I have a small book here that I got form the local shop up the street from where we are staying. It's called Le Ricette di Mamma Toscana - Mother Tuscany's Recipes. It looks a bit like one of those books schools put out as fundraisers: there are no pictures, and it doesn't seem to have an actual author, except the community of Certaldo. This makes me think the recipes inside are probably extremely authentic. They're the classic, simple recipes of Tuscany; the bread, bean and vegetable-based dishes, the simple grilled meats, the mushroom and truffle sauces. I can't wait to try some of them.
The food of Tuscany is, according to the experts - the Tuscans themselves - peasant food (like most of the great foods of the world, don't you think?). Elio, our host, says it's "poor people's food". We had a taste of the poor people's food last night, when Elio and his wife invited us to share in their family and friends' dinner. 
By some great bit of luck, there happens to be a food and wine festival on in our village this weekend. It's in the street (well, it's more of a paved lane) where we are staying, the main street of Certaldo Alto, Via Boccacia, and it's called "Boccacesca". Right now there is music floating up through the window, and a giant red carpet is stretched the length of the street. There are lots of stalls where you can taste different local wine and food, and it's really quite buzzy compared to the usual quiet atmosphere. Right up at the top of the street, beside the main palazzo, Elio and a group of his family and friends are roasting chestnuts over a fire, and selling them with glasses of Chianti. Last night as we sat at a small wooden table, cracking open warm, sweet chestnuts and looking down the street at the flaming brazier lights, the people wandering around and the street performers on stilts, I felt pretty damn special, I can tell you. I felt even more special when Elio asked us if we'd be his guests for dinner, which was to be eaten on a long table outside under the eaves of the castle, beside the chestnut stall. 
For dinner we had an onion soup, which Elio said was very traditional for Certaldo. The onions grown here are a special kind, which look like small, flat red onions to me, a cross between an onion and a shallot. In fact the emblem for Certaldo includes an onion, and a local delicacy is an onion marmalade. The soup was, in terms of ingredients, a variation on a French onion soup: bread, onions, cheese. But it was more of a thick, pureed vegetable soup than a broth, and the onions were not whole in pieces but rather formed the body of the soup. The bread was used to thicken the soup and also intact, in small pieces, through the soup, and the cheese - parmigianno - was in chunks on the top. It was delicious. 
Bread seems to form the basis of quite a few Tuscan soups, and indeed salads and starters too. While we were eating, a lady came along who was the acknowledged local expert ("Everyone has their special dish", said Elio) in Minestre di pane - another traditional local soup of vegetables, beans, tomatoes and bread. She told me the recipe, with Elio translating, as we sat there. Everyone else at the table nodded along seriously, adding their own bits of advice, and racing around finding the vegetables to show me when Elio couldn't think of the translations. Everyone seems quite serious about cooking, and with my very marginal grasp of Italian, even I could understand that most of the dinner-table conversation was about food. When we talked about Tuscan bread - made without salt, very crusty - and the many dishes based on it, one of the men at the table jumped up and insisted on making one of them for me. Fettunta, it is called, and consists of toasted bread, rubbed with garlic cloves and doused in olive oil. Sounds simple, but there were many fine details to consider: the bread must be Tuscan bread, not too thick, but long slices, and the bread should be placed in the oil, so it can soak up a bit - not all the way through the slice, but enough so you can see it half way through. Pappa pomodoro is another one on which there was much instruction: this is very fresh, ripe tomatoes, cut up small, mixed with olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano and basil and spread on bread. Which we know as the classic bruschetta; which in fact Sandy and I have been enjoying at the Enoteca almost every day since we've been here. Another favourite bread topping is chicken livers, cooked simply (none of your fancy pate for the Tuscans) and another is "lardo", which as the name suggests, is pig fat. You can buy it in the local shops in large chunks. It's tasty, but not something I'd want to be hooking into every day. After the soup came Porcini mushrooms in large chunks, which had been roasted on the chestnut fire, doused in olive oil, and served with the famous Tuscan bread. On the side were jars of preserved zuchinni, done I think in vinegar, and tomatoes the same way. And that was it. It was a lovely meal and reminded me of the dinners we have at Four Winds, or Rainbow Valley Farm, or any of our family get-togethers. Because it wasn't really about the food (though it was excellent) but more about the company, sharing conversation and laughs and being together. Which I tried to convey to Elio when he insisted I tell him which things I had enjoyed the most from what we'd eaten. When he translated this back to the others they smiled and agreed, and thanked us for being there. Which was so gracious. Sandy reckoned he was fuller than he'd ever been as we rolled down the street to our apartment.
I have not cooked as much here as I intended to; things have just turned out that way what with food festivals and all. But I have had a go at a few of my own variations on local dishes. I love the parpardelle here; it's my favourite pasta and hard to get in New Zealand without paying about $9 a packet. It's a great pasta for meaty sauces - it's all about the sauce to surface area ratio, as I explained to Sandy. ("Do you get bored with my food lectures?" I asked him after this. "I just nod and smile", he said.) The other night, in the absence of rabbit, which I really wanted but could not identify in the butchery, I cooked a lamb sauce to go with the parpadelle I'd bought. Partly because I'm trying to think like a Tuscan, and partly (more likely) because I don't have access to my usual pantry full of spices here, I used very few ingredients in this sauce. I didn't even have onions, so it was simply garlic, the lamb cut into chunks, some lovely canned cherry tomatoes, water and wine. I suspect I reduced the sauce more than the Tuscans would, or maybe not. Anyway, it turned out really well, and if not completely authentic, it was appropriate for our setting. And the pasta was silky and gorgeous. God how I love pasta. 
I have a huge thing for zuchinni flowers, which I can only get at home by growing them myself. So I was beside myself when I saw that you can get them here in the supermarket, and they are something like one euro a kilo! So that was the first thing I cooked when I got into the apartment kitchen. It's not, apparently, Tuscan tradition to stuff the flowers - they prefer to just deep fry them. But I like to stuff them with a bit of a cheesy mixture, so I did this - ricotta, parmigianno (a huge chunk for only 4 euros!) and a bit of pesto - and shallow fried them in some olive oil. Mmmm. What a lovely way to eat vegetables!
The other thing we've been getting into here are the sweet things. (It's a wonder we can still do up our trousers really). The Vin Santo, that lovely sweet wine, with cantuccini, crunchy biscotti-like biscuits that you are supposed to dip in to the wine. Also panfore in many variations: with and without cocoa, with and without nuts. And then of course there is the gelato. Our local gelateria is called Bazzani - almost my name! - so it's appropriate to visit most days, I think. Their gelato is sensational. At the moment I can't go past the chocolate with straciatelle, sort of vanilla chocolate chip, although the strawberry is excellent too, and the pistachio is quite special. And there's their own special flavour which tastes a bit like the old orange chocolate-chip ice cream (remember?) crossed with cassata. I think further research is necessary to discover my favourite. I'll keep you posted.
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