Browse Techniques

Tuscany's stewed snails — Helix pomatia or Helix aspersa purged and blanched, then stewed for 2 hours in a soffritto of lard (lardo di Colonnata for the Lunigiana version), garlic, tomato, wine, and rosemary. Snails are not a rustic afterthought in Tuscan cooking — they are a delicacy of the late summer and autumn, eaten as a secondo with bread. The lardo provides both cooking fat and flavour; when it renders into the tomato-wine braise, the combination of pork fat and snail juices produces an extraordinary unified sauce.

Tuscany's most celebrated peasant soup — a sequence of preparations that begins as a simple bean and bread soup and is transformed over two days by reheating (ribollita means 're-boiled'). Day 1: cannellini beans braised with cavolo nero, stale bread, soffritto, and rosemary until thick. Day 2: the thickened cold soup is sliced and pan-fried in olive oil until a crust forms, or reheated in an oven until the bread swells and the top caramelises. Only Day 2 ribollita is 'true' ribollita.

The simplest and most satisfying of Tuscan winter soups — Tuscan black kale (cavolo nero) braised in water with garlic, olive oil, and a Parmigiano rind until the leaves are silky-soft, then ladled over slices of toasted pane sciocco (Tuscan unsalted bread). The bread absorbs the deeply flavoured broth, softening while the kale drapes over it. Finished with raw extra-virgin olive oil and black pepper. A soup that costs almost nothing and delivers extraordinary depth.