Update on Tuscany

Here in Tuscany, I am having a fantastic time. There are two distinct parts to our trip here. One is the "tourist" part, one is the cooking part. I am using my mum's computer, because I can't seem to do the iphone blogging with photos, so the photos are just from my digital camera, which is sort of working.

For the touring part, I came totally unprepared. But there is a book I read called "too much tuscan sun" which is by a local tour guide. So when I had jetlag (in other words from 3am-6am one morning) I started researching some of the places he mentioned in the book to see if I could find them. Thus began my "list". Some of the things I have done are from the book, some are just must sees I couldn't resist, and some just happened along the journey.
From the book:
Brolio Castle - belonging to one of the oldest families of the region - has been in their family for thousands of years
Vertine: classic unspoilt village
Lunch at La Bottega, Volpaia - for classical old style italian cooking
etruscan tombs (couldn't find the local ones, became obsessed with the etruscan pathways near Pitigliano instead and that all comes later)
abbey of sant'antimo at castelnuovo dell'abate - to hear the monks do gregorian chant
Wineries


I came armed with cookbooks, photocopies of recipes and distinct ideas in my head. Some of these have come to be, some of them have not. Unfortunately the wood fired oven in the villa is caved in, and does not work. However there is still a fire place and the kitchen is nice and big and with a gas stove top. Venison has also been particularly hard to find (esp with the language barrier - but even now that we know the word for it, not that easy to find). However we have still had some enjoyable meals.

The first night that we cooked, I started with some "crostini di fegatini" (warm chicken liver croutons). Being not entirely content with either recipes available to me, I did a combination of them both, which worked quite well. I never used to be a pate or liver person, refusing to touch it, until I had a degustation menu themed around duck liver at Siggy's, and I was converted. So below is a cross between how Stephanie Alexander does them and how Elizabeth David does them.
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ingredients:
chicken liver - cleaned and chopped - 200g -300g
proscuitto - a couple of slices
butter - kind of a chunk
flour a couple of table spoons
limoncello (was supposed to be lemon juice which I didn't have)
a few tablespoons of stock
sage leaves 8
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of tiny capers
2 tablespoons of parsley
a breadstick sliced

dredge the flour through the liver, cut the proscuitto fry it in butter add the liver, cook gently, add everything else except perhaps the parley, put the lid on and let them cook for ten minutes. Then add the parsley (but honestly I kind of made it up as I went along and I can't remember what order I added things in)
in the meanwhile fry or bake the slices of breadstick with a bit of olive oil
put the liver mixture on the top and serve warm
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For second course we did a game ragu with pappardelle (naked chef recipe) This was a lovely pasta dish with rabbit and beef (because I couldn't get venison which was supposed to be with it rather then beef). For the sake of brevity, recipe not included. But it was delicious. Matthew had made some home made stock almost immediately on us arriving at the villa, and the trick to any good recipe is good quality stock. All the other dishes that required stock were also made with this home made stock. After we made it we realised we didn't have anything to put it in, luckily however we had drunk enough wine to wash up some empty wine bottles (6) and put the stock in these.

All meals obviously served with much chianti classico, the wine of the region.

For now I will leave the food talk at that. A picture tells a thousand words so let me show you what we've been doing.

Castello di Brolio, the view:

More Brolio:


Where I want to live - VERTINE (a tiny tiny village with a beautiful view, all old buildings, quiet, out of the way, still inhabited):




I was determined to see the sea, and on the way to Pisa took a detour to Livorno, it was well worth the storm we went through to get there.



Pisa was lovely, and I expect my photos of the tower are much like everyone else's, but boy does it lean, you can really feel it when climbing up. My photo is from the church there. Plus a safety warning from the tower.



We are staying in a villa near a town 20 odd km from Florence, the town is called San Casciano. Matt and I went to town quite early in the morning, and this dog came up to us wanting to be patted. Naturally I am overly paranoid about rabies (because it doesn't exist in Australia) and am refusing to pat any animals. The dog unperturbed, ran up to the door of the church, and stopped dead with it's feet on the entrance way, obviously well aware it wasn't to go in, but it put it's head inside and cried. I figure it's owner may have been inside.