Recipes from Bloggers in Tuscany: Our Top List
Tuscany and food, it almost should be the same word. What we eat is so important to our culture, our most traditional dishes – food hailing from poverty using local, and seasonal ingredients. Not much has changed, only that the local food is becoming even better. Tuscans are proud about what they eat, and they have good reason too.
We are personally always looking for inspiration for dishes in our own restaurant, l’Olivaia, which is slated to re-open later this month. Our chef uses nature as his inspiration and reflects in the kind of interesting fusion that erupts when tradition meets a creative youth with an exceptional palate.
Tuscan food is amazingly simple. From the simple and flavorful bruschetta, toasted Tuscan bread topped with a mix of fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil. What matters here is the quality of the tomatoes, the freshness of the basil and most importantly, the olive oil you top this with. Simple, sometimes is the hardest dishes to perfect.
Since you can find a lot of great recipes from food bloggers around the web, we wanted to include a few of our favorites that have been making us drool on our computer screen lately.
The Bittersweet Gourmet is a food blog created by an American based in the Mugello Valley (yay). What we appreciate about her writing style is the back-story she often includes. Her latest post, La Polentata delle Ceneri, took us back into time and we especially appreciated the mention of a local watercolor artist in the Mugello Valley, Enrico Pazzagli.
some of our favorite Tuscan recipes with a twist include:
- Panzanella Alternativa – so easy!
- A Summertime Renaissance: How to Rekindle Your Stale Vegetable Love. We tried the grilled tomatoes broiled with goat cheese which could our new favorite side.
Another blog we highly suggest reading for great recipes is Jul’s Kitchen. A Tuscan that also writes in English, her recipes are easy to follow and she also offers cooking classes.
Some of our favorite recipes of her include:
- Chickpea Crostini two ways (delicious)!
- Stuffed Squid with bread and pine nuts, amazing!
Also what could possibly be more Tuscan than a steaming hot, salt piece of Schiacciata all’olio! We appreciated this recipe from the Tuscan region food blog, Tuscanycious.
Quick Booking snippet
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