Tuscan Bread

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Garlic

Salt

Take slices of Tuscan bread, toast on the grill and rub a clove of garlic on each slice. Drizzle with New extra virgin olive oil, and salt to taste.

Fish cut: Palombo, Monkfish, etc..

Fine fish: Sole, Mullet

Gurnard Fish, Gobies, Mantis Shrimp, etc..

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Onion, Garlic, Chilli

500 grams of ripe Tomatoes

Parsley

White Wine

Tuscan Bread

The piquant and aromatic fish soup is typical of the Tuscan coast from Viareggio to Livorno and in this latter city it has its capital. This soup strength lies in the blend of various kinds of fish: it calls for big-sized fishes, like smooth hound and angler fish, and thinner fishes, like sole and red mullet, scorpion fish which is indispensable, besides goby, mantis shrimps and so on, according to the season. The smaller fishes must be kept whole and the bigger one cut into pieces. Pour 1 abundant glassful of olive-oil (for 1 kilo and an half of fish) in a clay pan and fry chopped onion, garlic and hot chilli in it. When they get golden, add 1/2 kilo of peeled tomatoes without seeds, 1 fistful of chopped parsley, 1/2 litre of dry white wine and 1/2 litre of water. Salt, leave the lot to reach the boil and to simmer for about 30 minutes. When the liquid thickens, put the fish into the pan, the tougher kinds first, then the others. Try not to move the fish, as it shouldn't break. Separately prepare some toasts, rub them over with garlic, then place them on individual soup dishes. Pour the fish with its broth onto them, after it has cooked on a low flame for about 15 minute.

Chicken livers

Butter

White Onion

Milk

Salt

Pepper

Tuscan Bread

Cook the chicken livers in some butter, where you had previously fried a quarter of a white onion chopped fine and remove them before they transfer them again to the pan. Add some milk, salt and pepper and leave them to flavour until the liquid is well thickened. Leave to cool, then spread this mixture over buttered toasts of stale bread. 

Cannellini Beans

Fresh Sage

Tomato Sauce

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Boil the beans in a salted water with a few cloves of garlic and a couple of sprigs of fresh sage for 2-3 hours on low flame. Downs it of water. Put abundant oil and some fresh sage in a pan and leave it few moments. At this point add the beans, salt if necessary, and pepper. Leave them to flavour, tossing the pan now and then so that they don't stick on the bottom, until they have absorbed all the oil. Then add some tomato sauce. When also the tomato sauce has been absorbed, the dish is ready.  

Quantity for 4 people:

600 gms. Tuscan Bread

1 Cucumber

1 red Pepper

2 sticks of Celery

1 Carrot

2 red Onion

2 Eggs 

4 Anchovy fillets

2 ripe Tomatoes

Basil

Mint

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

This is the typical salad of Tuscan peasants. Humble dish that formerly was the single course of peasants' meals in Summer. I recommend you it for your Summer lunches, as it is tasteful and rich in fragrance. Use stale Tuscan bread (the result of the salad depends on the quality of bread, don't trust any imitation) calculating 150 gms. per person. Slice and put it in cold water for about 30 minutes. In the meanwhile slice and dice 1 cucumber, 1 capsicum, 2 sticks of celery, 1 carrot, 2 onions, 2 hard-boiled eggs, 4 anchovy fillets cut into pieces. Retreive the bread from the water, squeeze it well with your hands and put it in a salad bowl with the vegetables. Separately beat some tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (the second basic ingredient), calculating 2 tablespoons per person, with vinegar, salt and pepper. Season the salad, mixing it repeatedly with wooden covers, then add 2 ripe tomatoes cut into slices, a sprig of basil and a sprig of mint, whose leaves you should cut coarsley with your hands. Prepare it at least 1 hour ahead of time, keeping it in a cool place. 

Tuscan Bread

Ripe Tomatoes

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Garlic

Fresh Sage

Onion, Carrot, Celery and Parsley

Salt

Pepper

It is a classic dish of the cooking of the poor and no other humble dishes can cope with it. The only ingredient that can't be replaced is the Tuscan bread, which must be stale and home-made. Cut or slice it and put it in a clay pan with abundant olive-oil, 2 clove of garlic, a stalk of fresh sage, salt, pepper and little water. Put the pan on the flame and, as soon as the water boils, try to chop the bread a little more with a wooden spoon. Add water as soon as it dries up. Go on until the bread is completely chopped and moistened. As this point add 1 cup (or more, according to the quantity of soup brightly red-coloured) of a tomato sauce abtained by boiling onion, carrot, celery and parsley as usual for broth, with the tomatoes, then sieving the lot and boiling it again with oil, salt and pepper. Leave to simmer slowly for more than 1 hour until the bread is mashed in the sauce; add some more water only if the soup tends to stick to the pan, as it should prove fairly thick.

Tuscan Bread

2 bunches of "Cavolo Nero" Cabbage 

1 Cabbage 

Onion, Celery, Carrot

2 Potatoes

4-5 Courgettes

Tomato Souce

2 bunches of Swiss-Chard (about 400 gms.)

200 gms. of Green Beans 

200 gms. of Beans

Basil

"Pepolino" Thyme

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

This is surely one of the most famous of the Italian vegetable soups,  whose two basic ingredients are typical of Toscana: bread and "Cavolo Nero" cabbage. Fry lightly in olive-oil onion, celery, carrot, all finely chopped. When the onion wilst, add a cabbage coarsley shredded; when also the cabbage gets tender, add 2 potatoes and 4 or 5 courgettes cut into cubes. As soon as also these vegetables become soft, add 1 cup of tomato sauce, mix to blend it with all the ingredients, then add 2 bunches of swiss-chard (about 400 gms.) 2 of "Cavolo Nero" cabbage and about 200 gms. of green beans, previously boiled and slised. Season and leave to cook slowly for at least 1 hour and a half. About 30 minutes before the cooking time is over, add 200 gms. of boiled beans, basil and "Pepolino" thyme. In the meanwhile slice 1/2 kilo of stale Tuscan bread into a soup tureen, pour the piping hot soup onto and leave to rest until the following day. Before serving put the lot again on the flam and leave it to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.