Table of Contents
LOCAL PRODUCTS.
TASTE FLORENCE SPECIALTIES
BEVERAGES.
Wines of Tuscany. Birra Italiana. Italian Spirits.
Florence is the capital of Tuscany, so all Tuscan food is Florentine, right? Wrong!
However, all Florentine food is Tuscan.
How can that be?
Take a chicken casserole. I ask a cook in Maine, Georgia, Indiana, Texas, and California to make it for me, their recipe. I would have five different casseroles. All are “American” dishes, but with different flavors from other areas. I live in Florida, so I take a chef from Tallahassee and one from Miami. I bet I end up with two distinctly different Florida chicken dinners.
Florentine is a subset of Tuscan cooking.
Tuscan.
Tuscan cooking goes by the Italian idea of Cucina Povera or “poor cooking”. In other words, a simple meal of inexpensive ingredients you can make in large amounts. There are no complicated seasonings or cooking styles. Just fresh, high-quality ingredients that bring out the natural flavors. It is the food of the land.
Florentine.
FLOR-en-teen or the term à la Florentine, means spinach. Not the word spinach but a dish with fresh spinach that they gently simmer in butter. Not from the microwave or a pot of boiling water, and certainly not from the freezer.
Over the spinach, they place the main ingredient, fish, poultry, or even a poached egg. Then a Mornay sauce (cream with gruyère cheese) goes over the top. They may, or may not, brown it under a broiler. (au gratin).
A real Eggs Florentine should be an English muffin with an egg on spinach and Mornay sauce. In American restaurants, it is not uncommon to find hollandaise sauce and Canadian ham on it.
Legend gives credit for Florentine cuisine to the chefs of Catherine de Medici. They accompany her during her move from Florence to France for her marriage to the future king. She loves spinach. It grows in Tuscany, but even more so in France. Gruyere cheese originates in Switzerland, and the act of browning (au gratin) is 100% from France. There is nothing Florence about Eggs Florentine. Her family in Florence would later adopt it as their own.
There is a thin, crunchy cookie that also goes by the name Florentine. The traditional recipe includes cream, butter, flour, and chocolate. None of these are common ingredients in Tuscan sweets. However, they scream French. Chances are the Florentine was a favorite cookie of a French queen from Florence, Catherine again. Finding a Florentine cookie in Florence today is difficult.
Taste Florence through Local Products
Of the seventeen P.D.O., P.G.I., and I.G.P. products in Tuscany, five are growing in or near Florence.
- Marrone del Mugello – are sweet chestnuts they make into flour, use in recipes, especially desserts, and eat whole.
- Prosciutto Toscano – is local salumi of pork and seasonings. Eat it alone, or with local unsalted bread.
- Toscano P.G.I. Extra virgin olive oil – is one of many P.G.I. Oils in Italy. You should try them all as they do vary in taste.
- Pecorino Toscano – is a firm-textured sheep milk cheese. Many regions now make pecorino, but records indicate it began in Tuscany.
Does that mean these are the only things to sample? Hardly. These are the must-try.
Fresh spinach and artichokes, while not P.D.O. status, are delicious. There are many other local kinds of cheese, salami, fruits, and vegetables worth trying.
Taste Florence Specialties.
To make life easier, they have dishes ready for you to sample that include these ingredients. Here are just a few of the traditional foods you should try.
Starters
- Affettati Misti (mixed cold cuts) – is a tray of local meats like finocchiona, and lardo salumi and prosciutto.
- Crostini Misti (mixed toast) – are slices of bread they lightly toast and top with different spreads, including meats and vegetables.
- Crostini di Fegato – is chicken liver paté on a crostini.
- Pappa al Pomodoro – is bread with a topping of olive oil, tomatoes, and basil. A typical Cucina Povera dish.
- Fettunta – (greased slice) – is grilled toast, they rub with a garlic clove, drizzle with the best olive oil, and then sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
- Pinzimonio – are fresh seasonal vegetables that they sometimes slightly blanch or grill. They serve with seasoned olive oil for dipping.
Soups
Cipollata Tiepida – Every European cuisine has an onion soup somewhere in its history. This one is rich with flavor, and great served on a cold day.
Ribollita – is the classic Florentine cabbage-and-bean soup. This slow-simmering dish is an authentic peasant dish that has come down through the centuries. They serve it with old Tuscan bread.
Pappa al Pomodoro – Has fresh tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and basil. They crumble old bread into the soup, adding texture and taste. Depending on where and what time of year you try it, it may be hot, room temperature, or chilled.
Pasta
Pappardelle sulla Lepre – Pappardelle is a broad, flat pasta noodle. They use marinated lepre (hare) to make the tomato meat sauce. The marinating in red wine, vinegar, and garlic remove any gamey flavors.
Penne Strascicate – is Penne with a meat and tomato sauce that includes celery, carrots, onions, and red wine.
Crespelle alla Fiorentina – is a traditional pasta dish, and yet not easy to find. An Italian crêpe, with real ricotta cheese and spinach for the filling. Over the top, they layer creamy béchamel sauce and grated parmesan. They bake them until golden brown.
Ravioli Gnudi (Naked Ravioli) – Is a pasta-less dumpling. After mixing fresh spinach, ricotta, eggs, and parmesan, they form little meatballs with the mix. They give them a light coating of flour and then into boiling water like other pasta.
Meat
Arista di Maiale – is a roast loin of pork they stuff with sage, rosemary, and garlic. Then they slowly roast it until it is mouth-watering.
Bistecca alla Fiorentina – is a T-bone or porterhouse steak, 2-3 inches thick, Florentine style. They rub the meat with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and usually rosemary and maybe sage. They grill it over high heat for a short time. The traditional cooking temperature is rare.
Peposo alla Fornacina – Dating from the 1400s, the tilemakers would cook this in the ovens with the terracotta tiles for the Duomo. Marbled beef, olive oil, wine, garlic, salt, pepper slowly cooked in a pot. It is a Tuscan beef bourguignon.
Trippa all Fiorentina – If we are talking about Florence cuisine, we have to speak about tripe. This item has been the street-food of Florence for centuries. They cut the tripe (stomach lining) into strips. Then it slow-cooks in a tomato and vegetable sause for hours. They serve it as a sandwich on just about every street corner.
Vegetables
Fagioli all’ uccelletto – are beans in tomato, sage, and garlic sauce.
Fagioli – is often white beans; they simmer in garlic, sage, and peppercorn.
Piselli alla fiorentina – are green peas; they boil with garlic, fresh parsley, and uncooked pancetta. Just before serving, they splash it with olive oil.
Patate al Forno – are potatoes they peel and cut into smaller pieces. Then they bake them until they are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
Verdure grigliate – are usually a mixture of vegetables ( peppers, eggplant, round tomatoes, zucchini) that they toss in olive oil, salt, pepper then grill.
Scarpetta – is not a food, but a verb. It translates as a slipper. But at an Italian table, it refers to cleaning (sopping) your plate with a piece of bread. It would be a shame to leave one drop of sauce or olive oil. Do NOT look at it as carbs; it’s merely complimenting the chef.
Dulce (Sweets)
Castagnaccio – is a cake they make with chestnut flour. It is not an overly sweet cake.
Schiacciata alla Fiorentina – is a flat sponge cake they dust with powdered sugar. It is traditionally a Carnaval treat.
Schiacciata con l’uva – is a grape bread they make with the wine harvest in the fall. Uva fragola (strawberry grapes”) are sweet grapes that are ripe in September. They bake these into a focaccia type bread.
Zuccotto – is a traditional dessert you will find in a pastry or ice cream shop. They line a mold with slices of cake. Then they fill this dome with sweetened ricotta cheese, candied fruit, and almonds. After refrigerating it until the filling is hard, they serve it upside down.
Zuppa Inglese (Soup of the English) – is similar to an English Trifle. Traditionally, it is Italian cookies (biscotti) in between layers of custard. Today, you may find a sponge cake instead of cookies.
Bernardo Buontalenti (1531 – 1608) was a stage designer, architect, theatrical designer, military engineer, and artist sponsored by the Medici family. He would produce grand entertainments and festivals for the family.
What the Blue Blazes Does this have to do with Dessert?
For one of the events Cosimo I de’ Medici is hosting, he creates a new dessert. He takes the rich local cream and freezes it. Crema Congelata is popular with the visiting Spanish king and the Medici. It morphs a few times, and they abbreviate the name into gelato. Many places claim to be the first, but it was the Medici who first served it.
Today, many shops carry a Crema de Buontalenti flavor. There is no vanilla in it. It has the taste of sweet cream.
Taste Florence Beverages
Spirits
Alchermes (Alkermes) liqueur – was first a medicine dating from the 1200s. The Sisters of the Order of Santa Maria dei Servi were making this and selling it as medicine. In 1743, the friars of the Santa Maria Novella monastery introduced a new version. The scarlet liqueur includes orange, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, and coriander as flavorings. It becomes a favorite of the Medici, who drink it but also use it in cooking. Caterina de’ Medici introduces it to France, where they begin calling it the liquor de’ Medici.
Negroni cocktail – is from Florence. Consisting of one part gin, one part red vermouth, and one part Campari, it is similar to a l’Americano, which has club soda instead of gin.
Taste Florence Wine
Tuscany is home to some of the world’s most famous wine regions. Tuscany has ten provinces. The best known being Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Bolgheri, and Carmignano.
There are 42 DOC wines and eleven with DOCG status.
Vineyards producing Chianti surround Florence. Most people picture a squat bottle with a straw basket around the lower half and a candle in the neck. The basket is a “fiasco”. Nowadays, very few wineries still put the bottle in a fiasco.
There are many levels of Chianti. Table wine, similar to the Chanti of the 1970-80s, is still available. The label will say, “Chianti.” Try to avoid this wine. However, Chianti has several relatives that are better.
Chianti has seven sub-zones. Look for Chianti on the label with a sub-zone name after it (Chianti Rufina.) These are usually a higher quality wine.
Chianti Classico is no longer a sub-zone but a DOCG on its own. Following strict regulations, it is producing quality rather than quantity wine.
Italy creates a new classification for Chianti in 2014, Chianti Classico Gran Selezione. The restrictions on alcohol, extract, and aging is even stricter. Currently, only about 5% of Chianti Classico wine makes it to this designation.
You may come across the term Chianti Riserva. This label often means they did not sell it when they should have. Probably better to leave that for the tourists.
There are several wine bars and stores throughout the city.
Taste Florence Summary
Where to start your journey to taste Florence and all its wonderful flavors? Surely you want to sample the P.D.O. products as well as the fruits and vegetables in season when you visit. You need to taste Florence specialties when in Florence. And eating the local things would be incomplete if you did not taste Florence wines along with them.
There are several local markets where you can sample many Florentine treats. Mercato Centrale is the largest and most central. At the eastern end of the historic district is Sant’Ambrogio Market.