The post Fabrizia’s Sicilian Involtini di Carne and a Summer Bounty Workshop first appeared on Emiko Davies.

Last spring I was invited to spend some time in the Dolomites at Adler, at the original, historic lodge where the resort first began in 1810 in the centre of the picturesque, pastel-toned town of Ortisei (Urtijëi) in Val Gardena in the South Tyrol. Around the Dolomites area, Adler have four resorts (the other we stayed in on this trip and I’ve written about before is Adler Lodge Ritten), plus one in Tuscany at my favourite hot springs Bagno Vignoni, and one in Sicily.

Surrounded by the stunning Dolomites mountain range, which you can see from every angle, you can soak in the warm waters of the outdoor pool, enjoying the views and breathing in that fresh mountain air, or sunbathing in the garden. It’s easy to imagine how incredible it would feel, after a day of hiking nearby in the summer or skiing in the winter (the resort is right next to two lifts that take you to the Super Ski area of the Dolomites with 1200 km of skiing to be had, and if you’re not a skier there are horse carriage ride or tobogganing), to have a long soak in the spa and then relax in the day bed by a fireplace. But to be honest, even just a weekend enjoying the spa and not going anywhere other than a stroll through town — as we did — was absolutely blissful.

The theme here is wellness and relaxation and this is what Adler deliver so well. From the moment you step into the beautifully designed building with its warm wood interiors and large windows with views to the mountains, you can feel it. I indulged in a full body massage — there is an absolutely dizzying choice of offerings and packages from the impressive spa menu with solutions for everyone in the family (my girls would love the chocolate massage with a milk bath in the wooden Tyrolean tub for kids!), which you can combine with a visit to their salt grotto for the ultimate relaxing treatment.

The bar was our favourite spot to wind down in the late afternoon, there is an enticing buffet of cakes and other treats (I couldn’t say no to a slice of the traditional apple strudel), a selection of local wines and great cocktails that we enjoyed on the winding wooden terrace with it sweeping views, cosy blankets and outdoor fire pits — the whole place is teeming with that wonderful Alpine atmosphere. The restaurant offers a Tyrolean-Mediterranean menu with plenty of lighter dishes, a salad buffet and all of it with a preference for organic, local and seasonal — their olive oil and wine comes from their own production in Tuscany.

We left our kids home this time but I know that if they were here they would have absolutely loved it, and especially loved the kids club (as they did at the Tuscan resort in Bagno Vignoni), which even has an all day juice bar and snack bar for the children!

As in the other resorts, dressing gowns, flip flops and spare towels are provided in the rooms already. Bring your workout clothes so you can take advantage of the well-equipped gym and yoga classes on offer too.

The post A stay at Adler, the original spa resort in the Dolomites first appeared on Emiko Davies.

5-10 June 2022, join us for the Pecorino e Vino Culinary Retreat

We will be based in Pienza, in the the heart of the Val d’Orcia, pecorino cheese country and a UNESCO world heritage site, in a truly stunning, unique, beautifully restored Tuscan home, Villa Pienza, with a 360 degree view of the surrounding undulating Tuscan hills, on a highly curated trip to bring you our favourite food and wine experiences in Tuscany.

Our days together will consist of our most favourite things: a combination of day trips to beautiful local towns, hands-on cooking classes, visits to a cheese farm (the one that started this blog, actually), wine tastings and a visit to a family run flour mill. We will cook together and enjoy aperitivo every night together, but for those who prefer a bit of down time and lounging by the saltwater pool at the gorgeous villa we’ll be calling home, you can choose to do that too and just join in on the eating part! See below for all the details.

Highlights:

• Call a stunning, lovingly restored Tuscan villa home, complete with a pool and 360 degree views of the Val d’Orcia UNESCO World Heritage landscape
• Cheesemaking lesson with a master cheesemaker at his sustainable family farm
• 3 cooking classes with cookbook author Emiko Davies
• 2 winery visits with wine tastings and daily natural wine pairings with sommelier Marco Lami
• Visits to a local organic farm and ancient grain flour mill
• Visits with free time to the beautiful towns of Pienza and Montalcino
• Taste Tuscan traditions in the local trattorias
• Healthy breakfasts, lunch and Tuscan dinners cooked with organic produce

The itinerary:

Day 1: Late afternoon arrival at the villa and welcome aperitivo, followed by homemade wood-fired pizza dinner.

Day 2: After breakfast we visit an organic sheep farm for a tour of the farm to see cheesemaking from the stable to the table, after a cheesemaking lesson we will have lunch including a taste of delicious “Pecorino di Pienza” raw milk cheese. We will pop into a organic, ancient grain flour mill to see how their flour and pasta is made and taste their artisan beer in their medieval garden, and spend some free time in the gorgeous fifteenth century town of Pienza, a city designed for Pope Pius II as the “ideal Renaissance city,” and wonderful for browsing the cheese shops, quaint alleyways and stunning views with a gelato. Later, a relaxed cooking class and dinner back at the villa.

Day 3: After breakfast, we will have a cooking class with Emiko, preparing the area’s famous pici pasta and making fresh curd cheese together. The afternoon will be free for a dip in the pool or relaxing, or maybe a wander through the kitchen garden, and in the early evening Marco will guide us through a lesson in pairing cheese and wine before dinner.

Day 4: After breakfast, we head off for Montalcino, which sits up high overlooking the Val d’Orcia. The home of Tuscany’s most important wines, Marco will take us to two very special wineries to taste their Brunello. We’ll have time for a stroll through the town and aperitivo, of course. Dinner in a wonderful restaurant in the historical centre of Montalcino.

Day 5: After breakfast we will spend the morning immersed in a cooking class using stoneground local flour and making our own mascarpone. After an easy lunch, relax by the pool or read a book on one of the day beds or hammock on the hill and for our last evening, we will make a classic Tuscan bistecca cooked over coals and tiramisu with our handmade mascarpone.

Day 6: Breakfast and goodbyes!

Retreat cost per person: 2,500 euro in double occupancy, single supplement: 600 euro (2 available). BOOK HERE.

What is included in the price:

• 5 nights accommodation in a beautiful Tuscan villa
• Day trips and transport included in the itinerary above
• Two winery visits and tastings
• Cheese tasting, lunch and organic farm visit
• 5 healthy breakfasts, 4 lunches and 5 dinners, including meals out at local restaurants
• Delicious natural wine during meals
• Three cooking classes with cookbook author
• One professional cheesemaking classes
• Cheesemaking equipment to take home
• Wine tastings and pairings with a sommelier

Not included in the cost:

• Airfare and travel costs to and from the villa
• Travel insurance

We will be based in the Val d’Orcia, an untouched, beautiful valley lying roughly between Siena and Orvieto with the most picturesque, unique Tuscan landscape. Think cypress trees and undulating wheat fields and every film set in Tuscany that you can think of from The English Patient to Gladiator. The villa that we will call home for the retreat is set on a hill top with 360 degrees views of the valley. Villa Pienza is a beautiful, traditional Tuscan home with 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, air conditioning and wifi. There is an 18 ft (5.5 meter) long saltwater pool, several communal kitchens, a cosy lounge room, a pool table, outdoor and indoor dining spaces and a vegetable garden at our disposal.

All the rooms are double but two are available for single occupancy at an additional price of 600 euro (first come first served) — if traveling alone but you would like the double occupancy rate and don’t mind getting to know a roommate, we will be happy to pair you in a twin room with someone else wanting to do the same thing. Please quote the room name when booking if you have a preference:

PRINCESS ROOM – on the ground floor, this room is named for the romantic, handmade canopy over the double bed (cannot be made into twins). Ensuite with a huge double head shower. Also available as a single. {BOOKED}

SWAN ROOM – this large room upstairs has a super king size bed and a huge hydromassage jacuzzi along with an ensuite with shower. Special for a couple but this can also be made into twins. {BOOKED}

SKY ROOM – second bedroom upstairs with beautiful pale blue walls and double bed which can be made into twins, and an ensuite bathroom with double sinks and double shower heads. It shares a communal loungeroom with a pocket terrace with the swan room. {BOOKED}

OCHRE BEDROOM – a upstairs double room in a quiet part of the house, fitted out in neutrals, with an ensuite that has a hydromassage tub. Available as a single or double.

PIENZA ROOM – this quiet, elegant ground floor room can be a double or twin shared room and has an ensuite bathroom.

To book your place, head right here.

We require a deposit of 50% upon booking; the remaining 50% should be paid by 1 May 2022. When booking, please specify if there is a room you prefer (I will do my best to update the website with those that have already been booked, but please select a second preference too incase your first is unavailable) and whether you would like single occupancy (paying a supplement fee) or double occupancy.

If coming with a friend or partner, please let us know so we can match up the bookings otherwise let us know if you are happy to share with any roommate.

Please let us know of any dietary requirements when you book.

The booking is non-refundable but if you need to cancel, we can accept someone to take your place.

Important: You must have your own travel insurance and a Green Pass to participate (indispensable in Italy now, even have a simple coffee at the bar).

A note on Green Passes:

At the time of writing, a Green Pass (proof of vaccination or recovery from covid-19) is necessary to eat at restaurants indoors or outdoors, enter shops and do many activities in Italy such as going to swimming pools, traveling long distance on trains and public transport etc. We also require that you have a Green Pass to attend the workshop — be assured that the hosts are vaccinated and boosted and those involved in the workshop will also have a Green Pass too.

Getting here:

Pienza is in the province of Siena. The closest international airports are Florence, Perugia and Rome. You could rent a car from the airport, Pienza is roughly 80km from Perugia (1 hour drive), 115km from Florence (1 hour and 45 minutes drive) and 190km from Rome (2 1/2 hour drive). The nearest train station if you’re coming from Perugia, Florence or Rome is Chiusi-Chianciano Terme and from there we can organise transfers from the station for arrival and departure (about 36km, a 45 minute drive) or there are several local busses. For train schedules check the Trenitalia website.

Tuscany in June:

Expect very warm weather! Tuscany in June is has long, sunlit days and warm evenings, (but possibly getting even chilly at times so a light layer might be handy). We will do our best to ensure everyone is comfortable with the heat – there will be breaks at the warmest time of the day (for a dip in the pool or a rest in your air-conditioned room), cool drinks and fresh meals suited to the warm weather. We encourage you to dress comfortably for the heat and wear comfortable shoes for day trips and farm visits – and don’t forget your swimmers!

Things to note:

The retreat will take place with a minimum of 5 and maximum of 10 participants. The itinerary is a guide; we reserve the right to make changes as necessary, such as where we may need to change the order of activities or replace some of the activities with something equally wonderful.

If you have any questions, please email: workshops@emikodavies.com

The post Pecorino e Vino Culinary Retreat 2022 in Pienza, Tuscany first appeared on Emiko Davies.

To celebrate the release of my upcoming cookbook, Cinnamon and Salt: Cicchetti in Venice: Small Bites from the Lagoon City, I am offering a very special trip that I like to call The Lagoon Workshop! The idea here is to introduce you to a part of Venice that is so often overlooked by visitors to Venice but yet is the “internal organs” of the city, as activist Jane da Mosto says: the lagoon.

We will have three nights together and we will based in a beautiful property on the ancient, colourful island of Burano. Once a fishing village, the fisherman painted their rustic homes bright colours so they could see them from afar. Famous for lace and the delicious, buttery buranelli, or S-cookies, it is also a photographers paradise for the unique buildings and canals.

It will take place on May 26-29, 2022, a time when you can still say crowds haven’t rushed back to Venice just yet and we can enjoy the sunshine but also the delightful late spring produce.

The itinerary:

Day 1: Arrival in Venice, meeting for our first aperitivo of cicchetti and spritz in the charming neighbourhood of Cannaregio (see some favourite spots in this mini guide here) before taking the vaporetto to Burano and settling in. In the evening, we will walk over the wooden foot bridge to Mazzorbo island to visit the walled garden of Venissa, where they grow vegetables and have revived a rare and ancient Venetian grape, for a wine tasting (read more about this incredible project here at Wine Spectator) and dinner at their Michelin starred restaurant.

Day 2: For early risers, I suggest a walk around Burano early in the morning before anyone else arrives! It is a special time to be there and a wonderful opportunity to take photos and enjoy the stillness. We will take a converted fishing boat with fisherman Manuel Bagnolo to visit the southern side of the lagoon towards the salt marshes and the last of the moeche (crab) fishermen, before enjoying aperitivo and lunch on the boat anchored in the middle of the lagoon. After a three course lagoon seafood meal that has been fished by Manuel and his family, we will visit the abandoned islands in the north of the lagoon (anyone who wants to visit one or jump in for a brave swim can do so!), while Manuel tells us his stories. Dinner in a classic trattoria in Burano (to get you in the mood rewatch Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode in Venice).

Day 3: After breakfast, a visit to the Rialto markets and a look at all the wonderful late spring produce. We will have a walk with Venice historian Rosa Salzberg through the backstreets of the Rialto, where you can find some of the most ancient osterie, and of course plenty of stops for cicchetti along the way. We will have free time for shopping, coffee and pastries in a wonderful campo, or perhaps you’d like to pop into my favourite museum, and we will end the evening in a charming neighbourhood osteria for natural wine and a locally sourced meal before heading back on the vaporetto to our island bed.

Day 4: After breakfast we check out and glide back over the lagoon to Venice for your next adventures.

Included are:

• Accommodation at the beautiful Casa Burano in either a superior room or junior suite
• Breakfast every morning at Venissa
• Coffee, lunch, aperitivo, dinners, including a Michelin-star dinner at Venissa
• Wine tasting of the one of the most sought-after white wines in the world
• Cicchetti tour and photo walk with cookbook author Emiko Davies
• Walk with Venice historian Rosa Salzberg
• Ticket to Palazzo Grimani
• Vaporetto pass to get around the lagoon
• Boat ride around the lagoon with a three course meal and aperitivo cooked on the boat
• A signed copy of Cinnamon and Salt!

This Lagoon Workshop costs 2,000 euro per person in double occupancy (450 euro single supplement and a supplement of 180 euro total for an upgrade to a junior suite). There are only 8 rooms available in this workshop.

To book your spot with a deposit, head right here.

We require a deposit of 50% upon booking; the remaining 50% should be paid by 1 May 2022. When booking, please specify if there is a room you prefer (I will do my best to update the website with those that have already been booked, but please select a second preference too incase your first is unavailable) and whether you would like single occupancy (paying a supplement fee) or double occupancy.

If coming with a friend or partner, please let us know so we can match up the bookings otherwise let us know if you are happy to share with any roommate.

Please let us know of any dietary requirements when you book. Note that seafood is an integral part of this tour so please let us know if you can’t have it!

The booking is non-refundable but if you need to cancel, we can accept someone to take your place.

Important: You must have your own travel insurance and a Green Pass to participate (indispensable in Italy now, even have a simple coffee at the bar).

A note on Green Passes:

At the time of writing, a Green Pass (proof of vaccination or recovery from covid-19) is necessary to eat at restaurants indoors or outdoors, enter shops and do many activities in Italy such as going to swimming pools, traveling long distance on trains and public transport etc. We also require that you have a Green Pass to attend the workshop — be assured that the hosts are vaccinated and boosted and those involved in the workshop will also have a Green Pass too.

Getting here:

Venice has its own international airport, Marco Polo Airport which is on the mainland and from there you can get a taxi to Venice’s Piazzale Roma Terminal (less than 20 minutes drive) or public transport (bus or taxi to Piazzale Roma or a water taxi!). If you’re coming from a major Italian city you can get to Venice by train — for schedules check the Trenitalia website.

Venice in late May:

Expect beautiful weather, cool evenings, sunny days but the weather can be unpredictable in late spring too so layers are always a good idea, especially for the vaporetto rides across the lagoon. If you’re game enough to go for a swim in the lagoon, bring swimmers too!

Things to note:

The retreat will take place with a minimum of 5 and maximum of 12 participants. The itinerary is a guide; we reserve the right to make changes as necessary, such as where we may need to change the order of activities or replace some of the activities with something equally wonderful.

BOOK NOW

Keen to know more? Email me at workshops@emikodavies.com

The post The Lagoon Workshop, a deep dive into the heart of Venice first appeared on Emiko Davies.

This is the simplest recipe, which is part of the beauty of it for me. All you need is a really good, organic, free range chicken and you’re halfway there.

Around Christmas and New Year’s in Italy, it’s not unusual to see cappone, or capon, a castrated rooster, on offer and this would be one of the classic ways to prepare cappone too. Castration of a rooster has been practised since ancient times, initially being a way to keep roosters together with chickens in their coop, and then kept as a tradition that guarantees very flavourful, succulent meat.

Capon broth has been a popular dish for the winter solstice since the Middle Ages, where it was appreciated for its nutritive and comforting properties and even used as medicine for anyone ill. Capons themselves were often present on noble tables at Christmas time, given a gifts from local farmers who had raised them (there is a famous exchange of capons in Alessandro Manzoni’s I Promessi Sposi, one of Italy’s most important novels). From central Italy such as Le Marche heading north through Tuscany, Emilia Romagna and finally in Piemonte, you can easily find brodo di cappone still on people’s tables for special occasions at the end of the year.

Typically, you might serve it as tortellini in brodo (the ultimate), or perhaps with passatelli (a dough made with breadcrumbs, eggs and Parmesan) but it is even delicious in tazza (in a mug, where it is sipped) and you can even of course use it as a base for minestre (soups) but when you have a very good chicken broth there is something about keeping it simple so you can enjoy the full flavour.

My butcher Andrea Falaschi suggests cooking cotechino in this brodo rather than plain water, cotechino (a large, boiled pork sausage, one of the most ancient of all Italian sausages and particularly connected to northern Italian regions of Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino) being another classic of new year where it is eaten on a bed of lentils, the flat round legumes resemble coins and so a symbol of prosperity for the new year.

Once you’ve made your broth and you have the leftover boiled chicken, pull apart the meat and separate it from the bones and skin and this of course can and should be enjoyed in other ways — at Christmas I served insalata di cappone, a salad of valeriana (lamb’s lettuce), poached capon, pomegranate seeds and sultanas revived in water with a vinaigrette (a version of which will appear in Cinnamon and Salt, my new Venetian cookbook) and for boxing day we made chicken sandwiches (I chop the meat and add finely sliced spring onion and celery, chopped walnuts, a squeeze of lemon juice and mayonnaise to bring it all together).

And with any other leftovers you can of course make the ultimate chicken noodle soup with the broth, adding some vegetables, herbs and pasta to your liking — as Laurie Colwin wrote, “The best soup I have ever eaten was made from a friend’s leftover Christmas pheasant, the remains of the potatoes Anna, peas, cabbage and stock.”

Brodo di pollo (Chicken broth)

Use cappone if you like, it is significantly larger than your average chicken so you should make sure to use a large pot that fits it nicely so that it will be completely covered with water. Try not to chop it into pieces if you can help it. Some recipes for brodo di cappone include juniper berries, peppercorns or other spices, but I abide by the simpler the better rule — when you have a very good chicken that is really all you need and extra additions just hide the true flavour. You can also find a really great beef broth recipe from my favourite old Italian cookbook by Artusi here.

Makes about 3-4 litres of broth.

• 1/2 chicken
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery stick
• 2 bay leaves
• salt to taste

Place the chicken in a pot large enough to hold it. Peel the onion and if small, keep it whole, otherwise halve it and add to the pot. Wash the carrot and celery stick and cut in half and place in the pot, along with the bay leaves. Cover with cold water (depending on the capacity of your pot and size of your chicken, about 3-4 litres).

Turn the heat to low-medium and keep an eye on it as it gets hotter — you really do not want this broth to boil but only barely simmer for about two or even three hours, covered. Skim the surface as any impurities come out. After two hours, add salt if you like and taste (I like to do this at the end or make it optional so that you have more flexibility for using this broth for different preparations. You can add salt in the step when you are preparing a dish instead, for example). The chicken should be falling apart and the broth should taste and smell wonderful. You can continue cooking the broth further, covered, if you like you can now uncover to reduce it for further flavour, depending on how you would like to use it. For this tortellini in brodo, 2 hours of the gentlest simmering was enough.

The post Brodo di pollo, chicken broth for winter solstice first appeared on Emiko Davies.

I tasted this dish of cabbage parcels with potato and mushroom recently at a wonderful trattoria, Osteria di Golpaja at the wonderful Villa Pietriolo, a sustainable, organic estate with its own farm animals, olive trees and vineyards, tucked in the hills between Vinci and San Miniato. Everything they use in this beautiful osteria is grown or reared on the property, from the Cinta Senese to the vegetables, and naturally, the seasons dictate the menu. It was a damp, muddy late autumn day and this warming dish — which was served as a main and came after the chestnut pasta with wild boar ragu and polenta with mushrooms — was just the thing.

The first thing that hits you is the sweetness of the roast cabbage – when I haven’t had it in a while I forget how sweet it is! Then you get creamy, cheesy mashed potatoes and pops of small, chiodini (honey fungus) mushrooms. If this isn’t comfort food I don’t know what is. It is a joy to eat.

I knew I wanted to try to recreate it at home, and while I love this as a vegetarian main dish, I thought about adding just a little bit of speck – a smoky, dry-cured slab of pork thigh, an IGT status product from Sud Tyrol, which was a little wave hello to the friends we ate this with, who live in Trento and had brought it to us as a souvenir (edible souvenirs are the best). Bacon would be close to it, if you can’t get speck, or you could use any ham you like. If you want to keep it vegetarian, however, you could easily leave out the speck completely. I thought as I was putting this into the oven that roast chestnuts in place of the speck, crumbled a little, would be absolutely delicious here.

There are three parts to this recipe that could all be prepared separately the day before (or simply, if you happened to have left over mashed potato), then putting them together is a cinch: blanching and drying the cabbage leaves, making the mashed potatoes and cooking the mushrooms.

I indicate more leaves than you might need because some may break as you are handling them or they may be smaller than you thought – small leaves can be overlapped to create one larger parcel. This recipe will make about 8 parcels, which could feed 8 people if part of a bigger meal.  We shared one of these at the restaurant as we were greedy and wanted to try a bit of everything — salumi, pasta, polenta and all the desserts! But if on their own I could easily eat two of these for a simple lunch.

Involtini di cavolo con patate e funghi
Cabbage parcels with potato and mushrooms

• 8-12 fresh savoy cabbage leaves
• 500 grams (3 medium sized) floury potatoes
• 100 grams butter
• 60 ml (¼ cup) milk
• 40 grams (a handful) of grated Parmesan cheese
• 150 grams chiodini (honey fungus) or other mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 60 ml (¼ cup) white wine
• 1 thick slice of speck, cut into matchsticks (optional)
• a few sprigs of parsley
• 100 grams of Asiago cheese, diced

Rinse the cabbage leaves. Bring a large pot of water to boil and place the leaves in the simmering water and blanch for about 1 minute. Drain them and place in a single layer on a tea towel to drain further.

Peel and chop the potatoes roughly and place in a pot of cold water. Bring to a boil and cook until a fork slides easily into them. Drain then place them back in the warm pot, add half of the butter and the milk, along with the Parmesan and a good pinch of salt and mash until smooth. Set aside until needed.

Cut the bases off the chiodini to separate them (they grow in clusters). If there are any large mushrooms, you can chop them in half or in smaller pieces. Pour olive oil into a wide pan and add the garlic clove. Carefully heat the oil over low-medium heat until the garlic begins to sizzle and infuse the oil – make sure not to brown it too much. Remove, then add the mushrooms, followed by the white wine and cook them until they are tender, about 10 minutes. At the last minute or two, add the speck and toss everything together.

Remove from the heat, add the parsley, then mix the mushrooms into mashed potatoes (if using cold mashed potatoes prepared earlier, this is easier to do if you warm them first). Finally, stir in the diced cheese and taste – it probably won’t need much seasoning but adjust if it does. Try to resist not simply eating the filling from the pan, although it is very, very good eaten this way, I promise it will be even better with the cabbage parcel wrapped around it!

Heat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). With a little of the butter, grease the bottom of a baking tray.

Now get back to the cabbage leaves. It is quite helpful for rolling (not to mention fun) to give the thicker stems towards the base of the leaf a bit of a bash with a rolling pin. Using two tablespoons, place heaping spoonfuls of filling (if you have cups, they would be ½ cup portions) into the middle of each cabbage leaf. Roll up the bashed stem end first, then the top down and finally the sides. Place the little package, seams down in the prepared baking tray. Continue with the rest. If you have small or broken leaves, simply use one of the extra leaves to overlap and wrap as if it were one leaf.

Divide the rest of the butter into little pieces and place these on the top of each parcel (the original, in the top photo, also had a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top; do as you wish), then bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are beginning to brown and melted cheese that has escaped its enclosure is sizzling. Eat immediately.

The post Involtini di cavolo con patate e funghi first appeared on Emiko Davies.

San Miniato’s annual White Truffle Festival has been a highlight for me ever since calling Italy home and falling in love with a boy from San Miniato 15 years ago — here is another article about the White Truffle Festival from the early days of the blog from back in 2010. And I have to say, quite happily, that it doesn’t change much. My favourite stalls are always in the same place, I know where to go back to for that great truffle pecorino, or that tasty fried snack or the best roast chestnuts. Year in, year out, you can bet they will be there, in the same spot and there is something very comforting about that.

So together with my San Miniato Dining Guide, this guide below to my favourite things at the White Truffle Festival (13-14, 20-21, 27-28 November 2021) should have you all sorted for a trip to experience this celebration of this incredibly rare and unique foraged ingredient. I am including, too, my top tips for choosing a white truffle, should you choose to go down that (delicious) road!

How to Navigate the White Truffle Festival:

Every main street and piazza is filled with food stalls, so you really can’t go wrong with a wander! But make sure to make it up the stairs to Piazza Duomo (you can also get there via Piazza della Repubblica where there is a lot to see too) which is where you will find the truffle tent and local winemakers tent. Then, you’ll find the main stalls in Piazza della Repubblica and Piazza del Popolo, which house regional delights from all over Italy — this is a treat for locals as it’s near impossible to get delicious Sicilian cannoli without actually going to Sicily, or spicy Calabrian nduja! There are taralli and olives from Puglia and cheeses from Sardinia, and more. In the loggiato of the church of San Domenico there are more stalls serving street food — a steaming lampredotto panino or a hearty bowl of ribollita, perhaps? Or maybe you’ll be curious to try the truffle beer? Along the Via IV Novembre you’ll find a good gelateria offering white truffle gelato and there are some little shops selling Christmas trinkets.

Just follow your nose!

Things to try at the White Truffle Festival:

• Ciaccioni — deep fried to order, these are fried flat breads about the size of a piadina. You can have it plain, but I’d suggest getting one of the filled ones. Prosciutto, truffled lardo, nutella, and more — pick one and you won’t regret it. Find these at the Misericordia (where you can also get white truffles and truffle products) on the way up to Piazza della Repubblica.
• Roasted chestnuts — in the corner of Piazza della Repubblica, just as you pass under the arch you’ll see the drum of roasting chestnuts in the corner. It’s the season!
• Truffle Sausages — If you’re only going to plan to buy one thing at the festival, make it a string of the truffle sausages at Falaschi butcher shop. They only make them for this moment and they are so good you should just eat them raw as so: slice down the casing and peel it off, then flatten the sausage meat onto a slice of hot, just grilled crostino. If you have it, grate some extra white truffle over it.
• Castagnaccio — I mentioned chestnuts but this is another Tuscan specialty made from chestnut flour, water and olive oil. Naturally sweet from the chestnuts, this batter is topped with pine nuts, sometimes walnuts and raisins, often too with rosemary. I am a huge fan of the one they make at Bar Cantini near Piazza al Popolo. It’s packed full of nuts and raisins, way more than the usual one. Very special.
• Cecina — A thin pancake like snack but made with a batter of just chickpea flour, water and olive oil, baked in a wood fired oven. Pizza del Popolo do an excellent one and for the festival they’re serving it with housemade butter with truffle, such a treat.
• Brigidini — paper thin, aniseed flavoured wafers, a tradition from the nearby town of Lamporecchio, that are often baked right there in the candy van with the huge sign that says “Addormentasocere” (candied almonds, also worth trying, that apparently make your mother in law fall asleep). You should smell the wafts of these wafers competing with the wafts of truffles.
• Torta di San Miniato — light as a cloud brioche doused in vin santo, this cake made by Maurizio Pasticcere is so delicate and soft it just disappears in your mouth as soon as you take a bite. Buy an extra.

How to choose a white truffle

In case you would like to go home with a real, fresh white truffle (tuber magnatum pico), there is a special tent set up of the San Miniato tartufai in Piazza Duomo (next to the local winemakers tent) and it is here you should come, breathe in deeply, and take a slow walk around the different stalls. A word of advice, if you are serious about buying a truffle, come first thing in the morning (they open 10am on Saturdays, 9am Sundays). Not only will you get the best pick, but it will be quieter — the afternoon crush of curious onlookers can make this quite a crowded spot.

The cost

Prepare to pay anywhere from 4,000 euro a kilo to 7,000 euro a kilo at the moment. Yes, that’s really expensive! The lower price is generally for smaller, knobbly and broken bits, while the higher price is for perfectly round and larger pieces. To give you an idea of how precious white truffles are as opposed to black truffles, a new season black truffle goes for around 300-600 euro a kilo.

Why they’re so expensive

White truffles are so rare, they are only found in a handful of places in Italy, such as Alba in Piedmont, San Miniato and San Giovanni d’Asso in Tuscany and Le Marche. They grow about 20-40cm below the ground and humans can’t find them without a trained dog. Oh and they cannot be farmed, as black truffles can. And, it has been a terribly dry year, much too dry and too warm for white truffles, which need humidity (they are 80% water) and the cold to ripen. So they are scarce this year. In past “normal” years, the price of white truffles has hovered between 2,000 and 3,000. Re-reading that 2010 article, wow, what a great price truffles were that season, 1,200 a kilo! No wonder we ate tagliolini al tartufo so often that autumn! 2020 was a good year too, plus, restaurants were closed and so the price of truffles went down (a silver lining to being in our second lockdown in truffle season in our new home).

How much do you need

You don’t need a huge truffle to make a lovely meal, just 3-5 grams shaved over a dish for each person is enough. So if there are just 2 of you, that small, hazelnut-sized nugget might set you back 25-40 euro this year. It’s quite normal to pay between 35-50 euro for a plate of tagliolini al tartufo bianco this year in any restaurant or trattoria so buying and making your own is a good saving, actually!

How to use a White Truffle

As soon as you take it home, keep it in a glass jar in the fridge. Ideally, use it as soon as you can, the shelf life is very short — 5 days, maybe 7, but why wait? Clean it only right before you need to it. A gentle brush with a damp nail brush is good. Wipe with some kitchen paper and it’s ready to use. Whatever you do, do not cook it! You will just waste it. White truffle is best grated finely, perhaps over a warm dish of fried eggs, or buttery pasta. Keep it simple and delicate. Fat is the best companion for truffle so these two dishes are the best way to enjoy tartufo bianco.

You can pick up fresh tagliolini at the alimentari opposite Falaschi butcher shop, Così è se Vi Piace, or at many of the stalls in the festival. Grab some truffle butter while you’re at it, it helps to layer the truffle flavours, add a bit of parmesan cheese (but not too much), or simply fry a couple of eggs in butter, leave the yolks runny and dinner is ready!

Other things to see and do

• Tartufonie — At 4:30pm on Sundays there is a free classical music performance in a different church each weekend. On November 21 it will be in San Domenico (Piazza del Popolo), Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons by the soloists of the Tuscan Chamber Orchestra and on November 28 it will be a choir in the Duomo of San Miniato. You need a Green Pass to attend.
• Quinto Martini — A stunning retrospective exhibition of 73 of the great Tuscan sculptor’s (1908-1990) work is on display (above) until November 28 at Palazzo Grifoni, 9am-12pm and 3pm-7pm. You need a green pass and it’s free!
• Rocca di Federico II — That tall tower that you can spot from miles away? That’s the Rocca or the watch tower. Built in the 1200s for Federico II, the king of Sicily, then destroyed in 1944, it was faithfully rebuilt in 1958. You can climb up it and get a spectacular view. The sunset from here is particularly special. Open 10am-3pm during the festival.
• Truffle hunt — See my workshops page or contact me for more information. We go on an exhilarating hunt for white truffles and we cook with them!

For where to eat and sleep in San Miniato see my Dining Guide to San Miniato too.

Visiting the White Truffle Festival

In 2021 the festival will be held on three weekends, 13-14, 20-21 and 27-28 of November, starting at 10am on Saturdays until 11pm and 9am on Sundays until 11pm.

The main thing to know about the festival is that driving in and out of San Miniato is extremely restricted. Streets are closed as food stalls and tents take up every single piazza (and car park) in town and it becomes pedestrian only for the entire weekend while the whole town emanates the perfume of these precious tubers.

So how to get in if you aren’t already (cleverly organised) in town? There is a shuttle bus service that goes between two big parking lots in San Miniato Basso: either from the Palazzetto Fontevivo  (both Saturday and Sunday) or the Pam supermarket (just Sunday). So if you are driving, park your car here and catch the shuttle bus (4 euro return ticket, children 14 and under are free). If you are coming by train from Florence or Pisa, get off at the San Miniato train station and you could walk to the Pam supermarket (15 minutes) for the shuttlebus, catch the 320 bus which leaves from the station every 30 minutes and takes you to Piazza Dante Alighieri in 15 minutes (note it is not available on Sundays). You can buy a bus ticket (1,80 euro) at the bar below the bus stop (or from an Italian phone number you can send a text message to 4880105 with the word “PISA” from your phone for a ticket). Or call a local taxi driver to bring you as far as it can go to San Miniato (Piazza Dante Aligheri), such as Claudio Bertini (335 527 5938).

The post San Miniato’s White Truffle Festival 2021 first appeared on Emiko Davies.

We have now called San Miniato, my husband’s hometown, our family home for the good part of this year and I admit that one of the reasons we found this Tuscan hilltop village so charming is the excellent quality of restaurants and food shops in this small historical centre. Other than being a fixture on the Via Francigena, the ancient pilgrim route, with picturesque views of the surrounding countryside from every angle you look, San Miniato is famous for being one of the rare places in the world that harbours prized white truffles — in season (October to December) you can taste them in every single place that sells food, from even the simplest bar, and the town celebrates this with their annual festival, Mostra Mercato del Tartufo Bianco and this year will be its 50th (you can see an old post from 2010 on it here — I haven’t missed one since moving to Tuscany in 2005! — see below for more on how to visit during the White Truffle Festival).

The fact that people are drawn here to try precious white truffles, which shouldn’t be cooked, but are best grated over warm, steaming plates of simple dishes such as buttery tagliolini (see below) or fried eggs, means that over the years, a growing number of quality restaurants has made San Miniato a food destination mainly for those from surrounding local towns. The restaurant selection is so good it’s not only for truffles that you will want to travel here for. It’s a place I’m very proud to share with you here in this dining guide and if you’d like me to show you around on a food tour or a truffle hunt, get in touch.

Situated between Florence and Pisa, and on the train line, and equidistant to Pistoia, Lucca, Siena or San Gimignano, means that San Miniato is very conveniently placed amongst the most important Tuscan cities. It’s also only 30 minutes from Pisa airport and the sea.

In the historical centre:

Sergio Falaschi: A fourth generation Slow Food butcher shop that has a casual restaurant out the back with the best view in town and wonderful charcuterie plates (above), traditional Tuscan primi and meaty mains. Here you will want to try all the things that they make, which are traditional salumi and sausages, with free range pork, no preservatives or additives: their sausages (in season the truffle sausages are the best!), Cinta Senese (a local Tuscan ancient pork breed) prosciutto, spuma di gota (a whipped cream made from pork jowl or guanciale), finocchiona (a larger, fresher Tuscan salame that is perfumed with fennel seeds) and mallegato, a spiced blood sausage that is served warm, the town’s only Slow Food presidium. If you’re feeling like a feast, choose a bistecca from the counter to be grilled for the table. Opening times vary seasonally so check the butcher shop (generally speaking it’s open for dinner in summer and for lunch in cold weather, closed Wednesdays).

Maggese: For something very special, Maggese (see photos below), headed by chef Fabrizio Marino (who spent 8 years at Joia in Milan, the first vegetarian restaurant in Europe to win a Michelin star) is a fine dining vegetarian restaurant in the heart of town. You can do a chef’s degustation (I would highly recommend this, also the wine pairing) or you can just choose any individual dishes without doing the tasting menu. It’s an incredible eating and drinking experience for anyone, vegan, vegetarian, omnivores alike. For those who love counter dining there is a small counter for two here, which gives you a great view on the kitchen. Open for dinner only.

La Piccola Osteria del Tartufo: As the name suggests, this is a tiny place in the town’s main piazza which has a very simple, small menu, rather meat heavy (high quality, however, as the meat comes from Lo Scalco Butcher shop in San Miniato Basso, lower San Miniato) and local wines. I would come here for their stracciatella and hazelnut risotto, a classic dish of tagliolini with truffles (above) or their burgers. Literally everything on the menu comes with truffles on it (black or white in season). Open lunch and dinner.

Pizza del Popolo: A small, pizza by the slice place but not your regular pizza. This is vegetarian, 48 hour fermented, organic and biodynamic ancient grain sourdough bread and pizza. They also do excellent panzerotti (fried to order!) and Sanminiatese style organic chickpea flour cecina and arancini with melty gorgonzola centres and cookies made with buckwheat flour, hazelnut or the Tuscan chestnut specialty, castagnaccio. They have local beer on tap or can fix you a spritz. You can eat in on one of the tables in the outdoor/covered terrace or takeaway. Closed Mondays.

Birra e Acciughe: I can’t tell you how many times this tiny place has saved me but sometimes you just need a warm baguette the length of your arm filled with creamy butter and anchovies (for me) or a hot dog (for the girls) to stave off a melt down! There is a surprising selection of over 60 artisan beer and ciders and did I mention the panini are warm? It’s too small for seats but most customers use the benches nearby or simply stand (see top photo). Closed Mondays.

Pizzeria Demetra: Not the traditional pizza, but a sourdough pizza made with a mixture of wheat, rice and soy flours, left to rise for 120 hours and gourmet, seasonal toppings. The twice cooked technique here means a very crunchy crust. For those who want something other than pizza, they also have big salads, cheese and charcuterie plates, focacce and artisan beers. In the summer only dinner but in cold weather open for lunch and dinner.

Maurizio il Pasticcere: The place for a classic Italian breakfast — cappuccino and cornetto!  Everything is made on site. Their sweet and savoury pastries and pizzette are particularly soft, fluffy and cloud like! I particularly love the sfoglie (puff pastry pockets filled with custard, apple or rice) and their miniature almond biscotti. In summer they have a good selection of housemade gelato and at Christmas they do pandoro, panettone and delicious panforte. Closed Monday afternoons.

Ethan’s Bar: This cupboard-sized bar is the place to come for aperitivo or an after dinner drink. Owner and mixologist Alessio Cintelli makes wonderful cocktails using well-researched liqueurs and ingredients

Out of town:

Papaveri e Papere: Just a 5 minutes drive downhill from the town centre is this wonderful restaurant serving modern, well executed Tuscan cuisine. Chef Paolo Fiaschi creates beautiful dishes based on Tuscan specialties and traditional ingredients, including a good selection of seafood, meat and vegetarian dishes, such as soft poached egg with pumpkin flan and white truffles (below), fresh tagliolini with guinea fowl ragu, bitter greens and taggiasche olives. Save space for dessert, they are just as beautiful to look at as they are to eat. Double check the opening times as they change seasonally — in the summer they are closed Sunday evenings, in cold weather Wednesdays they close.

Taverna dell’Ozio: A 10 mins drive from the town centre of San Miniato you can reach this wonderful but small rustic tavern (red and white checkered tablecloths and all) in the countryside neighbourhood of Corazzano. I will say right away it is always very hard to get a reservation here, especially during truffle and mushroom season (their specialties) as it is small (even smaller since the pandemic restrictions means less people inside) and is one of the few places in the area where you can try truly traditional, Slow Food dishes like game, snails and all the truffle and foraged mushroom dishes of your dreams. You may get lucky when they announce space available on their facebook page! Closed Mondays.

Collebrunacchi: A favourite restaurant recommended by my butcher (Falaschi), this wonderful trattoria is about a 15 minute drive through the countryside and is best for a traditional, big Tuscan meal with the works: antipasti of mixed crostini and pickles (below), tortellini in brodo, ribollita or pappardelle with hare sauce and wood fired grilled meats, including game (their specialty) and old school desserts like zuppa inglese. The prices are about 15 years old and the whole experience is, simply put, one of the reasons why I love living in Tuscany. They also have a B&B. Closed Mondays.

Cosimo Maria Masini: While not a restaurant, I highly recommend visiting this winery which is less than a 15 minute drive away. You can do a wine tasting (and olive oil tasting) here or simply visit the shop to take some bottles home. Francesco, the wine maker, does a wonderful explanation of how and why his winemaking is natural, organic and biodynamic. They also have a holiday house with a pool on site.

Markets

Every Tuesday morning you’ll find the weekly mobile market in Piazza Dante Alighieri, while the third Sunday of the month is the Slow Food Market with local farmers and their produce (goat cheese, honey, sourdough bread, wine, salumi, fresh produce). The first Sunday of the month the historical centre hosts a pretty good flea market that lasts all day until 7pm where you can find all kinds of treasures, including textiles, cameras, furniture, paintings, toys, green glass from Empoli and ceramics.

Visiting the White Truffle Festival

In 2021 the festival will be held on three weekends, 13-14, 20-21 and 27-28 of November, starting at 10am on Saturdays until 11pm and 9am on Sundays until 11pm.

The main thing to know about the festival is that driving in and out of San Miniato is extremely restricted. Streets are closed as food stalls and tents take up every single piazza (and car park) in town and it becomes pedestrian only for the entire weekend while the whole town emanates the perfume of these precious tubers.

So how to get in if you aren’t already (cleverly organised) in town? There is a shuttle bus service that goes between two big parking lots in San Miniato Basso: either from the Palazzetto Fontevivo  (both Saturday and Sunday) or the Pam supermarket (just Sunday). So if you are driving, park your car here and catch the shuttle bus (4 euro return ticket, children 14 and under are free). If you are coming by train from Florence or Pisa, get off at the San Miniato train station and you could walk to the Pam supermarket (15 minutes) for the shuttlebus, catch the 320 bus which leaves from the station every 30 minutes and takes you to Piazza Dante Alighieri in 15 minutes (note it is not available on Sundays). You can buy a bus ticket (1,80 euro) at the bar below the bus stop (or from an Italian phone number you can send a text message to 4880105 with the word “PISA” from your phone for a ticket). Or call a local taxi driver to bring you as far as it can go to San Miniato (Piazza Dante Aligheri), such as Claudio Bertini (335 527 5938).

Where to Sleep:

Here are some places to stay right in the heart of the historical centre.

Hotel San Miniato, a restored 13th century monastery
Le Finestre del Seminario, recently restored, simple but spacious rooms in the 17th century Seminary building of San Miniato (above)
LUI apartment on Airbnb
LEI apartment on Airbnb
Orange apartment on Airbnb
Ser Ridolfo Loft

The post San Miniato Dining and White Truffle Guide first appeared on Emiko Davies.

I know, I know, the ingredients might be challenge — chicken combs and testicles aren’t the easiest to obtain or to handle for some — this isn’t for the faint of heart. But I will say that this is a wonderful, divine and very special dish with an incredible Florentine history, and I think in today’s context is still extremely relevant as a sustainable and respectful choice for omnivores who care about eating for the planet.

I wrote a lot more about that for my newsletter, which you can see here, but I think it is still the same argument I have been making for the ten years I’ve had this blog — that eating offal is important as a conscientious onminvore, and now more than ever.

And aside from that argument, the other reason you should try this is because it is simply divine. Catherine de’ Medici was so fond of it she almost made herself sick from eating too much of it, the story goes. And in fact the first thing I noticed about this dish that the Florentine Queen of France was so enamoured of, is how incredibly luxurious it tastes — creamy, delicate, melt in the mouth. You could easily imagine it eaten with truffles (as chicken combs were often prepared with in French cooking). This is no peasant dish. This is something special. In Florence today, you’ll be hard pressed to find many restaurants and trattorie serving this historical dish, but one place that is famous for it is Enoteca Pinchiorri, Florence’s only three Michelin star restaurant. So that should give you a hint, too, at what kind of dish we are talking about here.

Below you’ll find the traditional recipe for Cibrèo and a recipe that turns into a stuffing for cappelletti pasta, a dish that was so good my husband Marco was moved to tears!

Cibrèo

This refined, classic Florentine dish could be served as antipasto or a main, here the proportions for four would make it a main dish. This recipe is adapted from Paolo Petroni’s Il Libro della Vera Cucina Italiana.

For 4 people

• 1 cockscomb and wattle (the fleshy hanging part under the beak)
• 1 ½ tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4-6 leaves of sage
• 1 small onion, finely sliced or chopped
• 60 ml (¼ cup) dry white wine
• 120 grams chicken livers, halved
• flour for dusting
• 70 grams chicken hearts, halved lengthways
• 70 grams chicken testicles
• grating of fresh nutmeg
• 250 ml of stock
• 2 egg yolks
• juice of ½ lemon

Blanch the crest and wattle in boiling water for a minute or two then remove, and when cool enough to handle, scrape off the fine, papery skin, then chop into bite sized pieces.

In a pan, melt the butter with olive oil over low heat and add the sage and onion, cooking until the onion is translucent and softened but not coloured, about 5-7 minutes, then turn up the heat to low-medium, add the crest and wattle, followed by the white wine and cook for 15 minutes.

Dust the livers in flour to cover, then add them together with the hearts and testicles, to the pan. Season with salt, freshly ground pepper and nutmeg and continue cooking for another 15 minutes, adding stock to the pan as you need to keep braising the chicken.

In a small bowl, whisk together the yolks and lemon juice. Add a splash of stock too, then pour it over the pan and stir gently for a minute to allow the yolk to thicken then serve immediately with more freshly ground black pepper and plenty of crusty bread to mop up the sauce.

Cappelletti di cibrèo

If you want to get fancy or propose this dish in another way and turn it into pasta, an idea inspired by a wonderful meal of ravioli di finanziera (a similar dish of offal and chicken crests) at Ristorante Consorzio in Torino, we made cappelletti (you could also do simpler ravioli following the method here but I think you’ll agree the cappelletti are adorable). I like to use a dough really rich in egg yolks for making filled pasta, hence the number of yolks required here. If you’re wondering what to do with all the egg whites, I love Edna Lewis’ egg white pound cake.

• 400 g plain (all-purpose) flour, plus more for dusting
  
• 2 eggs, plus 5 yolks (set aside 1 egg white for later)
• 2 tablespoons water
  
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) or so of stock (or water) for reheating the sauce if necessary
  
• 50 grams cold butter
• Freshly ground pepper

Put the flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Place the eggs, 4 of the yolks (save one for the filling) and water in the well. With a fork, begin to whisk the eggs, incorporating the flour little by little until you can no longer whisk with the fork. Use floured hands to combine the rest of the flour until you have a smooth, elastic dough. Wrap in plastic wrap or pop under a bowl on the bench and let it rest at least 30 minutes.

Strain the Cibrèo (warmed if necessary) to separate the sauce from the rest of the ingredients. Set aside the sauce and blend the rest of the ingredients in a food processor with about 50 grams of grated Parmesan cheese so that it is stiffer, quite like the consistency of ricotta.

Cut the dough into four pieces and dust with flour. Roll out one portion of the dough (I like doing one portion at a time) using a pasta machine or rolling pin, keeping the rest of the dough covered. The dough should be thin enough so that you can see your hand through it. Cut out rounds with a cookie cutter (about 7cm/2 3/4 in in diameter) and roll the scraps back up into a ball (you can roll this back out later) and keep these on a wooden board dusted with flour while you finish cutting out the rounds for this portion of dough.

With two teaspoons, scoop a teaspoon of filling onto the centre of each round. Have a little bowl of water handy (or use the extra egg white) and dip your finger into this and then wet the edge of the pasta all the way around. Now fold the round into a half moon, squeezing out gently any air from inside, then fold the two ends of the half moon to meet each other in the middle — and there you have your first cappelletto!

Continue with the rest of the rounds, setting aside the finished cappelletti on a wooden board dusted with flour (alternatively you can place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper). Then continue with rolling out the next portion of dough and so on.

You can store this pasta in the fridge for a few hours until you are ready to cook, or you can cook them right away.

To cook the cappelletti, gently tumble them into a pot of simmering, salted water. They will take only about 2 minutes to cook. In the meantime, heat up the sauce very gently with a splash of water or stock and once warm, add cold butter and turn off heat, swirling until it melts. Drain and plate the cappelletti, then distribute the sauce over the top of each dish and finish with plenty of freshly ground pepper. Marco loved pairing this with a glass of dessert wine (Vin Santo), which is unusual but works incredibly well.

The post Cibrèo, a forgotten Florentine dish first appeared on Emiko Davies.

We used to live on Via dei Neri, the street that runs from the back of the Uffizi Gallery towards Piazza Santa Croce. It was more than 10 years ago now, when it was still a residential neighbourhood of central Florence. Despite being in the shadow of Palazzo Vecchio and two steps to all the monuments, people lived here — you could tell from the little shops like the fruttivendolo for fresh fruit and vegetables, the bakery and even the little dry cleaner. They were shops for locals. There is still a butcher shop there, but I doubt anyone who shops there now is a local. We’ve all been driven out by airbnbs and those little shops are no more — they’re all paninoteche, sandwich shops.

When we lived on that street there was a wonderful place we used to pop into to grab a sandwich on occasion. It was across the road from our apartment, after all. We were on a first name basis. You could waltz in there anytime and order a fantastic slab of schiacciata filled with whatever you like (finocchiona and stracchino was my favourite). There was a help yourself bucket of wines and proper glasses. We would perch on a stool and have a perfect lunch, often in there elbow to elbow with the guys who check tickets at the Uffizi gallery entrance, who were regulars. It was just a good local spot, doing what Florence does really, really well: quick, often standing, hole in the wall panini.

Then something really strange happened. Suddenly our neighbourhood panino place was named number 1 restaurant in Florence. It’s not a restaurant, of course, it’s a hole in the wall with three stools. And they do good panini but hardly exceptionally different from a handful of other places within 2 or 3 blocks away. Suddenly the line to get a panino is 45 minutes long. And even friends visiting from Venice are trying to get in line to try this panino they’ve heard “is a must”. This has now been going on for years now — I am surprised to find that it is still the case even now, during a pandemic, and well, yes, the neighbourhood is ruined. Every shop on this street sells panini now, gone are the little shops that once served residents. Rubbish is left everywhere, police patrol the street to stop people sitting in the doors of shops to eat and a “panino tax” has been proposed by frustrated businesses who have to clean up after them.

The truth is, no Florentine would ever dream of standing in line for 45 minutes for a panino. It goes against the very idea of why you eat a panino for lunch: it is quick. You don’t need to sit down, you stand, you eat, you drink, you go!

Also, no Florentine would ever stand in line for that long when around the corner there is another perfectly great panino waiting for you. This is what the tourists do not know. So what I’m trying to say is, don’t stand in line for a panino that is longer than a handful of people. This isn’t meant to be a negative post about a certain place that I used to love so much, I personally don’t think it’s their fault. It’s more what happens when you let tourists go crazy, when sites like Tripadvisor (that residents don’t use) get out of hand and what happens when that particular mix of things and an algorithm decide things that local residents don’t.

The point here (and what history can tell you too) is that there are plenty of other better choices because good panini is what Florence does so well.

The ritual is this: a small, round, crusty bun, sliced in half, with some of the fluffy, soft white bread pulled out to make room for the filling, which is never too much. One or two, maximum three, things go inside a Florentine panino. Creamy, unsalted butter and anchovies. Thin slices of prosciutto with a single layer of thickly sliced pecorino cheese. Truffled pecorino cheese and spicy, bouncy, fresh arugula. Creamy stracchino cheese, fennel-studded finocchiona and spicy grilled eggplant.

The bread may also be schiacciata (crunchy, wood-fired, olive oil-lathered focaccia) instead, or not too-thick slices of unsalted Tuscan bread. But the idea is something you can hold in two hands and finish in a handful of bites.

A glass of wine – a small, almost miniature serving of chianti or vermentino in a rounded glass, just enough for a few gulps – is the usual accompaniment, and most hole-in-the-wall paninoteche have a little shelf built into the wall that serves as a handy spot to place your glass so you can eat your panino with two hands while you stand on the street.

A panino al lampredotto, a bun filled with juicy boiled offal and salsa verde make up Florence’s favourite and most typical snack and these are served by lampredottai, lampredotto (abomasum tripe) sellers who boil the tripe in deep pots directly on the vans where the panini are sold and eaten.

Florence has a centuries-long tradition of little places that serve wine and food. Even as far back as the Middle Ages, wine-selling was considered an “arte”, and the vinattieri formed one of Florence’s important guilds, setting up cellars and mescite, where you could buy wine or drink it right there. And you can still see along the back streets behind hefty palazzi the little “buchette di vino”, or wine doors, many dating to the seventeenth century, where wine was sold to the public.

The tradition of Florence’s many paninoteche dates back to the nineteenth century, where, along with glasses of wine, freshly baked bread from the forno (bakery) and prosciutto, finocchiona and salame from the salumaio came together in the simplest of ways for a quick lunch, an impromptu snack or merenda.

Places like I Due Fratellini, which is literally large enough to hold the two brothers, Michele and Armando and a wall of wine bottles, are doing what that paninoteca been doing since 1875. Another Florentine institution, the beautiful bar Procacci, which is famous for its fancy finger sandwiches filled with truffle paste, have been serving Florentines truffle-laced panini and pouring wine since 1885.

My personal favourite choices for a panino that are less than a 5 minute walk away from *that* long line at Antico Vinaio include ‘Ino right behind the Uffizi gallery in Via Georgeofili (here, you can also sit down and have a full glass of wine!). In the same area, Il Cernacchino (which inspired this panino with beef stew recipe in Florentine) also does great panini, I do love their porchetta sandwiches too. And just down the road on via dei Cerchi, another two favourites are I Buongustai (Via dei Cerchi 15r) — I adore their spinach and melted brie panini, they were my regular when I worked in a jewlery shop on this street! If they were too busy, I’d go next door to I Maledetti Toscani (Via dei Cerchi 19r). And right around the corner of course is I Due Fratellini (Via dei Cimatori 38r).

I never miss a panino (usually the fennel, orange and anchovy one) at Semel (Piazza Ghiberti 44) or a lampredotto panino at my favourite Tripperia Pollini, the tripe van parked near the church of Sant’Ambrogio, when I’m in the area of the market. And if I’m oltrarno side, I head straight to S.Forno (Via S.Monaca, 3r) and ask for a panino with mortadella, possibly sandwiched in a rosemary scented, raisin-studded pandiramerino.

If I’m not far from the train station, I sneak into Casa del Vino (Via del Ariento 16r). Their sausage and stracchino panino is something I dream of regularly. And whenever I can, if I’m in the area of Campo di Marte, the outskirts, not far from the train station or the football stadium, I go straight to place that I’m quite positive is the actual best panino in the city — Caffe Dogali (Viale Malta 5r).

Further reading: These photos come from my book Florentine (some are outtakes that never made it in!) and you’ll find a number of recipes n there inspired by these places, Procacci, Tripperia Pollini and I Buongustai for example. And I have a Florentine food guide available here.

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