The romanticised flavour of Tuscany
"The three basic elements of wine, oil and bread which to the Tuscans are almost sacred" Lorenza de' Medici
I meant to sort of do this yesterday as an example of 'the geography of flavour'. Mostly because I have two Tuscan cookbooks sitting on my desk waiting for their moments in the sun. Not that there is much sun here in Melbourne at the moment. But look at a cookbook on Tuscany and the sun is always shining is it not? There is almost always a touch of soft focus, honey-toned pallazzi vistas of rolling hills dotted with vineyards and pine trees, and colourful markets. The quote at the top of the page is from another Tuscan cookbook that I own - I think the only Italian region chosen for inclusion in 'The Beautiful' series of cookbooks. What about all the other beautiful regions of Italy say I? They all have just as many wonderful dishes as Tuscany - maybe more in fact. And they are all just as beautiful. So why Tuscany?
I suspect it may have something to do with Tuscany being the region that includes Florence, Siena and Pisa - homes of the Renaissance greats. And also the setting of several romantic novels. It's also not far from Rome. Yes it is beautiful but so is every region of Italy. Not that I have visited them all, but I have at least driven through most. Maybe it's my own personal preferences - Florence was the only city in Italy where I felt mildly threatened, and where the side streets were dismal and on the day we visited Siena it poured with rain, and we had a somewhat hair-raising experience trying to find a parking spot. I also do not remember any memorable meals eaten in Tuscany or markets come to that. Although Lucca was a favourite spot.
But I digress. I was really going to focus on these two books - both acquired at my local op shop for a song - Twelve: a Tuscan Cook Book by Tessa Kiros and Stephanie Alexander and Maggie Beer's Tuscan Cookbook - both of them beautiful of course and bought not just because of their beauty but also because of the authors.
Note the honey/amber colouring of both - ditto my Tuscany the Beautiful Cookbook I should add.
And an aside on bread. Tuscan bread is famous. I remember in the early days of fancy breads in Australia - Philippa's - one of the big names in bread in Victoria - became famous for their Tuscan bread. Okay - it looks great. Rustically crusty and floury but I have to say it's my least favourite kind of bread. There is no salt in it and it tastes stale even when it's fresh. Well that's what I think and that probably goes for most of the Italian bread that we found in Italy, although the bread in Puglia was much better. It was noticeable that even in Italy the Italians seemed to prefer to buy baguettes to the rustic Tuscan loaves.
The Tuscan bread however, features in dishes like ribollita and, bruschetta of course - traditionally with just olive oil and garlic.
So a few words on each of my two books and how they address the notion of flavour and the geography of Tuscany.
Both of them begin with words about seasonality. Indeed Twelve is divided into twelve chapters - one for each month of the year as experienced by Tessa Kiros in her home there. In her words, the book is about ingredients and 'the joy brought by each month with its new ingredients'. Whilst Stephanie Alexander and Maggie Beer who were running a cooking school there for a month or so - three separate courses - were initially frustrated by the absence of ingredients they needed for their planned dishes because: 'we could never predict what what we would find in the market. If it wasn't ripe, it wasn't there.' And so they had to adapt:
"The uncertainty about what the market would offer us each week taught us all an invaluable lesson. Buying in season means being prepared to be flexible. Time and again we found ourselves replacing this ingredient with that, or changing the whole character of a planned dish or creating an entirely new dish because an ingredient was unavailable or a new, interesting one, presented itself. This is the way the Tuscans around us shopped and it is the way more of us should approach our own shopping at home."
Which sounds marginally naive, even inefficient but was probably useful for a school.
Pasta is not a thing in Tuscany - and I have written about this before I think, but yes Tuscany is famous for that massive T-bone steak - Bistecca fiorentina alla grilla. Interestingly Stephanie and Maggie had no recipe for this and although Tessa Kiros did she had no picture. Just let it be said, that in a way this is the ultimate ingredient forward cooking - it's just the meat grilled over flames with some rosemary and lemon - and, I'm assuming the olive oil. And I should have said that Tuscan olive oil, unlike their bread is indeed excellent.
Truffles were another ingredient that was featured in all of my Tuscan cookbooks, but not an ingredient that many of us will be able to access here, unless you dine in an expensive restaurant.
And beans are I think the next most famous of Tuscan foods. Apparently they love them in all their forms and have even been derided by other Italians as 'bean eaters'.
I think the message that I get from both of these books is that seasonality is king, and that seasonality is local - which I guess is an excellent example of geography is flavour. They eat what is grown or raised locally, and when it is in season. Geography in all its modes - climate, soil, demographic and social history - is responsible for what the Tuscans eat. Well possibly not if you shop in a supermarket and are not wealthy enough to go on a romantic cooking course in the Tuscan countryside with two of Australia's most famous cooks, and their personal team of assistant, sommelier and tablescaper. Or wealthy enough to have bought your own Tuscan villa. Although the markets are better there than here in the economy stakes.
I'm just jealous. There are lots of delicious looking things to eat in both of these books - more in Tessa Kiros's book, which is possibly more true to Tuscan food as eaten by the Tuscans. Stephanie and Maggie are doing their own thing - albeit in Tuscany with Tuscan ingredients. It's a coffee table book really - but when you pick it up in an op shop for just $3.00 - how can you resist? I'll try and find a recipe from each to try and report back.
YEARS GONE BY
October 1 - another month gone - just like that
2025 - To show sorrow for your sins
2022 - Nibbles
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2019 - Nothing
2018 - Nothing
2017 - Buttermilk - not that simple
2016 - Footy fever
Tuscany. A beautiful memory