Green beans are an excellent fresh vegetable, but there are not many variations for their preparation. They are usually boiled and eaten accompanied by simple olive oil. But Italian creativity enriched a dull preparation with a touch of herbs and the beloved tomato, inventing a unique and tasty side dish, a symbol of summer and its fruits.

There are many versions of this dish: mine is the simplest, but an excellent one is using minced onion instead of garlic and adding chili pepper. Another version that is very popular in Tuscany, the land of meat-eaters where it is difficult to make vegetables appetizing for children, some grandmothers prefer preparing a soffritto with finely minced onion, celery, and carrot, and diced pancetta.

While up to few decades ago vegetables were boiled for an unnecessarily long time, or as my vegetarian brother complained, they were “tortured to death”, now we prefer crispy vegetables.

They are easy, quick to prepare, and impossible to get wrong, unless you abandon them in boiling water for hours. The result is a half-destroyed yellowish hay that not even a horse would eat.

Break off the top and wash them, leaving them whole. Today’s green beans have no strings, since only the fresh and best ones are harvested.

An excellent way to cook green beans and vegetables in general is to cook them in simmering water for 6 to 7 minutes (test them, they must be cooked but still al dente), and then immediately drained in a colander and plunged into ice cold water to bring the temperature down.  A rule of thumb is that the beans should spend as much time in the cold water as in the hot water.

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cooking Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 25 minutes | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely minced
• 500 g fresh green beans, washed
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tin crushed tomato or peeled plum tomatoes

Instructions

Preparation 1

Cook the green beans in simmering water for 6 to 7 minutes, immediately drain in a colander and plunge them into ice cold water to bring the temperature down.

In a deep pan (the one you use for sautéing pasta is ideal) sauté the garlic in the olive oil. Add the tomato sauce and cook for 10 minutes. When the tomato sauce has lost its acidity, season with salt and pepper and add the green beans and parsley.

Stir for 2 to 3 minutes and serve.

Preparation 2, the original

In a deep pan sauté the garlic in the olive oil. Add the tomato sauce, season with salt and pepper and add the green beans and parsley. Add water to cover the beans. Simmer for 10 minutes covered with a lid. Remove the lid and simmer for another 35 to 40 minutes, checking the green beans by tasting them, and if necessary, adding a bit more water.

This way of cooking them has the advantage of using less saucepans and bowls, and of course the green beans have more taste because they absorb the tomato sauce while cooking.

Chickpea flatbread is a humble but delicious dish, with its origins dating back to ancient Greek and Roman times.   On the Tuscan coasts it is called Cecina, Farinata in Liguria, and is a common dish on the coasts of the Mediterranean, where it was spread by Ligurian sailors.

Porridges and legumes were commonly in use in the Ancient Mediterranean, and it is now common knowledge that this recipe was introduced during the Middle Ages by the Maritime Republics of Pisa and Genoa. The legends which recount the birth of this recipe are fascinating: the first narration recalls the siege of Pisa in 1005, when the Pisan fleet was in Calabria to help its inhabitants, which had been attacked by Saracens. Some Arabic vessels pointed North and assaulted Pisa. Its desperate citizens reacted to the attack, hurling anything they could grab on the attackers. Almost anything was hurled on the heads of the Saracens, furniture and food too; sacks of chickpeas, which were stepped on and mixed with boiling olive oil, among other things.

When the attackers left, the hungry citizens tried to salvage their properties, and the chickpea flour, which had been mixed with olive oil. At the time, wasting food was not an option, and the citizens tried to recover the slop, which had dried in the sun. The citizens called it “Pisa gold” referring sneeringly to the attempts of the Arabs to seize the city’s riches.

Another legend refers to an ensuing battle, the one in Meloria in 1248. Genoa won over Pisa and took the Tuscan sailors as hostages. The Ligurian galleys were involved in a storm, and the sacks of chickpeas and vases of olive oil were thrashed in the hold and mixed with sea water, making a slop which was served to the sailors in wooden bowls. Some of them refused to eat it, but the bowls were left in the sun, which dried and cooked the gruel, making a delicious dish.

Another version tells of the effort to spread the slop on sea rocks, in order to dry it, but the result was still the same; the following and decisive result is added by the cooking the mixture  in a wood burning oven, which is the real secret of its excellence.

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cooking Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes + 5 hours standing | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups (150 g.) chickpea flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 for the batter and 2 for the pans
• 2 cups water, room temperature
• black pepper
• 1 baking pan, in steel or copper, diameter 13 inches (32 cm)

Instructions

In a bowl, gradually mix the flour with water, cover with a film and let it sit for 4-5 hours, mixing it every half hour.

The flour will produce impurities which make a kind of foam and must be discarded, using a slotted spoon.

This procedure is used in Liguria, the Tuscans are much quicker and mix all the ingredients together almost immediately and bake them, without the sitting time.

After the resting time, add salt and olive oil to the mixture and pour it into a baking pan, and put into a pre-heated oven at 425 F (220 C) for 10 minutes in the lower part of the oven, then move it to the upper part and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until it is light brown.

An excellent addition can be spring onion, fresh parsley, Italian sausage, or aromatic herbs like rosemary, mixed to the batter before baking them, together with salt and oil.

This way of roasting lamb is incredibly simple but involves some degree of organisation, since you need to calculate the time needed for marinating and cooking.

This a very traditional Tuscan recipe, celebrated in Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well. In those days, preparation snd cooking times, and ingredient quantities were rarely indicated, so I am trying to give more precise indications.

This Arezzo style roasted lamb is usually cooked on the BBQ, and is frequently basted with the marinade: in Italy we use a rosemary sprig as a brush.

This recipe’s ideal side dish is an oven dish full of golden potatoes, roasted with olive oil, garlic and sage.

Cook them apart, not in the same baking dish as the lamb, since the sharpness of the vinegar would give the potatoes an acidic taste.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 1 hour | Total Time: 1 hour + 10 minutes ( + 2 hours for marinading) | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 2.5 lb (1 kg) lamb shoulder
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 3 sage leaves
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Sea salt

Instructions

Coarsely chop the herbs and add the olive oil and vinegar. Poke holes in the meat with a fork to absorb the marinade and let it sit for 2 hours.

Bake in a convection oven at 375° F (190° C) for an hour, turning and brushing it with the marinade (using a rosemary sprig).

Serve with sage and garlic roasted potatoes.

There are few things that recall Autumn like chestnut Tuscan necci. These crepes made with chestnut flour make possible to enjoy them after the harvest period.

For centuries they were harvested, and still are, in the mountains which run along all Italy. Chestnuts have been providing calories during the harsh cold months and guaranteed the survival of the mountain population. They not only are an excellent source of sugars and energies, but also of vitamins and minerals.

Chestnuts are traditionally eaten roasted on the open fire, baked or boiled, but there is an interesting option offered by chestnut flour: made by processing dry, roasted chestnuts into a fine flour, it allows you to offer healthy dishes and desserts even to an increasing population of celiac people.

In regions of Italy, it’s most traditionally used to make Castagnaccio, a rich, barely sweet cake. Made entirely of chestnut flour, it’s gluten-free. It also has no leavening agent, so it’s quite dense. It’s studded with nothing more than raisins, pine nuts, and rosemary.

Chestnut flour is also used to make crepes. In Tuscany, they are called necci and are traditionally eaten plain or slathered with ricotta and honey. Since chestnut flour isn’t very sweet, crepes like these also are perfect for savory fillings. Crepes made with this flour are not only gluten-free but they are also a unique winter meal that shows off the flour’s flavor.

Containing neither animal fats nor eggs, necci are the ideal dish to offer to tablemates who are intolerant to eggs or lactose, or vegan, once you replace the ricotta stuffing with a simple dark chocolate sauce.

Sadly, it is quite difficult to find a really fresh chestnut flour and it tends to absorb water: while I was cooking the crepes, the batter left in the bowl tended to thicken and I had to add more water. The batter should be quite running. I also added a bit of olive oil in order to make necci more flexible, but usually, in most of the recipes, there are only chestnut flour and water.

A pan is not the ideal way to cook necci, the traditional tools are the so-called “ferri“ (irons), round dishes connected by a plier, in which the two sides of the crepe are cooked at the same time. It takes a bit of practice to reach a good level.

Cacciatora stew is one of those simple dishes which comfort you, above all if served with mashed potatoes on a cold winter day.

It is an incredibly rich and simple dish, the result is an amazing sauce in which you can plunge bread and collect it in the famous “scarpetta”. It is a gesture not be made in a restaurant, still the most of us would not resist the temptation. It is almost a moral obligation, none could waste such a treasure.

With some variations, this Tuscan dish is loved and prepared in all Italy. Some cooks add olives, they use dry white wine and no tomato, probably the version I am proposing is revised compared to it. Tomatoes appeared on the tables of Central and Northern Italy quite late, only in the second half of the nineteenth century, I guess that this addition was made more recently.

For the white version, follow the same recipe replacing the red wine with a dry white one and do not add tomato. Some also add pitted olives half an hour before the end of the cooking process.

The same recipe is used for the rabbit too, and the result is always excellent.

It is those of these dishes that represents Italy at its best: Mediterranean herbs, vegetables, wine. The frequent use of wine allows us to use fewer fats and keeping the meat or fish moist. In the meanwhile, it enhances the taste of the seasoning, letting us to use less salt.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 2 hours + 20 minutes | Total Time: 2 hours + 30 minutes | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

Gnudi is a typical Tuscan dish, simple and tasty, where the filling is served in the form of gnocchi but without the pasta wrap. The name comes from ‘gnudo’ meaning naked one, in the Tuscan vernacular. The dish comes from the southern Tuscan region of Maremma, one of Italy’s areas for sheep.

In Italy in Spring we have the best ricotta, it is the time of new-borns and fresh milk. Try this recipe, you won’t regret it.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cooking Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Yield: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients