Category: Tuscany Recipes

10 Typical Tuscan Dishes You Must Try Traditional Tuscan food harmonizes two inseparable principles - simplicity and quality. Typical Tuscan dishes are based on the so-called "cucina povera," the peasant traditions that arose out of necessity during hard times. Even now Tuscans prefer to stay close to their roots as natural localvores who take the time to find the best quality meat and produce, even if it means going to a different store for each one. They take pride in knowing where their food comes from, and believe in eating seasonally. In fact, one of the specialities below is only available for a few weeks every year! • Typical Tuscan Dishes Acquacotta (Maremma) There is no single recipe, every homemaker seems to have her own variation. However; what all versions of acquacotta that literally means "cooked water", have in common is that they all come from the poor soup that the cowherds, shepherds, coalmen or lumberjacks, seasonal workers who went in Maremma from Casentino - or people who worked far from home - prepared with what they could find in the woods. They boiled water from a stream or river, and poured it over slices of day-old bread, maybe even an egg and added a sprinkling of aged pecorino cheese. In those days acquacotta was based on chicory, spinach and wild garlic or asparagus, dried broad beans and maybe even mushrooms if the season was right. Today, this dish has become fashionable like other humble foods. It is made with a generous amount of chopped onion, celery and carrots, various vegetables (zucchini, broad beans, beet greens, mushrooms) and one egg per serving, dropped into the hot soup so that it barely sets. Place a slice of toasted bread in each bowl, pour the soup over it and, don't forget a