Tag: Tuscan

Tuscan Befanini – Italian Cuisine – Italian Cuisine

"The Befana comes at night, with all her shoes broken …" and as she loves local traditions, instead of chocolates she brings biscuits to good children in Tuscany: find out how they are prepared

Country you go, gastronomic tradition you find. In a country like Italy this is a dogma, and even more so during the holiday season. If the recipes and Christmas customs are now well known and shared even outside the regional borders, not everyone knows that even for theEpiphany there are real ones gourmet goodies. Never heard of befanini biscuits, typical of some areas of the Tuscany, for example?

befanini

The Befanini recipe according to the Ciocco Tenuta e Parco

To prepare these typical biscuits at home you will need 1 kg of flour, 700 g of sugar, 250 g of butter at room temperature, 6 yolks and 4 and a half egg whites, a sachet of yeast and orange and lemon zest. The befanini are then stuffed with del Marzipan, prepared with 300 g of toasted and chopped almonds, 280 g of sugar, other orange and lemon zest, alchermes, rum, cognac and pebble.

The process

First of all prepare the pastry: simply work the ingredients together until you get a smooth and homogeneous dough, to rest in the fridge for at least half a day.
After this time, prepare a somewhat consistent marzipan kneading the necessary ingredients.
Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin and cut out the biscuits of various shapes, place a teaspoon of marzipan in the center of each biscuit and close the outer edges by pinching the pastaideally with metal tweezers. Decorate with flowers, leaves or other ornaments and let it rest for about a day, before baking the biscuits at 200 degrees until they are golden brown. Sprinkle the powdered sugar befanini on the oven and let it cool.

History and tradition of Epiphany biscuits

Like any self-respecting typical recipe, even that of the Befanini, in reality, lends itself to different variations and interpretations. For example, marzipan is often replaced with colored sugars.
Typical of the Serchio Valley, an area of Tuscany, between the Apuan Alps and the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, which extends from the plain of Lucca to the Garfagnana, the Befanini they prepare between 5 and 6 January. In this area, the feast of Epiphany is so deeply felt and rooted that in 1897 Giovanni Pascoli, poet from the area, dedicated one Befana poem.

Photo credits: BIRIA – press office

Finocchiona, the Tuscan salami that gives birth to honey and flowers – Italian Cuisine

Between local salamis – that in recent years have become less salty and fat, especially when it comes to PDO and PGI – some represent the excellence of a specific region. It is the case of the finocchiona, guaranteed IGP, where theGeographical Indication that is Protected is that of Tuscany.

Unlike bresaola, for example, which is produced in various areas of Northern Italy but only that of the Valtellina is Igp, thea finocchiona is Igp in the round: it is produced only in the land of Dante, where it stands out among the salamis for his unparalleled taste since the times of the Middle Ages. THE Igp products they are by nature intimately linked to the territory they come from, and the finocchiona is so virtuous. In fact the 42 companies that are currently part of the Finocchiona IGP protection consortium, born in 2015 following the European recognition of the IGP brand for this sausage, they work in synergy with other local realities, with the benefit of the earth and the economy.

We are talking in particular of the connection between the sausage, i flowers and honey, but not in terms of culinary combinations (the cured meats however they combine masterfully with fruit, did you know?). So: let's start with the basics. The name of this salami derives from the particular taste given by the use of wild fennel that nature provided in abundance in the Tuscan fields and hills. Today this herb is no longer so widespread in nature and therefore is cultivated. The success of this product, in Italy and abroad, is given in recent years above all by his biological version. "The search for the ingredients in line with this market demand prompted companies to find ingredients of this type: in my case, for the organic fennel, the collaboration with a local organic farm was born, which has a cultivation of about 25 hectares of this plant "- says the President of the Alessandro Iacomoni Consortium.

178102 "An agri-food product with Protected Geographical Indication has a close link with the territory and its ecosystem, and farmers must find a balance with the environment thinking of organic as the way to preserve nature and with it health. THE chemical products already used in cultivation many of these balances broken, among which a very important element of this system which is the bee, fundamental for the pollination and maintenance of biodiversity ", he adds Giuseppe Genca, the organic fennel grower "So when a local beekeeper asked me to host this year about forty beehives in the fennel field, it was more than welcome. This insertion will not only give the possibility to have a better pollination of the fennel plants, but will also allow to keep the territory under control. In fact bees are important sentinels for the state of health of nature. Moreover, thanks to the hives installed, we could produce fennel honey, which is a specialty in the beekeeping sector. "

ISHere is how honey also comes from Finocchiona, the only real natural sweetener that defends us from pesticides and thanks to finocchiona the bees are protected, which last spring in Tuscany they risked dying of hunger: "The number of bees this year has been drastically reduced due to bad weather, worsening an already worrying situation, not only in our region but all over Italy, due to pollution and pesticide use. The crisis does not only fall on beekeepers but is fundamental in the balance of agriculture – he has declared the President of Arpat (Reg. Association of the Tuscan Bee Producers), Duccio Pradella – The insertion of the hives in the fennel fields, which blooms in summer, provides the bees with one more source of sustenance. We can say that thanks to Finocchiona Igp we will have the production of a "new" monoflora honey, a production that will not be immediate but certainly a welcome novelty ". (Here are 5 other ways we can help the bees survive).

The result is that savoring this sausage the cuthe recipe has remained almost unchanged in centuries, is no longer an act of pure gluttony, but also friendship towards the environment and therefore of ourselves. But what is this recipe, then? First of all, the finocchiona is produced with The best selections of pork of Italian genealogy. In addition to meat, the production disciplinary provides seeds and / or fennel flowers, garlic, salt and pepper. The traditional recipe may provide dough also the Red wine.

The amounts of each ingredient can to vary within a well-defined range, allowing producers a touch of craftsmanship and imagination in customizing their own recipe and the final result according to their tradition which, in most cases, goes back to that handed down from their ancestors.

'La Finocchiona Igp, if you like Tuscany with character ", is the motto of the Consortium. And in the taste of those lands it certainly also stands out for protecting one's own nature.

Carola Traverso Saibante
September 2019

DISCOVER THE COOKING COURSES OF SALT & PEPE

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Davide Chen, the Tuscan almond-eyed chef who cooks (also) for the Chinese – Italian Cuisine

From MySea Bistrot in Prato, the property, the clientele and the chef are Italian and Chinese media. A novelty, but the real story is that you eat really well and that the Catalan lobster brings everyone together.

Davide Chen is the face of Meadow today, and a little bit of today's Italy. She has almond-shaped eyes, yellow skin and when she looks at him, this handsome boy has a Chinese face. It is only in appearance though, because it arrived in Italy still in its infancy in the Eighties and it is enough to hear him speak because the Florentine accent betrays a marked Tuscanity. At home he grew up in Chianina and ribollita, professionally cooking at the Essenziale restaurant, at the Osteria di Passignano, a Michelin star, and moved from Florence just to fly a year in London to Berners Taverns and Marc Company. A Prato has just arrived, called by four partners for the opening of their MySea "fusion" project, and found himself confronted with a culinary and culinary experiment – which is yielding excellent results.
"I pretend to be Chinese, I don't speak a word of Mandarin, I always say that they were so good that they managed to copy even themselves" Davide jokes. Davide is really called Davide, as his adoptive parents called him, while Marco is the name chosen by Mr. Hu, another Italian of Chinese origin and partner of this project together with his wife Yammy Zheng. He arrived in Milan in 1987 and grew up in a family of restaurateurs, opened premises first in Milan, Florence and then arrived in Prato, looking for the best place to do business. Alongside the MySea, their gigantic Yammy Wok grind covered with the formula all you can eat: now they wanted to do something different, better, and to make their own contribution to the thorny issue of integration, in the city where they chose to live.

The Italian-Chinese management, the first in Prato

Friends of their accountant, Carla Fanelli from Prato joined the company and opened the first Italian-Chinese restaurant in Prato. A small management revolution in this sector that is the sign of the times, is reflected in the menu and in the choice of the chef. MySea is a place where looking for boundaries, belonging and differences is impossible, but where you feel good is easy, whoever you are.
Play with the appearance, more than a double belonging, chef Davide, who thanks to his Tuscan background, international experiences and a beautiful brigade, interprets the concept of fish bistro in a creative way and to meet the favors of two types of visits . "Our mission is to find the common elements between these two cultures and cook things that both of them like. The only difference is that the Chinese clientele is mainly prevalent during the week, the Italians prefer to come over the weekend, everyone likes oysters, lobsters and spaghetti – but it is enough to drain them al dente only for Italians! ".

The Catalan that puts everyone in agreement

Raw, coquillage and top quality oysters, not the usual ones found around, for sumptuous plateaus with Fine de Claire, Sandalia from the Mediterranean, Special de Claire, fasolari, almonds, truffles, sea urchins, red prawns, scampi and tartare. The aquarium has sea water, the daily arrival, guaranteed freshness.
The mussels au gratin with parsley panura arrive with a roasted lemon and suck from ceramic shells, the ravioli stuffed with sea bass tartare are served on a liquid "Panzanella" and salicornia, the pasta is all homemade (more or less cooked) , depending on who sits at the table), Cacciucco is "instantaneous", the gnocchi are plated and seasoned with Parmesan cream, anchovies in saor, crunchy dried tomatoes and taralli. Crabs, lobsters and lobsters come out of the tank, as used in the East where the fish is chosen alive and per kg. The lobster can be ordered in different ways, but for everyone the favorite recipe is the Catalan lobster – surprisingly the most loved dish by the people of Prato. And on these, whether they are of Chinese or Tuscan origin, there seems to be no difference whatsoever. In the end, fruit, just like it is made in China, but with the mediation of having made it a real dessert: from the province of Salerno come the little fruits of Gelateria Matteo, an original recipe. And always to put everyone in agreement, we drink Italian bubbles and Champagne.

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