Posted in Featured, Fish, Meat, Poultry, Game, Summer Recipes, Tradition, Tuscan Recipes

Cacciucco alla Livornese Recipe

Cacciucco is a popular traditional seafood dish with a history that stretches back at least five hundred years. Its name probably comes from the Turkish for ‘minute’ which is ‘kuciuk’.  This fish stew was first made in Livorno around the year 1500. There are many legends and myths surrounding its creation although there are two stories which stand out from the rest.

The first legend tells of a fisherman from Livorno who lost his life at sea in a shipwreck. His children were so hungry with nobody to provide for them after his death that they turned to all their neighbours for food. Everyone gave them different types of fish, with which their mother made a huge soup adding tomatoes, garlic, oil and slices of bread – thus creating the first cacciucco.

The second, and perhaps more realistic story, is that a lighthouse keeper created the soup. The Florentine Republic had prohibited the use of olive oil which he always used to fry his fish and so rather than go without, he made a fish soup instead.

Ingredients
Serves 8

• 1/2 kg cuttlefish
• 1/2 kg octopus
• 1/2 kg mixed fish (gurnard, sea-robin, scorpio fish)
• 1/2 kg mixed shellfish (clams and mussels)
• 1/2 kg of prawns and shrimp
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 5 sage leaves
• 1 chilli
• 1 tbs of tomato paste
• 2 dl of white wine
• 12 slices of tuscan bread
• 2 dl extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a saucepan , heat olive oil and fry the garlic, sage and chilli. Add the roughly chopped octopus and cuttlefish. Pour in wine and add tomato paste. Let it simmer for 20 minutes and stir occasionally.

In another saucepan add the mixed fish and the chopped dogfish. The fish heads should be cooked in broth with herbs and then blended. This puree which is quite dense, should be added to the first saucepan giving the soup a greater density and flavor. Simmer over a medium flame. When the octopus and cuttlefish are tender, add the crustaceans and the mixed seafood with shells. Continue to cook for 7-8 minutes until the mussels and clams open.

Place the bread, which should be toasted, rubbed with a garlic clove and seasoned with pepper in the bottom of the soup tureen. With a ladle, spoon the fish and sauce into the bowl.

Credits to star5112 | Seafood Stew

Posted in Featured, Starters, Summer Recipes, Tuscan Recipes, Tuscany in season

Bruschetta Recipe – Tomato over Roasted Brea...

Bruschetta, the simplest of pleasures. When olive oil has just been pressed in the colder months all you need to do is toast some bread and rub some garlic over the top. Complete it using the newly pressed evoo and you’re done. One of the greatest “fast foods” you can treat yourself with.

In the summer with just one extra ingredient you get to paradise!

Posted in Featured, Tuscan Spotting

TOP 10 Typos and Legends on tuscan food

Tuscanycious loves to discover and collect any fake material regarding tuscan food, I actually hava a posterous account where all these discoveries are posted!

1.  Chicken Cadgatore – mispelling on Pollo alla Cacciatora, pronounced “catchyatore”.   In italian this means hunter’s chicken and it’s a very simple stew made using chicken, tomatoes, onions, carrot, celery and white wine. This stew cooks at very low heat and often black olives are added. 

2. Picci – mispelling on Pici, a single c in this type of pasta, typically made in the Siena area using flour, water and egg yolks.

3.  Pepperoncini – mispelling on peperoncini, hot chillis.

4.  Pepperoni – mispelling on peperoni, italian word for bell peppers.  Peperoni have nothing to do with hot salami slices used on pizza and belonging to the salumi (cured meats) category in Italy.

5.  Buggies di Carnivale – mispelling on Bugie di Carnevale - a kind of sweet made during carnival not necessarily known as bugie in Tuscany but as Cenci!

6.  Antipasta – typo, this is actually called antipasto. It means before the meal and in english it’s best known as a starter. Antipasta is a cool mispelling because it’s a perfect way to say what you eat before having your pasta or first course.

7.  Osoboco – Hollowed bone – ossobuco is a dish known as Milan’s specialty! These bones are cooked with the marrow, they are truly delicious!

8.  Al Fresco or alfresco – Dining al fresco or outdoors… it’s very very romantic I know, it does however mean: in jail in italian!

9.  Carbonara – A tuscan fake! People are convinced carbonara is a tuscan dish, unfortunately (since it’s delicious) it’s not. This recipe comes from Lazio, the region of Italy in which Rome is located.

10.  Cannoli -Another tuscan fake… florentines stores are also responsible for this misunderstanding since they all sell cannolis. Cannolis are Sicily’s most famous sweet!

Posted in Fish, Meat, Poultry, Game, Summer Recipes, Tuscan Recipes, Tuscany in season

Baccalà alla Livornese Recipe

Baccalà is simply salted cod, in tuscany it is widely appreciated and a typical recipe for baccalà can be found in Livorno and its province. The basic ingredients in this recipe can be matched with other fish as well, but the cod which has been preserved in salt (you must soak and rinse it) is perfect with the sweetness of summer tomatoes and onions. A well balanced dish that can not be missed when visiting Livorno but that you can also prepare at home.

Posted in Featured, Fish, Meat, Poultry, Game, Guest Posts, Tuscan Recipes

Tuscan Grilling by Eleonora Baldwin

Tuscan cuisine is simple and rustic in nature. There are no heavy sauces or gravies, and this lets the true flavor of the foods shine through to be enjoyed in their purest form. But don’t let that simplicity fool you.

Many Tuscan recipes come prepared by simple roasting or grilling methods; and employ noble cuts of meat or fish, poultry, game and a large assortment of vegetables.

The reason barbecued food tastes so good is because fat drips down on the hot coals, and returns in the form of smoke to flavor the food. Tuscans know that, and have built a veritable culinary tradition around grilling. With the implicit understanding that too many sauces can instead cover these simple and vibrant flavors.

As opposed to barbecuing–which requires low fires providing long, slow cooking, and usually involves rubs, marinades or sauce brushing–Tuscan grilling is strictly about cooking over hardwood fire, without a lid to cover; and with very little in terms of ingredients, besides the hero component. This means no basting, no use of fancy marinades and balsamic rubs, and knowledge of what meat sauce is. For a perfect Tuscan grigliata, locals only employ a light sprinkle of salt and pepper, sometimes a drizzle of lemon juice and the occasional herb seasoning.

Posted in Featured, Food Events

Cheese Festival in Pienza

Gioco del Cacio al Fuso

Barrels Rolled last week – cheese rounds will roll this week!

Posted in Featured, Starters, Summer Recipes, Tuscan Recipes

Salami and Figs

The ripeness and sweetness of september figs are counterposed to the salty and tasty slices of salami. A perfect starter that similarly to Italy’s famous prosciutto and melon will surprise you for the ideal balance that only two ingredients can give. Not only balanced in taste but also in texture, the figs will melt in your mouth while the salami, tougher and chewier, will follow leaving it’s strong and salty flavor behind.

Posted in Food Events

Event in Montepulciano in August

The Bravio delle Botti

Location: Montepulciano, one of the world’s most famous wine towns
Day: August 29th
Timing: 10 a.m. selection of the orders in which the barrels will start off (a sort of qualification for the barells’ pole position)
- 3 p.m. historical parade in costume (more than 300 participants)
- 7 p.m. Beginning of the race! The barrels begin to roll for more that 1 km.
Celebrations will last all night!
Why: to conquer the Bravio, the bravium is an ancient cloth depicting the patron saint, San Giovanni Decollato.
Who: Participants belong to the eight contradas (neighborhoods) that in this occasion are like teams.

To better understand what it’s about:

For further information:  the official source for the event of the Bravio delle Botti

Posted in Guest Posts, Tuscan Spotting

Tuscan Foodie in Chicago

Being a Tuscan abroad guarantees you one thing: people will want to know why on earth you left Tuscany. I have had this same reaction since I left 13 years ago, first headed to Brussels and then to Chicago, with a lot of additional travel in between. The strongest reaction I ever had was in Japan: talking to a local girl, I mentioned I was from Tuscany, and she started to cry, with big tears in her eyes. Seriously.

The discussion invariably then focuses on food: how can I survive “outside”, if I was born and raised in Tuscany? The answer for me was pretty simple: if you love food and you keep your mind open to the culinary culture you live in, you are bound to discover some real food treasures that can change your life.

Posted in Desserts, Featured, Side Dishes, Starters, Summer Recipes, Tuscan Recipes

Scarpaccia Pie Recipe

Is it a sweet or savory pie? Why have to answer when in Tuscany’s Versilia it can be both. Tradition wants this pie to be baked with both salt and sugar, the result is unexpectedly fantastic. It is served in the beginning – in the middle or at the end of a meal and is a pleasant discovery at all times!