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Crostata is a simple, yet elegant Tuscan jam tart served for dessert or breakfast.Fillings change with the seasons. In a wine growing town, it might be grape jam. Some make it using blackberry jam made from wild berries harvested along the roadside. But any variety works well, from orange marmalade to blueberry preserves. The buttery dough for crostata gains richness from melted butter and egg yolks, which also give it a golden color. Light and crisp, the crust is like eating a cookie cloud. The nonnas in Montefollonico like to make crostata with apricot or wild plum jam. Tuscan Women Cook guests enjoy nonna Donatella's creation, along withRead More →

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This festive dessert surprises many. It’s called salami, it looks like salami but in fact it is pure delicious chocolate studded with crunchy butter cookies. While it is often made with cocoa powder and sugar moistened with eggs, many pasticcere use quality bittersweet chocolate as well as cocoa powder when making salame di cioccolato.  The melted chocolate gives this treat a richness that rivals the best truffle. That’s why our recipe uses bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder. For the butter cookies, choose a brand with a pleasant butter flavor that crumbles easily such as LU Petit Beurre, Lorna Dune or Bahlsen Leibniz Butter Cookies.A splash of fortified wine such asRead More →

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Nonna Siriana Fumi loves sharing her secrets for making a Tuscan feast in her master class for Tuscan Women Cook. The multi-course meal is capped off with these delectable cantucci, a Tuscan twice-cooked almond biscotti. We’ve adapted her way of making them for our friends in the United States where the flour has more protein. Although you can make these using all-purpose flour, we find blending in some cake flour produced a more tender result. They're delicious dipped in chocolate (see "Notes" below).If toasting your own almonds, preheat oven to 325 ℉. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or foil for easy cleanup.Read More →

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Watching nonna Siriana Fumi roll out pici is a form of mindful meditation al italiano. Our guests focus on her steady hands as she kneads, flattens, and cuts the dough into strips. Her quick, flat palms roll each strip into a long, sinuous snake. It’s obvious she has rolled pici her entire life. It’s second nature to Siriana and to the hundreds of Tuscan home cooks who prepare pici for their families, friends, and dinner guests. Since pici is basically just flour and water, feel free to experiment with different combinations of flour to discover the texture you like best. We use all-purpose, Italian “00” soft flour. Watch your cooking time to make sure your pici comes out al dente.Read More →

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The word carpaccio usually describes thin slices of raw beef or fish, but we think it perfectly describes this dish, which our guests first tasted at La Bandita, a chic osteria in Pienza.Read More →

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When Albo Stefanucci, the owner of Ristorante 13 Gobbi, presents our guests with his fresh strawberry tiramisù, everyone perks up. The combination of strawberries and the traditional layers of creamy mascarpone and Italian ladyfingers is a refreshing spin on the classic. Serve it in summer when fresh strawberries are at their peak. Alchermes is a scarlet colored Italian liqueur made by infusing neutral spirits with sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and vanilla, and other herbs, and Kermes, a small parasitic insect.Pavesini ladyfingers may be difficult to find in stores. However, they are readily available online. Other brands may be substituted.Read More →