Dante's Bread and Other Yummy Florentine Recipes

'Come sa di sal lo pane altrui' (You will see how the bread of others tastes of salt) said Dante in the 'Divina Commedia'. And he was correct! This sentence reflects a real condition that Dante was living at the time he wrote it: the condition of being exiled. In truth, it is not that much of a metaphor, as the Tuscan bread is the only Italian bread that does not contain any salt. An exiled Florentine would then remember forever his unfortunate condition by unwillingly tasting other people's salted bread.
The Tuscan bread is indeed characterised by the lack of salt. The traditional Tuscan flavours are already tasty enough not to need any 'salt-support'. Ham, cheese, olive oil, garlic. Bread is the basic ingredient of a poor, yet very tasty cuisine, as three traditional Tuscan dishes confirm. If you want to try some of them, just go to a Tuscan trattoria. We promise you will not be disappointed!
Pappa al pomodoro, ribollita and panzanella are three recipes you cannot miss if you are going to enjoy a meal under the Tuscan sun. The pappa al pomodoro is the best dish to enjoy some of the tastiest ingredients of the Tuscan cuisine: bread, garlic, olive oil and basil leaves. Try ribollita to taste the flavour of Tuscan black cabbage, a traditional ingredient of the Tuscan countryside cuisine, mixed with unsalted Tuscan bread. Trying to figure out which one of the two ingredients is more tasty will be no easy task. If you happen to be in Tuscany on a hot summer day, you must try panzanella, a traditional summer dish that mixes onion, cucumber, basil and tomatoes with the ever-present unsalted bread.
Unsalted bread certainly is what these three recipes have in common. But that's not all. Bread must not only be unsalted. It must be two or three days old. How to make it soft again? Just leave it in water for a while and you will have the base for some of the yummiest Tuscan recipes. These traditional, yet widely popular dishes, were 'invented' when saving was an imperative. Everything that one happened to find in the kitchen could not be wasted, and this is how some of the tastiest recipes were invented in the old days. Can you think of a better lesson for today's consumerist society?
However, we do not live on bread alone, even if it is dressed with the best olive oil you can find in Italy. There are innumerable traditional dishes you can find in Tuscany. If you feel like fish, you can try the cuttlefish with spinach ('seppie in inzimino') or, if you'd rather have meat, you cannot miss the queen of the Tuscan recipes, the bistecca alla fiorentina (t bone steak). However, if you want to avoid bad looks and sharp comments, don't ask the waiter to have it medium or well done. The waiter will smile at you and you will enjoy it at its best if you have it rare.
Just trust the fact that Florence is the motherland for some of the most popular culinary inventions in the world and trust its tradition! A good example for a globally known Tuscan invention could be...the fork! Yes... we no longer have the quite barbaric habit of stabbing our food with a spear-like tool before putting it in our mouth thanks to our ancestors, the Florentine goldsmiths. The invention was taken to the Court of France by Caterina de Medici, the wife of Francesco the First, and Maria dei Medici, married to Henry the Fourth... after which time it was quickly adopted by the larger part of the global population.
Speaking of France, not many people know that some of the most popular French dishes actually originated in Dante's motherland. Have you ever heard of Orange Duck? The original recipe was taken from a Fifteenth Century Tuscan recipe book. How about chamel? The popular sauce, a symbol of the French cuisine and named after the Sun King's butler, Louis the chamel, was actually invented in Florence and was called 'Colletta'.
Let's move to desserts now. You need not do anything but choose! If you are looking for a very typical dessert, try the 'schiacciata con l'uva' (grape focaccia), pan di ramerino (sweet rosemary and sultanas bread) or San Giovanni's pancakes. However, if you happen to be close to Prato, don't miss the cantuccini, the traditional almond cookies served with Vin Santo. This sweet liquor partly owes its origin to the Dominican friars of the San Marco convent that hosted a pharmaceutical workshop specialised in distilling spirits and elixir. The good monks would feed them to their sick patients to help them recover.
Most of these desserts are season specific and can be found at most bakeries and patisseries during these times. Although Cantuccini and Vin Santo are easier to find, as most Tuscan restaurants will include them in their menus all the year round.
After the traditional espresso at the end of your meal, you can enjoy a distilled or digestive liquor. With such a globally recognised wine tradition, Tuscany cannot help but offer a wide range of high quality Grappas. However, we would rather end this culinary trip with another little Tuscan record. The first herbal liquor in history was prepared here by the Carthusian monks hosted at the Certosa abbey in Florence. Although not right in the city centre, this abbey is certainly worth a visit. We can guarantee that its beauty (along with the chance to buy some Certosino liquor) will make the trip worthwhile.

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