My favourite country road stretches from my house into the nearby wood, shaded by four oak trees and speckled along the edges with flowers and herbs. Until a few years ago what attracted my attention were the closed buds of poppy, which I would pick up to guess the colour, and purple and yellow delicate [...]

Posted in Italian Table Talk, Soups, Spring 10 Comments »

Being a country girl, in my eyes Florence is a city, it is great and wonderful. The view from Piazzale Michelangelo takes my breath away in any season and at any time of the day. Every time I walk around the city centre I can not help but take a picture – real or mental [...]

Posted in Desserts, Italian Table Talk, Tuscan Recipes, Winter 7 Comments »

When I was a child every Saturday we would go to San Gimignano to visit my grandfather. We would arrive in the afternoon and spend the time walking up and down along the town alleys and small streets to greet friends and relatives, so there was no time to get make up something special for [...]

Posted in Italian Table Talk, Tuscan Recipes 10 Comments »

Extra virgin olive oil, or just olive oil. Hard to say what it is for me, what it means for our gastronomic tradition without falling into an elegy or writing a mini encyclopaedia, with cross-references and footnotes. Perhaps, more simply, I would say that olive oil is for me daily life. It is the bottle [...]

Posted in Italian Table Talk, Preserves 19 Comments »

Here we go, these are the most controversial moments in our calendar. Do you celebrate Halloween today or do wait until tomorrow to celebrate the religious holiday of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day? Do you team up for tradition or for innovation? or more simply, being a gourmet, you just take what both [...]

Posted in Desserts, Italian Table Talk, Muffins and cupcakes 9 Comments »