The Tuscan Food Culture in Tenuta Torciano Winery
The basic of Tuscany…Good Wine & Good Food are a must!
Like all Italian cuisine, Tuscan cuisine is based on the use of the freshest and simplest ingredients of the season, including many legumes, cheeses, vegetables and fruit. The typical dishes are based on what the Tuscans find fresh and local to the market that week, often making them very easy to prepare and involving few ingredients. Of course, we cannot talk about Tuscan cuisine and forget to mention the famous steak that comes from Valdarno and Mugello called “Bistecca alla Fiorentina”. The Tuscan steak, which comes from a special breed of cow, the Chianina, is often served rare with roasted potatoes and beans.
Raw materials, tradition and creativity are the three ingredients that give life to our dishes. In Tenuta Torciano you can taste a wide range of wines and oils, to combine with typical dishes of the true Tuscan tradition!
What is Tuscan cuisine?
Tuscan food is based on the Italian idea of “poor cooking”. These are simple meals that are inexpensive and could easily be made in large quantities. Today it remains substantially the same, but by choice rather than economy. Tuscan cuisine does not use complicated condiments or elaborate creations because they are not necessary. Instead it is made with fresh and high quality ingredients that enhance the natural flavors of each dish, simple or not.
A traditionally rich cuisine prepared with simple ingredients – those readily available in the countryside – with grains of bread and roasted meats that serve as the basis for most traditional Tuscan dishes.
Whether it’s looking for truffles or mushrooms, picking grapes or tasting a real bottle of Tuscan olive oil, here local and traditional food is a way of life!
What are the most popular Tuscan dishes?
Like any Italian region, Tuscany has its ingredients, recipes and local food traditions that are best kept while eating out in Tuscany. Start your meal with an appetizer of cold cuts or mixed meats, always popular, or try something more special and order the liver crostini, thin slices of lightly toasted bread spread with a chicken liver pate. The Tuscans particularly love their soups. Try the ribollita, a vegetable and bread soup that serves as a delicious and classic comfort food. Pappa al pomodoro, a tomato soup, is perfect for winter and during the summer you have panzanella, a kind of cold bread salad soaked in balsamic vinegar and mixed with onions and tomatoes, obviously basil seasoned with olive oil olive!
If you prefer to eat pasta, the famous truffle tagliatelle, a pasta covered with truffle sauce, is definitely not to be missed. Both varieties of black and white truffles are very rare, only in some areas of the world. Fortunately for visitors to the region, Tuscany has both types growing on its hills. You can also try here pappardelle, very large egg noodles in a strong sauce made from wild hare, the king of Tuscan pasta, the traditional lasagna, or a variation like pasta with wild boar sauce. You will find many roast meats in Tuscan cuisine, in particular game such as deer, pheasants or wild boar used as sauces for pasta or as a second course, the latter itself.
Finish your meal with classic Tuscan cantucci dipped in vin santo. Dip these hard almond cookies in a glass of sweet dessert wine, vin santo, to soften them and clean the palate after a great meal! Or, if you want to try truffles in a less rustic and sweeter environment, try ordering truffle ice cream, a scoop of ice cream with truffle shavings on top!
In Tenuta Torciano Winery you will taste all these delicious dishes in wine tastings, lunch in the cellar or lunch the vineyard, truffle hunting experiences and funny cooking classes. Read more on our Cook Book and our website www.torciano.com!
For more details and reservations contact our booking office to +39 0577988134 or send a message to: booking@torciano.com
Author
Luciana Cilemmi
Luciana Cilemmi, deals with Magazine, Style Director and Co-founder of Tenuta Torciano winery and Tenute Giachi wines and the innovative Viviarium Restaurant of Bottega Torciano- Tenuta Torciano & Winery is part of an international reality that is born in Italy by an initiative of Pierluigi Giachi and Luciana Cilemmi, who have worked for years in the Italian wine market , expanding throughout in the United States, managed and controlled by the american company ' Bellavini winery. Luciana Cilemmi was born in San Gimignano to a family of artists specialised in the restoration of medieval buildings. Having completed her technical studies, she now pursues the interests passed on to her by her family, like her passion for artistic objects, in particular works of art created in Tuscany between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. But she reserves her keenest enthusiasm for the historic works completed in San Gimignano between 1100 and 1300. Alongside her love of medieval history, she is fascinated in wines produced from Tuscan vineyards, which, together with saffron and wool, were the most sought-after goods traded by the wealthy noble families of San Gimignano already in medieval times. Luciana Cilemmi left San Gimignano at the age of 21 and embarked on a pilgrimage in search of knowledge and to discover the new winemaking skills and products that were then developing both in Italy and in France. In the meantime she added to her knowledge of wine by attending specialised courses and becoming a master of wine. On returning to Siena, she discovered a wonderful area near Murlo where she fell in love with the tiny, unspoilt village of Montepescini. She bought the estate of Montepescini where, based on the experience she had acquired over the years, she found a particular lie of the land, special climatic conditions and an altitude suited to the creation of great wines. With enormous enthusiasm, doggedness and considerable effort, a reclamation programme was started to renew the terrain which was then used to plant 30 hectares of specialised vines. Sangiovese is the dominant vine, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah. Years of experimentation and the introduction of new winemaking techniques eventually led to the creation of Luciana di Memmi’s prestigious wines. Some years ago, Luciana Cilemmi succeeded in realising her dream of a lifetime: to return to her home town, San Gimignano. She was destined to buy the historic palace with the medieval tower, which had been owned by the prestigious Useppi family from 1200 to 1927 and had then passed to the noble and historic Chigi family of Siena. The Useppi were a powerful Sienese family who owned several castles. This beautiful medieval building has an elegant and distinctive façade full of Sienese and Pisan architectural influences. If you find yourself in San Gimignano, make sure you visit the Chigi Tower and Palace. Luciana Cilemmi holds regular events in the rooms of the medieval tower, such as the presentation of wines, both from her vineyards and elsewhere, attended by international journalists, experts from the sector and critics. She also organises exhibitions of works of art and paintings, and press conferences on the subject of "Wine in San Gimignano during medieval times”. Visiting the home of Luciana Cilemmi is like re-living an aspect of the past that will not return except through the imagination of those who have believed and continue to believe in this story.
