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Emiko Davies is a blogger and food columnist for Corriere della Sera and Food52 (www.emikodavies.com). Her first cookbook, Florentine: The True Cuisine of Florence (Hardie Grant Books), was published on March 1, 2016.
Once home to Boccaccio, Michelangelo and Gabriele D’Annunzio, Florence’s hilltop neighbourhood Settignano is a gem with some of the most beautiful views overlooking the city. During the Renaissance, thanks to ...
There are few things as comforting and satisfying as apples in desserts, in any form—balanced between sweet and tart and particularly delicious while still warm. By the time their autumn ...
Homemade bottled tomato sauce, that Italian tradition that encompasses everything we think of about Italian food: family, seasonality, self-sufficiency and copious amounts of pomodoro. It’s about preserving the glut of ...
Preserving fruit in alcohol and sugar is an age-old preparation, and an enjoyable one at that. The liqueur infuses the fruit, the fruit infuses the liqueur and the sugar adds ...
Old fashioned, rather gaudy, but simple to make, zuppa inglese has long inspired debate over its origins. What Elizabeth David called an “exuberant joke” and a “trifle much glorified” ...
April in Florence. The effects of the cambio di stagione are now evident at the market stalls, which are filled with mountains of green, fuzzy pods of broad beans, fresh ...
Shiny and delightfully sticky with decorative split, criss-crossed tops, pandiramerino, which means ‘rosemary bread’, are little buns fragrant with fresh rosemary and studded with sweet sultanas. (Ramerino is the charming ...
ph. Emiko DaviesPitigliano is a beautiful medieval town on the very southern edge of Tuscany, just a few kilometres from Lazio. Seen from a distance, the town looks like it has been carved out of the high cliff of tufa that it sits on, looking out over the surrounding valley
This is my go-to comfort food meal, the dish I make when I’m too tired to cook, am cooking for one, don’t have much in the fridge, or want something delicious but quick. It’s a meal that can be whipped up from start
ph. Emiko Davies Around this time of year, castagnaccio, one of Tuscany’s most comforting and delicious treats appears in cafés, pastry shops and homes. Castagnaccio, which takes its ...
A frittata is always the answer to a busy day, a hungry belly or an empty fridge. In short, it’s my go-to meal when I’m in a pinch. It’s also my favourite way to throw together some great ingredients to showcase them
ph. Emiko DaviesUnder Spanish rule for 150 years, the southern Tuscan town of Orbetello has long been famous for its bottarga, made with mullet roe, and its eel dishes, such as its anguilla sfumata (spicy, smoked eel) and scaveccio (which takes its name directly from escabesce, the Spanish method of
In Italy, traditional Easter desserts are usually egg-rich baked goods. Naples’ Easter sweet is pastiera, a ricotta and wheatberry cake scented with orange blossom and candied citron. In Sicily, it is cassata, a sponge cake layered with ricotta, chocolate and candied fruit. Tuscany’s simpler palate is
She has been called the ‘original domestic goddess,’ but Elizabeth David should be given much more credit than that. The celebrated English food writer and cookbook author would have turned 100 years old last month, and yet her witty and often passion-fuelled writing is as valid today
The great-grandfather of Italian cuisine, Pellegrino Artusi (see theflr.net/artusi), has a recipe in his 1891 cookbook, Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, for a dessert that he calls Dolce Firenze, a previously unnamed dish that he savoured in Florence. While it is no
In Tuscany, the end of summer and beginning of autumn is synonymous with mushrooms. And when mushrooms are mentioned, they are porcini of course. Fresh porcini. Many a keen forager will plan to andare a funghi to collect their own fresh porcini, which go into pasta and risottos. But another
The first lesson to learn about Italian cooking is that there really is no ‘Italian cuisine,’ but 20 diverse regional cuisines, each with their own character, style, flavours and traditions. What you find in one region you may never see anywhere else on the peninsula. There are, however,
There’s no doubt that Italians have a sweet tooth, particularly when it comes to starting the day. Take a glance at the offerings behind the glass counter at your local bar or pastry shop: cornetti (sweet and fluffy rather than buttery and flaky croissants), berry or apricot jam
A favourite Italian holiday destination, the island of Elba, the largest in the Tuscan archipelago, is best known for its beaches and crystalline water than for its food. That may be because the traditional cuisine of this island is a humble one that stems from cucina povera and the rough
A recent proposal to reopen two of Italy's smallest islands that have served as prisons made headlines last May. With Italy's prisons on the brink of disaster from overcapacity, Italy's minister of justice Paola Severino said she was considering the idea of reopening the now-closed maximum-
Pliny the Elder praised it and Lorenzo the Magnificent was fond of it: pecorino di Pienza is a cheese that for centuries has embodied the taste of the land and the traditions of one of Tuscany?s most beautiful valleys, the Val d?Orcia. Pecorino di Pienza is
There is nothing like a warm weather sagra, and the annual cherry festival in the town of Lari (Sagra delle ciliegie a Lari) is a great excuse to get out and celebrate the season's sweetest bounty: cherries. Located about 30 kilometres from Pisa, the hilltop town of Lari
One of Tuscany's best food festivals in spring is Tutti Pazzi per la Palamita, celebrating the bounty of the Etruscan coast and the talent of the local chefs and fishermen in San Vincenzo (Livorno) on May 5 and 6. Here Emiko Davies gives an inside look at this great
The saucepans were overturned-to paraphrase biographer Jean Orieux-in 1533 when Catherine de' Medici arrived in Paris as the 14-year-old Florentine bride of Henry II, the future king of France. What Orieux was referring to in his biography of Catherine de' Medici was the Tuscan cuisine that
