The Bruschetta

Eating in Italy often starts with the small antipasti. There are hundreds of them. Proba­bly the most typical for Tuscany is the bruschetta. This tradi­tion dates back to a time when bread was not abundant on our tables. At that time, people aimed at finding tasteful ways to give stale bread a second life. The bruschetta, affec­tion­a­tely also known as fettunta, is the epitome of reduc­tion to the essen­tial. A slice of Tuscan bread is lightly toasted on wood embers and finely rubbed with fresh garlic to taste. Tradi­tio­na­lists of Tuscan cuisine will limit this to the crust of the bread. Then we sprinkle it with our exqui­site organic extra virgin olive oil. Thats’it, the starter is ready. A unique culinary highlight is enjoy­ing the fettunta in Novem­ber, in front of the open fire, after retur­ning home from the olive press. Because then the smell of fresh olives spreads throug­hout our holiday home and makes us forget the fatigue of the day.

A further develo­p­ment of this tradi­tion in Tuscany is the crostini. Here, the crispy toasted bread is combi­ned with small local special­ties that match the mood and the season. There are no limits to the imagi­na­tion when it comes to crostini recipes. When it’s warm, for example, we eat them with fresh tomatoes and basil. A more powerful combi­na­ti­ons is crostini with fegatini, i.e. chicken liver pâté with thyme. In our restaurant we also serve them with salsic­cia and fennel. In autumn instead, they taste wonderful with ceci, mushrooms and melted cheese.

Eating sausage specialities in Italy

An affett­ati platter is often served as starter. In Tuscany, this includes raw ham, tasty salami and dried meat. Likewise, the finoc­chiona, a delicious fresh salami, mildly enriched with fennel seeds. Further­more, a great idea on warm days is eating prosci­utto melone, or, even better, raw ham on the lovely green figs from our garden.

Anchovies, the ancient power bar for farmers

When the farmers in Tuscany had a snack in the morning after the first work in the fields, they usually resor­ted to acciughe col segato. These are ancho­vies marina­ted in olive oil with garlic and lots of fresh parsley. Durable, tasty, salty, rich in vitamins. True energy snacks for the field work. This specialty has made its way onto our tables as starter. Taste it, even without the toil of fieldwork.

Eating cheese specialities in Italy

In spring you should not miss having baccelli e pecorino, a seaso­nal specia­lity of Tuscany. This is a combi­na­tion of raw fresh broad beans with sheep cheese. Of course, we take the pecorino from our neigh­bou­ring shepherd, accor­ding to perso­nal prefe­rence, mild or spicy. Both go perfectly well also with fruity flavours. That’s why we serve it with local honey and our jams, too. The pecorino makes a perfect pair with our sweet fig jam, but just as well with the fruity apricot jam or the tradi­tio­nal grape jam. Further­more, don’t forget to try our shepherd’s a delicious fresh sheep milk ricotta.

The “natio­nal” starter in Italy is the trio tomato-mozza­rella-basil. This is due to its three colours, green-white-red, that are the colours of Italy’s flag. Accor­ding to legend, this dish was created on Capri Island during the founding period of the Italian Republic. It is there­fore called Caprese.

Eating vegetarian in Italy

Vegeta­rian dishes have a firm place among the antipasti of Tuscany. Small salads with aroma­tic cocktail tomatoes in summer and beetroot in autumn, bring fresh­ness to Tuscan meals. As well as seaso­nal vegeta­bles, raw, grilled, stuffed, or fried. Zucchini blossoms and articho­kes, deep-fried in pastella, a crispy batter, are very popular in Tuscany. From March onwards, the menu includes carciofi in pinzi­mo­nio. These are raw or blanched artichoke leaves, dipped in olive oil and seaso­ned with salt, pepper and lemon. Outside of the artichoke season, alter­na­tively other raw vegeta­bles are served in pinzi­mo­nio.

Starters based on eggs

On a farm with fresh eggs from happy chickens, like the Agritu­rismo Podere, starters obviously include stuffed eggs. They are served with a homemade mayon­naise enriched with tuna, capers or ancho­vies. Likewise, frittatas of every kind, with zucchini, tomatoes, red onions or, in autumn, with chanter­el­les that we collect in our forest.

-   Our olives, starter & more -

The small olives in Tuscany are classic oil fruits and cannot be compared with the large edible olives. Initi­ally, plucked directly from the tree, they are not suita­ble for eating. First, they have to be prepared in a month-long proce­dure. To begin with, from our harvest we select those olives with the most pulp. Also, we look for those most uniformly dark colou­red. As a matter of fact, in nature they are not evenly black in colour like the olives in the super­mar­ket. The latter ones are artifi­ci­ally blacke­ned. Because they get their uniform black colour from the addition of ferrous gluco­nate, as indica­ted on the list of ingre­di­ents. We however, follo­wing Grandma’s instruc­tions to the letter, put our olives to rest in alter­na­ting saltwa­ter soluti­ons of varying concen­tra­ti­ons for speci­fic periods of time. Only after some months they are filled into the jar as olive in salamoia.

Our olives have a very intense taste and are a delicacy for true olive lovers. In Tuscany we like to eat them with antipasti because they are appetiz­ing. In starter recipes, they go wonderfully with tomato sauces, for example in the putta­ne­sca. Similarly, the prepa­ra­tion of Italian in umido stews also includes a generous addition of olives. We will be happy to intro­duce you to olives during our themed dinner dedica­ted to olives and olive oil. Then you’ll learn about the many uses of this gorge­ous fruit and round off the evening with a grappa alle olive.