Eating Tuscany food in Toscana!

After we’ve settled down from our bed and breakfast, we headed out for some dinner. From the list of recommendations which the caretaker left us, we eventually went to a cozy little restaurant called Trattoria da Pordo which was just a few minutes drive away from the bnb.

So today I’d thought that I’d talk about what we ate, as well as one of the food that Tuscany is famous for.

As many people know, the Bistecca alla Fiorentina is probably the most famous Tuscan dish.

It is basically grilled beef tenderloin and it’s renowned for how thick it is. We didn’t have that though as we all couldn’t eat them because of each of our own personal reasons … Haha! However, if you can, this is something that is a must try if you are ever visiting Tuscany.

Anyway, here are what we had :

Gnocchi con asparagi

So yummy! Reminds me a bit of the one that we had in Castelli Romani. (Speaking of which, asparagus is in season at this point of time. We should get some! And cook ourselves Gnocchi con asparagi! Frittata con asparagi! Asparagi with half fried egg! And others!)

Ravioli Ricotta con Spinaci con pomodoro

I like the parmigiano shavings on top. And the tomatoes taste so delicately fresh. But it’s the raviolo which was quite interesting to me, as I’ve never encountered such a big raviolo before.

Look at how large it is compared to the fork! It’s most probably handmade. By the way, in making ravioli with ricotta and spinaci, there ratio of ricotta cheese should be more than the spinach and not the other way round.

A duo of fresh and cured pecorino cheese for you to taste – they are both essentially the same, made of sheep milk but they both have different maturing stages. I prefer cheeses which are fresh and have a delicate flavour as compared to the tart and rich flavours of the cured ones.

And then for dessert, Cart and I had a cake filled with ricotta and Philadelphia cheese respectively.

While the food above were really good and tasted very fresh, they are not really a Toscana speciality. But as mentioned, we tend not to eat meat when we are outside, so a lot of the food that they are renowned for, like rabbit stew, and grilled wild boar, we couldn’t eat.

But here are the things that we did eat!

Ribollita – Suitable for vegans

Ribollita means reboiled in Italian. This is a soup made with bread and local vegetables such as carrot, cabbage, beans, bietola, cavolo nero and onions. It looks kind of like a minestrone, but this dish takes a much longer cooking process.

Cart and Hema liked this a lot. Although for me, I think I’ll take a longer time to warm up to it because Tuscan bread has no salt in it to justify that you could appreciate the flavours of the dishes better. But to me, I don’t like Tuscan breads as they are a tad too bland … sorry!

Ceci all’olio – also suitable for vegans

This dish is basically by boiling chick peas in water and add a bit of olive oil and rosemary have it boiled till the dish is almost completely evaporated. This is slow cooked also, which is why you’d see the coagulated consistency of the soup as opposed to a more viscous texture for a dish which takes a shorter time to cook.

(Coagulate? Viscous consistency? Hahaha! Geography terms that still stick to me after all these years)

Cantucci e Vin Santo

Remember the wine that Hema bought at the bed and breakfast? That is called a Vin Santo and it is a sweet wine and you could have it as a dessert with almond biscuits which you dunk it in. I wonder how it tastes like. But Hema seems to like it, and this is a rather popular combination that I even see it served outside of Tuscany.

Castagnaccio

We didn’t have this in the restaurant but I thought that I’d just add this just for the fun of it since Cart made this some while back.

Castagnaccio is made of chestnut flour mixed with water and soaked raisins, pine nuts and fresh rosemary on top. It is a very rustic cake and I think it’s good to eat during holidays to help negate the rich foods that we ate.

So, that’s about it for today! I think I’ll blog about our visit to the olive oil produce and winery in the next blog post! 🙂