Pasta the way Mamma makes it

Pasta and Italy, that’s an insepa­ra­ble marriage. The first choice to be taken when prepa­ring pasta dishes is the pasta-sauce combi­na­tion. Spaghetti, linguine, penne, fusilli, conchi­g­lie. Each type of pasta has its own bite and absorbs the sauce differ­ently. There­fore, depen­ding on the type of pasta, diffe­rent propor­ti­ons of pasta and sauce will get on the fork. Rigatoni go along with pasta alle melanz­ane, penne with pasta alla boscaiola. Pesto sticks parti­cu­larly well to the larger linguine. On the other hand, spaghetti are the faithful partners of the creamy pasta alla carbo­n­ara. This is of course made with fresh eggs from our happy chickens and no cream at all. Find out more at the table of our restaurant in holiday home Podere Palazzone.

Meat sauces for pasta in Italy

Meat sauce recipes in Tuscany often use classic Tuscan salsic­cia. For example, in a tomato or mushroom sauce. Minced meat is also popular, such as in the Tuscan ragù al finoc­chi­etto. Pork bacon, on the other hand, goes into the spaghetti all’amatriciana.

Vegetarian recipes from Tuscany

The starter in our restaurant is often vegeta­rian. Because fresh vegeta­bles such as auber­gi­nes, zucchini, or peperoni are much used in recipes for pasta sauces in Italy. Also beans. They make up the delicious pasta fagioli. Of course, all the vegeta­bles come from our vegeta­ble garden behind the farmhouse. However, the perfect couple is pasta and tomatoes. What could be better than a simple dish of penne with a full-bodied tomato sauce and a few drops of our organic olive oil? This is especi­ally true for our untrea­ted tomatoes, ripened under the Tuscan sun. Because we only pick them when they are really ripe. Red, juicy, tasty and with the typical smell of grass and wet earth. We use raw cherry tomatoes in our summer pasta al sugo crudo. Instead, the long San Marzano tomato are cooked and trans­for­med into tomato sauce. The sugo is proces­sed directly after harvest, some fresh basil added and boiled down in jars. That’s why we can offer the full aroma and taste of the best tomatoes in our pasta dishes all year round.

Spiciness to your heart’s content

Those who like spici­ness usually adore spaghetti alla putta­ne­sca. We serve it with our homemade peppe­ron­cino-pesto in diffe­rent degrees of spici­ness. This is diffe­rent types of crashed peppers from our vegeta­ble garden, preser­ved in olive oil. We recom­mend a very careful dosing.

Lasagne & Ravioli

The favou­rite Italian pasta par excel­lence are proba­bly the lasagne. They come in diffe­rent varia­ti­ons: With minced meat sauce or meatless with sugo and becha­mel. Or, in autumn, with radic­chio and with mushrooms. Further­more, a very tasty recipe is the lasagne al pesto. To prepare pesto you need best olive oil, well-ripened pecorino, fresh basil and roasted seeds. As if made for us! Because all these ingre­di­ents are available here in Tuscany in best quality. In our restaurant we use sunflower seeds for pesto, because of their pleasant nutty flavour. Moreo­ver, they are of local produc­tion, too. From our neigh­bou­ring region on the coast of Tuscany, the Maremma, we have adopted another specia­lity, the tortelli Marem­mani. These large ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach are best served with butter and crispy fried sage.

Risotto & Co. in the recipes of Tuscany

Durum wheat noodles are not every­thing Italy’s cuisine has to offer. Indeed, in former times, pasta was made from spelt. This pasta al farro is still used in Tuscan recipes today. Also, the older genera­tion of Pomarance still remem­bers, that up until the 1970s, on weekdays only polenta was served. Pasta was something exclu­sive, restric­ted to Sundays and public holidays. Then people dined in good Sunday clothes at the big dining table with the fine porce­lain. Popular alter­na­ti­ves when it comes to starters are also gnocchi made from potatoes. At the Podere Palazzone restaurant we prepare them with delicate cheese sauces, with panna or with a nut sauce. Another typical element of Italian cooking is the risotto. There is no limit to fantasy in the count­less risotto recipes. Mostly, they are vegeta­rian, with vegeta­bles, herbs or diffe­rent kinds of cheese. The risotto all’a­ran­cia is a dish you will surely fall in love with.

Refreshing first courses in Italy

Impos­si­ble to imagine Tuscan cuisine without basil. Indeed, in our herb garden it gows excel­lently. With its strong aroma, it gives every dish a summery fresh­ness. That’s the taste of the Mediter­ra­nean. Hence, it is a crucial ingre­di­ent in many summer starters, such as the condita. In brief, it is a kind of mixed salad with whate­ver fresh green and vegeta­bles the kitchen garden offers. However, the main thing is lots of fresh basil. In general, salads are a welcome alter­na­tive to pasta dishes. How about a couscous salad with crunchy vegeta­bles in summer? Or a pappa al pomodoro, the cold dish made from fresh tomatoes, herbs and bread? The latter is somewhat similar to the panzan­ella, a bread salad with tomatoes and summer vegeta­bles. To season the salads, in the Podere Palazzone holiday home we use our homemade fruity red wine vinegar.