The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley

by Elizabeth Romer

Overview

The Tuscan Year recounts the daily life and food preparation of a family living on a farm in Tuscany. Elizabeth Romer chronicles each season's activities month by month: curing prosciutto and making salame in January, planting and cheesemaking in March, harvesting and threshing corn in July, hunting for wild muchrooms in September, and grape crushing in Ocober. Scattered throughout this lovely calendar are recipes—fresh bread and olive oil, grilled mushrooms, broad beans with ham, trout with fresh tomatoes and basil, chicken grilled with fresh sage and garlic, and apples baked with butter, sugar, and lemon peel, among many others. Alive with the rhythms of country tradition, The Tuscan Year is a treasure for the armchair traveler as well as the cook.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466840362
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	11/30/1994
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Elizabeth Romer studied textile design at the Royal College of Art, London, and has practiced and taught in that field. She lives in Tuscany with her husband.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	1
	January	7
	Silvana's kitchen
	Pigs and prosciutto
	Salame, cotechino and other sausages
	Gnocchi and ragu
	Beef: stews and steaks
	February	25
	Silvana's garden
	Herbs
	Minestrone and minestre
	Wild vegetables and salads
	Tobacco and the moon
	Mangiafagioli
	Carnival cakes
	Ballo in maschera
	March	41
	Vines and sheep
	Making the cheese: pecorino, ravigiolo, ricotta
	Attic store-rooms
	Cooking with cheese
	April	53
	Priests and feasts
	Fresh garlic
	Blessed eggs
	Green spring
	Easter lamb and macaroons
	Artichokes
	May	68
	Zappatura
	Feeding the farmhands
	Pasta
	Trout
	Baccala and stoccafissa
	Pots of basil
	June	80
	Tuscans and Umbrians
	Beans and truffles
	Wedding feast
	Cherries and camomilla
	Herbs at the full moon
	Mangiare in bianco
	July	90
	High summer
	Threshing the corn
	Merenda al fresco
	Harvest feasts
	Cooking with the stone oven
	August	103
	The daily bread
	Ancient recipes
	Frying flowers
	Pansanella
	Tomato preserves
	Friends from Rome: new dishes
	September	117
	Autumn hunting; pheasant, other game and fieldfare
	Funghi: passions and poisons
	Porcini and chanterelles
	Ovole and pratolini
	October	133
	Frosts and harvests
	Vendemmia
	Wine and wine-making
	Punch and chestnuts
	Vin santo
	Polenta
	Family Sunday
	November	148
	Chestnut woods
	Mousetraps
	Fried cakes and baked apples
	Schiacciata on the pannaio
	Wild boar: hunting and cooking
	The priest in the bed
	December	162
	Planting trees and logging
	The olive harvest
	Olives and their oil
	Fett'unta and pinzimonio
	Christmas feasts
	Tortellini and turkey
	Cardoons
	Zabajone
	The year's ending
	Notes	177
	Measurements
	Ingredients
	Herbs
	Tomato preserves
	Bread
	Equipment
	Index	179

Editorial Reviews

Evocative narrative and authentic recipes are intertwined in . . . [this] beautifully written book about the food grown and prepared by a family living on a farm in Tuscany.” —Catherine Fredman, Food and Wine

From the Publisher