life – they should be consumed within a week of purchase. If not eaten immediately, wrap the truffle in kitchen toweling, seal in a glass jar and place in the vegetable crisper of the refrigerator. White truffles are sliced paper thin with a handheld tool known as a tagliatartufi , usually available at truffle fairs, gourmet shops or kitchen specialty storse.
Buon Appetito!

Salsa Verde – Tuscan Recipe –

This sauce was very popular in Medieval age and sold by the streets vendors that usually came from the countryside where they collected fresh herbs. There are variations of the below recipe where the addition of ginger, cinnamon, sage, cloves, or some breadcrumbs has modernized the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 Large bunch of Parsley
1 Egg
2 Anchovy Fillets in oil
1 tablespoon of Capers in vinegar
1 Garlic Clove
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Preparation:

Hard boil the egg then chop together the other ingredients.
A fine mixture is desired. If available, a food processor works very well.
Place in a bowl, add salt and pepper and dilute, stirring constantly, with good olive oil until the sauce is creamy.