PER COMINCIARE - To Start

The wild figs were still green but the sun warmed the thicket and the smell was intoxicating.

Never knowing quite how to begin a residency, I though a diary is always a good starting point, and as soon as I walked into the kitchen at the villa where we are staying in Tuscany I knew food was going to be a central focus. So here is my diary of foraging, finding local produce and trying to cook some Tucana recipes in full knowledge of my limited abilities.

The nearest supermarkets are (depending on which sign and who you ask) nearly a 3 hour return walk up and down the Tuscano mountainside. - around 12k. This picture is about 4/5th of the way to the shop! On the way we caught sight of many blackberries, rosemary and sage.

The aim is to find some Italian recipes, translate and give them a whirl.


First things first... Lets “starter’ at the very beginning… With the mother which will provide sour bread staples for the upcoming weeks..

I use flour and water to make a slurry then leave it somewhere airy for local yeast to infest! Give it little feeds of a sprinkle of water and flour once a day until foamy.

Items from Castel del Piano Carrefour

There are always some left over items in the cupboards from previous residents (dried lentils, flour, salt and pepper) and mat had picked up some staples including tomatoes, olives and several kinds of cheese between a train and a one of the buses on our way here.

Tuscan Scarpaccia

3 zuchine zucchini

8 fiori di zucca zucchini flower

4 cipollotti. spring onion

sale pepe salt and pepper

90g farina 0. plain flour

40g farina di ceci chickpea flour

2 tbs olio d’olivia olive oil

Wash and slice veggies, add salt and cover for a few hours in the fridge. Can use a colander here but I just put a wedge or parmigianino under one edge of the dish to let liquid drain

Use the vegetable liquid to make a batter by adding the flours and the salt and pepper

Press a thin layer (1cm) onto a greased baking tray til golden 190*C 30 mins or so

Other items

Lentil Salad

I boiled up some dried lentils in salted water for around 20 mins until tender. Then drained and added a slosh of red wine vinegar and olive oil and veggies that were on hand (Tomato, onion, olives and some basil)

Yoghurt bread

Mixed by feel! Plain flour with a dash of bicarb mixed with olive oil and yoghurt to form a dough. Rest for 10 mins before forming into balls and then flatten using a rolling pin. Fry in a pan with olive oil. This is a super simple bread recipe I used whilst waiting for the sourdough mother to develop.

We were invited to a local olive oil farm last night. where Davido launched some beautiful orange wine, coloured by the skin of the grape and aged in barrels made from the local chestnut wood. Not a white wine drinker by nature the hot weather and generous company not to mention the Italiano Karaoke made for a molto bene stasera.

3 August

The mother is ready! I know this as it was full of bubbles this morning and when I feed it she talked back. My mother at home is a decade old so this young bubbly entity is a bit new and exciting. I wonder if the yeast that has infested my batter began in the peach tree outside the window?

I love making bread I am always astonished that flour and water can make such a delicious and beautiful staple.

I normally throw flour and water and a dollop of mother into my beloved stand mixer at home so it has been a beautiful task this morning to knead again. Time feels like such a privilege.

I feel so in the moment standing barefoot on the terracotta, swaying , folding and twisting until the dough surrenders to me

Bread Recipe

I mix by feel so add a little extra flour here and a slosh of water there to get it to the consistency I want which is perhaps a learnt, sensory preference. I add a good pinch of salt if I remember on the second knead. in this first batch I’ve used a mix of flours found in the cupboard.

3/4 C mother/starter (feed a little first)

4 C Flour

2 C Water

Mix everything together adding flour and water as you go to get a kneadable soft clay like texture. Knead by pushing and then turning until you feel a kind of release and the dough softens to your pressure.

Let it rest til it’s grown (not quite doubled) then another knead and shape the bread. proof for another hour or so then to cook in a dutch oven (super easy non fail option) in a very hot oven. 220*C 25 mins with lid on then another 20 or so with lid off.


Barefoot on terracotta tiles. Leaning rhythmically into the marble, Pushing and twisting until the dough surrenders

Flour

I know to use 00 flour for pasta but I’ve never questioned why. There is much to work out so I’ll be experimenting with flour mixes to work out why texturally and flavorwise why.

Farino = Flour

Tereno = Land (wheat)

‘00’ its soft and has been twice milled so its almost silt like..I guess this is the icing sugar of flour..

‘0’ this is more like a plain flour being from Tassie Id say think “four roses”

‘1’ this is a bit darker and when i added it to my mother it had like a refined wholemeal kind of feel I really like slightly less refined feel without going all out stoneground.

‘2’ haven’t been able to grab this yet. its suggested a semi- wholemeal so ill be on the look out for this to try.

‘Integrale’ whole wheat

Duro = Hard (semolina)

‘Rimancinata" (reground) Ive used this in my bread mix this morning its super fine and yellow perhaps the 00 of duro.

‘Semola’ this is the semolina we are used to in Australia. its a bit courser and maybe the go to basic flour of its type the ‘0’ of duro.

‘Integrale’ As above its the courser style whole grain. looking forwartd to playing with this also.

The first loaf was surprisingly good a little rustico but a new srtarter a new oven and new flours to play with all in all I’m taking it as a win!


A quick lunch of leftovers . I kept one of the yoghurt breads from yesterday and broke it up with some tomatoes and olives, rocket and whatever remained from yesterday’s lentil salad and threw a Burrata on top…

Burrata - Oh my, its a life changer of a cheese! It has an outer consistency of mozzarella but when you break it open creamy, gooey, soft, deliciousness. It is magic.

MORA E SALVIA - Blackberries and Sage

There are blackberries - mora and sloe berries - prugnolo, figs - fica and various plums - prugna, there are rosemary and sage plants - rosmarino e salvia (plus other things I am yet to identify) on every trail around the house, so going anywhere means inspiration. I can’t drink much at the moment so although a vat of sloe gin sounds great I just can’t see it happening so if anyone has any ideas on what to do with sloes hook me up! The figs are unfortunately still green so thinking about the leaves etc..

Foraged blackberries and Sage

Go to super easy cake recipe to add fruit to

1/2 C oil - olio

3/4 C Sugar - zucchero

1/2 C Yoghurt - yogurt

3 Eggs - uova

2 tsp baking powder -lievito

pinch salt - sale

1C flour - farina

1/2 c almond flour - farina di mandorle

a cup or so of your fruit. - frutta

mix the sugar and oil then add all the wet ingredients and mix. Add the dry. Pour into greased tin then press in fruit 175/180 for 35 mins until the sides start to pull away. sprinkle with powdered sugar if you prefer.

I had to make quite a few exchanges here so used a fine semolina from the cupboard instead of almond meal and added a little extra oil to up the fat had demura sugar which I actually prefer not quite as sweet.

Tuscano adds.. 8 finely sliced sage leaves and too many blackberries .. no baking powder so added soda ..No cake tin meant a saucepan and I’m pretty sure this was lunch wrap not baking paper! The oven is pretty hot on top so will need to allow for this in future.

It was interesting.. The fine semolina was too heavy so a little on the pancake side of things, but the sage was a win. I baked a couple in pots and sent one down the road to the lovely Madeleine and Joe who had invited us to the olive oil/wine gathering the night before last.

Todays Bread - Schiacciata - A Tuscano focaccia style bread -

Mixed some water, flour/s and mother last night and left covered til morning. The dough is a cracker! I’ve stretched and folded adding olio then after an hour resting I used my fingers to press into the dough to create little pockets for the olio to sit in, I added some sale e rosemarino to one although not the tradition it’s hard to resist. I folded the dough after the olio to create layers like pastry which worked but it means it didn’t have that squishy centre. Lesson learned.

Schiacciata is a sandwich bread so some fresh tomato, basil, mozzarella and a campari spritz is a perfect late lunch in the sun out front of the villa.

Cucina Povera - peasant kitchen - its using local ingredients and whatever is lying around - love it!

Farro Salad

Farro is spelt and you can cook it up just like pasta it tastes very similar to Freekeh; nutty and a little chewy it does contain gluten unlike freekeh though…

1C Farro (spelt)

1C Ceci (chickpeas)

spruzzata di limone ( a squeeze of lemon)

sale e pepe

verdure da isalata ( salad veggies) (we used fried eggplant and zucchini, tomatoes and onion) (melanzane e zucchine fritte, pomedori e cipolla) and leftover bread from lunch.


FOGLIE DI FICO - Fig Leaves

5th August

Fig Leaves -

If you look up a meaning you get the biblical symbolism of attempting to cover sin or a sense of false modesty - think all the images you’ve ever seen of Adam and Eve.

If you look back further there is the link to the she-wolf (Lupa Capitolina) who suckled Romulus and Remus. The sacred wild fig tree was thought to catch the floating basket which saved the twins who had been sentenced to death.

I have a couple fig trees at home and neither have been very successful in baring ripe fruit and being in this climate I can tell why! The trees do however produce a lot of foliage so perhaps these experiments will lead to a Tasmanian use of the unyielding trees!

Olio di fico

Mazzo di foglie di fico. Bunch of fig Leaves

Olio neutro Neutral oil Im using sunflower (girasole)

De-stem leaves and place in boiling water for 30 seconds before dropping them in iced water- or use a cool block if ice is needed for spritz!

squeeze out liquid and dry as best you can.

Add to oil (ratio is 1:2 ie 100g dry leaves 200g oil) Blitz or grind or however you can best pulverise together. strain through the finest mesh you can find. Ive used a strainer then paper towel.

Now how to use????????

Todays Bread - Farina ‘1’ plus the left-over cooked farro/spelt from last night served with ricotta and the fig leaf infusion.

Crema aromatizzata alla foglia di fico

Cream Infused with Fig Leaf - to use in Panna cotta (hopefully)

Mazzo di foglie di fico. Bunch of fig Leaves

Creama/ Panna Cream

Heat oven to 100*c then toast leaves for around 10 minutes, you dont want them to burn. The smell is amazing if you have fig leaves still on your trees at home go now get them toast them purely to fill your house with the scent …This is what Tuscano smells like! Its coconutty but greener and sweeter. This is enough reason for a tree at home!

Remove stalks and crumble leaves into a pot with cream, gently heat for about 15 minutes. Strain.

Panna cotta aromatizzata alla foglia di fico - cooked cream with infused fig leaf

Now some people could say using this mix is cheating I say it was in the cupboard so it is worth a shot, I really just wanted to find out what the fig leaf flavour was like..

As per instructions

250 ml crema cream

250ml latte. milk

packet mix

Add all ingredients to a pot simmer for 10 then pop in fridge for a couple of hours!

Served with foraged blackberries and the fig leaf infused oil I made yesterday! This was one beautiful desert. It has a subtle green coconut flavour. I think this is one I will definitely make again or use the cream as an icecream base.

Notes on Figs

Working out what’s ripe and what’s not, when foraging for figs… Figs are not a fruit they are in fact a flower, so will not ripen if picked too soon. There are two main types of fig, Let’s call them white (Fici Dottato) and black (Fici Marroni). The black figs are easy to read, when they are ripe they turn a rich dark brown. The white/green figs however, well… You need to watch what we’ve been referring to as, the fig bum. Pictures tell the story… On the left is an unripe fig on the far right the red is the flower now in bloom, ready to eat! The other tell-tale sign I’ve noticed is that the stem starts to droop, in that the flower/fruit is not as adjacent to the branch its shooting from.

White / Green Figs

Brown/ Black Figs

GNUDI RUDIE - nudie rudie

GNUDI

Gnudi or Malfatti Is a tuscan dumpling. Gnudi translates to naked and it’s an apt name as these super easy dumplings that are basically a filling that you would use in ravioli but without the pasta wrapping they’re nudi! Malfetti means badly made or a bit rough around the edges which is also an perfetto name for the dish.

Its my god daughters 19th birthday tomorrow and I can imagine her cooking this with spinach from her garden as I make it.

Gnudi di spinaci. Gnudi for Gabby

250g Ricotta Ricotta (drained)

250g spinaci (bollito c strizzato) Boiled spinach squeezed

2tblsp Parmigiano Reggiano (any strong hard cheese will do)

1 uovo Egg

sale e pepe Salt and pepper to taste

00 Farina per stendere. Flour to roll

to fry

Burro. Butter

Salvia. Salvia

Nocciole Hazelnuts

Drain ricotta for an hour or so or over night if you remember, the less liquid the better as is the case for the spianch as well. Blanche spinach and squeeze as much liquid out as possible and chop. In a bowl mix equal amounts spinach and ricotta and egg 2 if small and finely grated sharp cheese of your choice, mix well. I attempted to quenelle mine as I have time on my side but you can just roll into balls then dust in flour. Here I used 00 semolina. Gently pop into boiling water until they float to top. I didn’t get any pictures of me putting them into boiling water as it was all a little chaos! Then fry up with butter**, sage and hazelnuts. Delish!

Burro / Butter Italian butter is almost pure white in colour. The cows are feed mainly on hay and grains and not grass so the beta-carotene (think carrots) is not present as in Australian yellow butter. I think ther taste is a little milder also.

Thursday 7th

Its hot and am feeling extremely lazy but as there is no where to get food we have to make something to eat!

Sformato di Cipolle Onion Flan

2 cipolla onion

5 uovo. eggs

zuchine. zucchini

pomodoro. tomato

mabnciata di formaggio. handful of cheese

schizzi di latte. splash of milk cream or a dairy of somekind

sale e pepe

You can make this on the stove top in a frypan or in the oven which I assumed would be easier!.

Slice onion into rings and place in the bottom of a cake tin with some oil and throw in the oven to brown while getting the other items together. Grate and / or chop whatever veggies you have on hand thrown into a bowl with 5 eggs, a dash of milk and a handful of cheese . Bake until golden. Now, my cake tin leaked so it was a bit of a shit-show luckily there was a pan under this tin so just kept scooping up the mixture and added it to the flan. I also grilled the top to brown up the onions a bit more once I flipped it. A piece of this between two slices of bread is apparently a great traveller!

Fico d’india - Prickly pear

Now this is just a warning we have attempted to forage these on a prior trip! You can eat the red fruits and they taste quite good especially in a cocktail. BUT the fruit is covered in the finest spiky hairs that get everywhere we had to throw out bags, t shirts and were pulling these painful spikes out for days, so whenever I see them I shudder a little! There is apparently a spineless version in Sardinia and they use them extensively around the base of trees for their moisture content but once bitten for me!

FICO ESPLORAZIONE e FARINATA - Exploring Figs and Farinata

 

Whilst watering the plants this morning, I noticed some darker figs, way up in the tree. Armed with a tall broom to hook the higher branches I got a handful of perfectly ripe figs. After eating the jammy ones I thought up a new plan.

I am going to use my trusted almond flour cake recipe from the beginning of the blog but will be adding half fig leaf infused oil, half sunflower oil and lining the leaky cake tin with blanched fig leaves to impart flavour and stop the spills. Look at the colour of that oil mix! As the top was browning quickly I added a couple of leaves to the top to help while in the oven. I peeled the leaves off the under side of the cake before serving but really should have served upside down they looked so great!


Farinata

I went to grab the chickpea flour I had bought on the last visit to the supermarket and noticed “ideale per Farinata on the box.. So …Farinata is said to have began during the Battle of Meloria where the Genoese fleet were returning home after defeating Pisa and their bags of chickpea flour got soaked with sea water. They tried to salvage the flour by drying it in the sun on their way back to port. (Hence the long wait time..) They threw the mush into woodfired ovens and Farinata was born. Its like a savoury pancake you can eat by itself as a side dish or filled like a sandwich.. Ive mixed the ingredients now a 6 hour wait to see what happens…. hold on!…..

..After about 4 hours I poured the batter into a baking dish covered with rosemary, oregano, salt and pepper and cooked until golden. This is a pretty great slice a bit like a savoury pancake but denser. Voila just like the picture!

PICI KEEN - peachy keen

We were taken out to the foothills of Mount Amiata last night for a meal and were introduced to ‘pici’ (pronounced ‘peachy’) It is a Tuscano eggless pasta. Known for its chewy texture and its thick spaghetti shape it is most often served in Tuscano with a tomato, garlic sauce. In Tuscano there is a giant garlic called ‘aglione della valdichiana’ or ‘aglio elefante’ as you can guess translates to elephant garlic.. And I found some! In most of the recipes I found they used canned tomatoes but being surrounded by all this fresh produce I am going to ad lib the sauce by just roasting the tomatoes and garlic with olive oil salt and pepper.. Can’t wait!!

Pici

250g farina 00. Flour

125g acqua. Water

2 tblsp oili. olive oil

sale salt


salsa sauce

pomodoro. tomato

aglio garlic

olio d’oliva. olive oil

sale e pepe. salt and pepper

Make a mountain of flour then add a well to the middle fill with the water and oil to mix ingredients to form the dough. After kneading for a few minutes rest for 10 under wrap, knead again and rest for 1-3 hours again under wrap. (spritz time) knead again then divide into four rolling each section out before slicing and rolling between fingers and benchtop into long skinny sausage shapes dust in semolina as you go so they don’t stick together. Throw pici into salted boiling water for about 3 minutes until it rises in pot.

For the sauce throw tomatoes and garlic salt and pepper and olive oil into a moderate oven for half hour or so. once the garlic is soft, mash it and return it to tomatoes. Throw the cooked Pici into this to serve.

Scarpetta or fare la scarpetta serve with bread so you can scarpetta, its using a piece of bread to mop up the sauce in appreciation of the dish. The phrase translates to doing the little shoe so you imagine a little shoe collecting all the left overs.

I have a nut butter addiction and have refrained from buying nutella for over 8 months! ( I keep track of my nutella withdrawal like a newly devoted non-smoker) Pistachio creme is absolute crack! The one on the left was my first purchase and a little too sweet but I struggled through it in 48 hours!!!!! The coop brand is definitely the win so far. All in all the nut butters are quite mild in flavour but my suitcase home will be full of crema al pistacchio for sure!

GRANO COTTO - Pastiera Napoletana

I took this image on my very first trip to the supermarket in Piano del Castel. You know the trip where you’re tired and hungry and looking around for staples of vino and formaggio for dinner, but all these weird strange items keep distracting you from the task ahead, and you end up with a grocery bag that makes no sense, so you go out for pizza!

After some research, Pastiera (pasta and peasant) Napoletana uses the above ‘wheat berries’ in a cake with roots found in Napoli and it is made for Easter. The historical recipe dates back to 1693 and started as a savoury dish using leftover pasta, pepper and parmesan, then morphed into a sweeter tart in 1837 with the use of pistachios and candied pumpkin. The modern version of the cake has become an iconic and beloved Easter tradition. The recipe appeared in 1965 in the so called bible of Neapolitan cuisine La cucina Napoletana by Jeanne Carola Francesconi.

This is not a walk in the park kind of cake. I’ve been looking at recipes for days and let me tell you, it is going to be a hard slog, although it is said, if you can pull it off you can consider yourself a true Italian! It’s obviously not Easter time, but for the next few days it is Ferragosto and having been stuck in Sicily at this time 8 years ago, nothing opens while Mary is assumed, it’s about 3-4 days of religious acknowledgement.

So early this morning I walked the 6k to Piano del Castel COOP (the super-supermarket) and took my time and found orange blossom water, cinnamon (well cinnamon sugar - i’ll adjust the sugar), sugared fruit ( think glace cherries, I went with the sugared orange peel I reckon if I was at home I’d go with the glace ginger because I love it in sweet desserts) flour, vanilla etc and watched the butter soften as I waited for the bus in 40* heat! Miracuously after the 1km walk home after getting off the bus the butter was still contained within its paper binding! phew!

I'll try to make this as simple as I can as there are a lot of steps, but singularly each is relatively easy and the first 2 sections can be done a day ahead then assembled with the ricotta mix and cooked the next day. The wheat berries in Italy can be bought, pre-made in jars and it is what most people use. I think you could use most grains including rice or even canned, creamed rice if you don’t want to cook the wheat with milk and sugar first! Some recipes add honey to pastry to give it more of a golden colour, I think this is because the butter is so white. (I don’t have honey and was surprised by its pale colour, perhaps the bees diet of the region? - Anita x) and I think crystallised ginger with rose water would also be an interesting  mix? You can also use the traditional half butter / half lard, but I can’t really aline with rendered pork fat in cake.

PASTIERA NAPOLETANA

The Pastry

290g 21/4c farina 00                plain flour

140g  burro.                              butter

100g  1/2 zucchero                  sugar

2 tsp scorza di limone              lemon zest

sale (if using unsalted burro)    sale

1  uovo                                      egg

1  tuorlo d’uovo                         egg yolk

The Grano cotto /wheat berry  mix 

280g   grano cotto                   cooked wheat

180ml  latte                              milk 

Striscia di scorza di limone     strip of lemon zest

The Ricotta mix

450g    ricotta                          ricotta

200g    zucchero                      sugar

3          uova                             eggs

2/3 c    frutta candita               candied fruit

1tbsp   fiori d’arancio               orange blossom water 

1tsp     vaniglia                         vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cannella                        cinnamon

The Pastry method

Throw everything into a processor and blend til it comes together, refrigerate for at least an hour…I’m doing it my hand so basically the same thing but one thing at a time, starting with rubbling butter into the flour. In the videos I’ve watched they are not afraid to really work the butter where it looks almost melted to make the pastry which is great to see in this weather!

The Grano cotto method

Add all ingredients to a saucepan and gently cook for about 30 mins til thick and creamy (think porridge). Spread it out on a plate to cool and remove peel. Once it’s cooled you have the option of blitzing this with a hand blender. Some recipes call for none, some a little, some a lot. I’m going with none as why would you use the wheat berries if you didn’t want the texture of them? As I cook this I think this is what I could do with my leftover slow oats. If I am following the recipe correctly, most of the moisture has evaporated and it’s become a creamy glug, a mashed potato texture.

The Ricotta method

Mix the ricotta and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, candied fruit, orange blossom water, vanilla and cinnamon (I’ve added this with my sugar as I could only find cinnamon sugar!) As I add the candied fruit it is more like dried orange peel (the kind you add to fruit cake) not overly sweet. Add the cooled Grano cotta mix. This is now the finished filling.

Assemblare / Assembly 

Oven on 180*

Grease and line 23cm pan

Cut 1/4 off dough put aside for ##gelosies/ strip decoration. Roll out rest of dough and drape over prepared pan. Fork bottom of pastry.

Add filling.

##Add ribbons of pastry for decoration see notes below.

Bake 50-60 mins

Dust with icing sugar if you prefer and pastiera will keep in the fridge for a week.

##The ribbons of pastry on top of the cake are referred to as ‘gelosies’,  they are strips of pastry made to resemble the shutters of the ground floor apartments in Napoli. The number of gelosies you use depends on your famiglia tradition but the classic is 4 placed under and 3 on top.

Think this could be the best cake I’ve ever eaten - Mat Ward 2025

Was it worth all the trips to the shop and the messing around? YES! You can taste the chewy little gems - I am glad I didn’t blend them. Its not overly sweet. Mat described it as “ it’s like eating a delicious apple cake but without the apples “- haha

Pesche Piatte - Flat peaches

These have Sicilian roots but are available all over Italy. - Delicious! Also called Saturn peaches. I’d call them space savers as the fruit is easily stackable and would be a fun game for my 3 year old grandson Malo x

CUCINA POVERA E GNOCCHI DI PATATE

I have touched on the term CUCINA POVERA before and it translates to peasant’s kitchen but it’s more nuanced than that. It takes on the (not so new) no food waste concept - which I am trying to live by and basically have to due to the isolation and limited public transport in this commune. The origins are out of necessity and began with a humble loaf becoming stale!

Dishes that come to mind are Panzanella (Bread salad), Ribollita and Pappa al Pomodoro* ( both are a stale bread based soups). I haven’t made any soups or stews which are indeed a staple in Tuscan cuisine, but for me it’s more of a cold weather, warm hug and in this heat it hasn’t been a natural go to. I’ll think on it. I love using leftovers and a good fridge clean out for items on their last legs is always a bit of inspiration that can lead to either an amazing, or a learning, experience. Reminds me of trying to make a chicken last for a week of meals with two ever hungry although fussy teenagers.

*I did end up making this!

Easy Leftover Pan Dish - any left over veggies or meat, eggs and cheese/dairy I’ve used

1 Eggplant cubed and salted

1 Zucchini

1 Onion

3 Eggs

2 Garlic cloves

Handful of Spinach

Zucchini flowers

Mozzarella

Salt and Pepper

Salt eggplant for about an hour then rinse. Into a saucepan with olive oil goes finely diced onion and garlic, once softened add eggplant and zucchini and lastly spinach. Beat 3 or 4 eggs with 3/4 cup of dairy of your choice it can be milk, cream, yoghurt or a combo of dairy to be used up ( I used a some cream and a bit of milk, and a handful of grated parmesan) season with salt and pepper and add into pan and simmer. Once it starts to solidify put on any toppings. I used zucchini flower and mozzarella and it looked soooooooo good. Then pop it under grill until golden and melted. Delish!

STRATA

(It is the same recipe as above with the addition of stale bread which has been soaked in milk or water.)

Americans have stolen this stale bread leftover dish but its origins are from Italy. It’s basically the same dish as above but with the addition of milk soaked stale bread and it’s cooked in the oven. You could call it a bread quiche perhaps. I’ve cut the crust off bread to save to make a rough breadcrumb as a pasta topping for another cook.

Soak leftover bread in milk overnight or for a few hours. Add bread, spinach and any other meat or veggie leftovers to a baking dish then cover with egg/dairy/cheese and seasonings /herbs of your choice. Cook in a 180* oven for around 45minutes. I have also made this in a slow cooker for a pot luck dinner and it turned out great!

So I didn’t get a chance to turn the heat down on the oven, a storm hit and as I was trying to secure a shutter the other was blown in a gust and cracked me right in the skull resulting in tears and an egg head, so dinner was a little over done but still tasted the goods, to be fair I do prefer the un breaded version although Mat likes the addition.

GNOCCHI DI PATATE - CON FUNGHI PORCINI

Gnocchi di patate or potato dumplings is one version or gnocchi. I was planning on ricotta gnocchi but the fridge ran out of ricotta. You can even use just flour and water, although this recipe will need about 10 minutes of needing..

Gnocchi di patate calls for simmering potatoes with the skin on. Then peeling them while still warm, then pushing them through a sieve before adding flour and a egg to make the dough. Knead the dough until it becomes more consistent and doesn’t come apart . Perhaps 5 minutes or so. The dough is then rolled into long finger shapes and cut into basically rounded cubes (pillows). They can be cooked like this or they can then be rolled on a board or down a fork or down the inside of a straight grater. I’m keeping it rustica!


750 g. di patate potato

200 g di farina 00 flour

1 uovo egg

sale salt

for the sauce

butter, onion, garlic, rosemary, salami (optional)), mushrooms, This is where I used the crushed and toasted bread crumbs, as a crunchy topping! Prego!

Everyone keeps raving about the porcini mushrooms around Mount Amiata but we’ve had no luck in finding any fresh ones, so have some frozen to make this meal. Mat was talked into some Italian sausage (of course he was) that I’ll pop in as well.

Each item is added to the pan in order of ingredient listed, until smelling delicious!

Potato Crust Quiche with Pickled Cucumbers

Leftover crushed spuds from the gnocchi call for some more inventive cucina povera inspiration, by using it as a pie crust for another fridge clean out before a little trip to Siena.

Use leftover mash to smoosh around a pie tin and fill with veggies or leftovers (here tofu and zucchini and zucchini flowers make everything look bellissimo) before adding 2 eggs and 3/4 c of dairy (I used about 3/4 c yoghurt and some grated cheese) . cook for 30-40 mins more if using a large tin.

I am going to make a quick cucumber pickle to use up the VERY bitter cucumbers i bought last week.

I’ll chop the end off that’s closest to the vine, it’s the most bitter (just realised I cut the wrong end off haha) and then peel and salt while preparing the brine. When I finished cooking the pie crust I popped the clean glass jar onto a tray in the oven to sterilise. Pop all ingredients for brine into a pot and simmer until everything has dissolved ( I also added a few spices I found in the cupboard maybe dried chillies and cumin seeds). Fill jar with rinsed cucumbers and top with brine and refrigerate. I would also tend to use a rice wine vinegar but I only have rosso vino so that should work, let see how the colour goes? It should last a week or 2 in the fridge.

The Quick Pickle

1 c water

1/3 c vinegar

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

2 cups cucumbers sliced

PAPPA AL POMODORO

PAPPA AL POMODORO

I love the word pomodoro, I imagine all the o’s as tiny tomatoes, and the straight sections of the consonants as vines. As a bread maker, having lots of new recipes for stale bread has been a win! Let’s be honest there’s not a lot of non-wins whilst on holiday in Tuscano!

I wasn’t planning on delving into bread soups as I felt like it was a winter thing, but at an amazing restaurant in Siena we were served Pappa al pomodoro cold, as a pre-starter.  It was such a beautiful way to awaken the taste buds. It’s more of a porridge than a soup texture ( it actually translates to tomato porridge). and although you can use canned tomatoes, why would you when, here, the produce is so amazing.  I had no onions and no stock so used what I could find in the condiment cupboard to add some depth - A tiny splash of soy, oregano, steak seasoning and tiny dried chillies.

Pappa al pomodoro

500g Pomodoro Tomatoes (Roma/plum)

Cipolla Onion

Aglio Garlic

300g Pane raffermo Stale bread 

Azione Stock

Pepe e Salle 

My exchanges:  No Onion.  Chilli.  Oregano. Soy sauce.  Steak seasoning.

Method

Mark tomatoes with a cross on the bottoms then plunge into boiling water for a few minutes. Remove and let cool a little before peeling. Sauté onions, garlic and any herbs you can find, then add the tomatoes and crush with a wooden spoon until then are falling apart. Add stale bread and mix then add stock or water a little at a time. Cook down til a porridge like consistency. Serve hot or cold with burrata, basil, olive oil or as is.

First image is the dish from restaurant.


CACIO E PEPE - cheese and pepper

Prepare to have your mind blown! I had this out at dinner and I said to Mat its reminds me of grown up peppered mac and cheese. Researching this has completely challenged my knowledge of kitchen chemistry! Its only 3 ingredients - the 3 P’s - Peppercorns, pecorino and pasta! It is usually served with Spaghetti or Pici (see above 2 ingredient peasant pasta) The cheese sauce is made by mixing cheese with pasta water! I told you ( hope your brain is not expelling from ears and nostrils)

Cacio e Pepe Spaghetti

320g Spaghetti No. 3 packet of spaghetti

200g Pecorino Romano pecorino cheese (finely grated)

5g Pepe in grani. peppercorns

Crush peppercorns with a mortar and pestle or a cast iron teapot ( it really did make a difference this roughly crushed peppercorn rather than using a grinder). Grate Pecorino finely into a small bowl. Add Pasta to simmering salted water. Aim to have the pasta 3/4 cooked (under al dente) as the final cooking goes on in the pan! In a saucepan add half of the crushed pepper and dry roast. Add a little of the starchy water from the pasta to deglaze the pepper pan. Add the pasta to the pepper pan. Add some more starchy water and keep stirring the pasta. Add a little starchy water to the bowl of cheese and stir or whisk to make a creamy paste. Keep adding starchy water to pasta as it cooks. The water should become opaque and once the pasta is al dente add the cheese mix and stir and top with remaining pepper!

By adding the zest of a lemon to the grated cheese you get another local dish Spaghetti al Limone.