Pici and the Big Garlic

Pici all'aglione and other delights

Val di Chiana

People who dine out in this part of the world inevitably come across a local dish called pici all'aglione. Pici are a form of thick, hand-rolled spaghetti, which originate in the southern part of the province of Siena in the Val di Chiana; some even claim they were eaten by the Etruscans. 

The Tomb of the Leopards at Tarquinia, dating to the 5th century BCE

A banquet is depicted in the Tomb of the Leopards at the Etruscan necropolis at Tarquinia. It appears that a servant is bringing to the table a bowl containing a long, irregular sort of pasta which has been identified as an early version of pici.
Honestly, I have peered at the image above but cannot make out this bowl of pici...

the slightly rough texture of handmade pici is visible here

Pici are made of flour, water and a little olive oil and salt, with occasionally an egg added. 

pici made with egg look prettier but the eggless sort is the norm

 Pici can be a vehicle for many sauces including meat ragoûts and duck, but apparently the authentic one is all'aglione, a simple tomato sauce enriched with garlic.

pici all'aglione

 However this is not just any garlic, it turns out. Until recently we believed the word 'aglione' to be a friendly way of describing a large quantity of garlic; in other words, signalling a very garlicky sauce.

aglione tends to be a bigger variety of garlic, yellowish in colour and more delicately flavoured

But we have been enlightened. When our market greengrocer asked whether we preferred aglione to aglio, all was explained at last.
Aglione is actually a special variety of garlic, Allium ampeloprasum var. Holmense, originating in 
Val di Chiana and Val d'Orcia in southern Tuscany. It has a good, round flavour, which is more delicate than normal garlic, and is prized for being particularly digestible. 
The heads of this variety of garlic tend to be larger than regular garlic and the cloves are creamy-yellow in colour.

Allium ampeloprasum var. Holmense

Aglione can cost four times as much as regular garlic, also because it is a rarer variety. 

It also has the property of softening and dissolving when cooked so that you can simply crush entire cloves in the pot with a wooden spoon. 

To make a simple aglione sauce, cook some aglione (a clove per person) in olive oil and half a glass of white wine in a covered pan until the garlic is soft and you can squash it with a wooden spoon (about 15 minutes); add fresh or bottled pelati tomatoes, some salt to taste and simmer until reduced (about 20 minutes). 
That is all. Add to your pici and enjoy. 

 

an Historical Florentine Pudding

Lo Zuccotto

Recently a friend brought a pudding to Le Ripe which I had heard of but never tasted.

The pudding casing, made of spectacularly red sponge slices, hid a half-chocolate mousse, half-cream filling studded with candied peel and chocolate kibbles


 Formerly known as Caterina's Helmet, this Florentine pudding hails from the days of the Medici.

 In the late Renaissance at the height of the family's fortunes, Caterina de' Medici, Lorenzo il Magnifico's daughter, as queen of France, apparently asked Bernardo Buontalenti to invent a new dolce to celebrate the Spanish ambassador's arrival. 

Simply good food in Florence

The Republic of Fabio Picchi

In 1979 Fabio Picchi opened his first restaurant in Borgo La Croce, a neighbourhood east of Florence's historic centre, in via de' Maggi and via del Verrocchio, next door to the Sant'Ambrogio mercato comunale, or public market. These days you will find 6 or 7 different establishments run under the name or variants of Cibreo all in and around via de' Maggi and via del Verrocchio.

assortment of herbs and flowers in former tomato tins, on display on the C.bio terrace

The name: cibreo is a homely Tuscan ragout or stew of chicken giblets once made by Fabio Picchi's mother; the leftovers were minced with artichokes and added to spinach pie. Apparently it was scrumptious although it is not on offer at any of his restaurants.
 

Tomato Tribute

Solanum lycopersicum

 (fruit of the month)

 

Our beef tomato (cuore di bue) crop this year has offered up some impressive specimens.

One above all, weighing in at 877 grams, has inspired a tribute from afar. 

"Every August a tomato festival is held in the little village of San Giovanni Pomodorino. Contestants come from near and far for the coveted prize, pomodoro gigantico, which is to produce a cuore di bue as near as possible to 1 kilo in weight. 
 

This year Lulu from the nearby village of Santa Letizia Martina arrived late for the ceremony.  She rushed up to the stall where the judges were already preparing to award the prize.  Only one tomato had managed just under 850 grams.  

When they saw the size of Lulu’s entry the judges conferred and decided to accept her exhibit.  They placed the tomato on the scales.  It came in at just under 900 grams.  The chief judge who came from the rival village of San Giuseppe Solanum surreptitiously put her finger on the scales to give a reading of 1000 grams.
 

Lulu returned in triumph to her village where the cuore di bue now sits benignly in a niche, labelled In excelsis australis."

Thanks to H of Higher Bugford, North Devon.

Machiavelli's Oak

A frustrating yet fruitful exile

Florence seen from just outside the village of Sant'Andrea in Percussina where the Machiavelli family had their estate.

In 1513, when the historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, author and playwright Niccolo' Machiavelli (1469-1527) was banished from Florence to his family estate by the reinstated Medici, it must have been poignant, if not painful, to see the towers and cupolas of his native city, so near and yet so far.

The Machiavelli seat, essentially a grand farmhouse, on the road winding between Florence and San Casciano: on the opposite side of the road stands the Albergaccio inn which Machiavelli frequented. Note the height and security of the lowest windows: the road would have been a busy and at times dangerous thoroughfare.

the entrance to L'Albergaccio

Abbadia San Salvatore, on the slopes of Monte Amiata

 A Town Full of Surprises

 

Monte Amiata

It is not where most tourists stop on their way around Monte Amiata in southern Tuscany. Abbadia San Salvatore is a township of 6000 souls on the northern slopes of Tuscany's most easily identifiable mountain. Unassuming and ordinary, it is the sort of place you drive through hurriedly, on your way to somewhere interesting.

And yet we stopped: was it that lunch beckoned, or was it that we noticed a sign proclaiming Abbadia San Salvatore as the home of an ancient Bible? Somehow the quest for lunch and our curiosity combined to make us stop. We would discover that this seemingly dull, grey town held several surprises.

Tending the Rhubarb and Tomato Jungles

The pleasures of a vegetable garden

butternut pumpkin flowers

Food of the Month: Remarkable Cavolo Nero or Tuscan Kale

 A Rustic Vegetable, Rediscovered

other names for this brassica are dinosaur kale, black kale, flat back cabbage, palm tree kale

It appears that a local peasant staple is currently the healthfood of choice in much of the western world. Brassica oleracea Lacinato is a tough plant which requires little attention and enjoys a long growing season, from one spring to another. It is particularly crunchy and tasty following winter frost. 

Figgy Pudding

What to do with all the booty

 This year, with its hottest summer on record, seems to have worked wonders in the field. I am told that the grapes are promising, the olives are abundant and I can certainly attest to the incredible fig harvest of 2015, which is petering out only now. 

Vegetable Patch or Vegetable Garden?

The Choice Before Us

Gardening is hard work. Enjoyable, but hard. A vegetable patch, which requires constant care: planting, watering, hoeing,weeding, pruning and harvesting, and whose produce is by its nature almost entirely seasonal, is consequently very hard work.
There is a local saying, l'orto vuole l'uomo morto or 'the vegie patch will be the death of you', loosely translated.
With that in mind, here is how things are evolving da noi/chez nous.

Ocimum Basilicum

It's not Summer without Basil

Once on a trip to Greece we noted the pots of small-leafed basil sitting, round and pretty, on verandahs. To our surprise we discovered that it was decorative basil, that the Greeks do not eat basil. Subsequently we introduced some Greek friends to pesto and it caused quite a sensation.

Pizza in Chianti

The Requisites of a Good Pizza

We have had an outdoor pizza oven at Le Ripe for one year already but it is only now that we feel relatively confident about our pizza production; we still have to be tested for large numbers.

Below is a summary of the 10 most important things we have gradually learnt about making - and eating - this Neapolitan specialty.

Slow Food in Greve

 Greve does it again

You cannot deny that Greve is bursting with initiative. Last weekend it was the Flower Show, this weekend the town is hosting its annual Slowfood market which highlights the produce of a number of Italian Comuni or towns, from Grumes (Trento) in the north to Positano in the south. 

that lovely backdrop again, plus a stunning sky this weekend