Panzanella or panmolle is an Italian dish originating in the regions of Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Lazio. The dish is a bread salad popular in the summer months. It includes sliced bread and fresh tomatoes, flavored with basil, olive oil, and vinegar, often with salt and pepper. The bread used should be day- to week-old saltless Tuscan bread made in a wood oven.Sometimes thought of as a "leftover salad," additional panzanella ingredients vary widely, and include lettuce, white wine, capers, anchovies, celery, carrots, red wine, red onion, cucumber, tuna, parsley, boiled eggs, mint, bell peppers, lemon juice, and garlic.
Directions1. Oil the shoulder roast inside and out and rub the salt and pepper into the flesh. Rub the garlic, rosemary and dillweed into the flesh. Put shoulder into a leakproof and container and pour the wine in and around the shoulder. Cover tightly and place in the refrigerator to marinate for 3 days. 2. Remove the meat from the refrigerator and tie it at about 1 inch intervals to form an even roll. Bring the meat to room temperature for about 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). 3. Paint the roast with browning sauce and bake the roast until it has internal temperature of 150 degrees F (65 degrees C). Estimate 30 minutes cooking time per pound. Remove from oven, tent with foil and let stand for 15 minutes before carving. The internal temperature should be 160 degrees F (70 degrees C) at this time. Serve.
This traditional Florentine recipe makes a hearty meal in itself. Pierce each sausage 3 or 4 times with a fork and put them into a non-stick pan. Add hot water and cook over a high fire for 10-12 minutes, turning frequently. Pour 5 tablespoons oil into a large, non-stick pan and add the whole garlic cloves, sage, tomatoes, salt and pepper and cook over a low fire for 5 minutes. Increase the heat and cook for another 10 minutes. Add the beans and sausages, cover and cook over a moderate fire for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve hot with Tuscan white bread.
Method1 Prepare the tomatoes first. Parboil the tomatoes for one minute in boiling water that has just been removed from the burner. Drain. Using a sharp small knife, remove the skins of the tomatoes. (If the tomatoes are too hot, you can protect your finger tips by rubbing them with an ice cube between tomatoes.) Once the tomatoes are peeled, cut them in halves or quarters and remove the seeds and juice from their centers. Also cut out and discard the stem area. Why use plum tomatoes instead of regular tomatoes? The skins are much thicker and there are fewer seeds and less juice.2 Make sure there is a top rack in place in your oven. Turn on the oven to 450°F to preheat.3 While the oven is heating, chop up the tomatoes finely. Put tomatoes, garlic, 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, vinegar in a bowl and mix. Add the chopped basil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
If you cannot find Tuscan bread, the French 'pain de campagne' may be a decent substitute. For best results, the loaf should be a couple of days old. Cut the bread into slices about 1 cm thick and toast them until crisp - ideally, over the glowing embers of a wood fire; otherwise, in the oven preheated to 200°C. A toaster will not produce the best results. Rub each slice with garlic, then arrange the bread in a serving platter. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. For a change, you might like to top this with ripe tomato cubes, or home-cooked cannellini beans, or even shredded dark cabbage leaves.
INGREDIENTS* 250 ml of warm water - about 1 cup * 25 gr dry yeast - about 1 tsp * 450 gr flour - about 3 cups * 1 ½ tsp salt * 70 ml extra-virgin olive oil - about 1/4 cup, plus more for drizzling on top * sea salt to sprinkle on top
MethodHeat some oil in a large deep pan and lightly fry the chopped vegetables, garlic and parsley. Clean the small fish and add them with the chilli. Fry lightly and season with salt. Pour in the vinegar and allow it to evaporate, then add the wine and tomatoe. Simmer for 10 minutes, them pass the mixture through a sieve. Heat some oil and fry the cuttlefish, octopus and squid, then add the sieved mixture and gradually all the ther fish, calculating the time necessary for each to cook properly (i.e. shrimps, scampi and cockles will be last). Add water, if required. Meanwhile, toast the bread and line a large tureen with the slices. Pour the fish stew over it and serve.
Ribollita is a famous Tuscan soup whose name literally means "reboiled". Like most Tuscan cuisine, the soup has peasant origins. It was originally made by reheating (ie. reboiling) the leftover minestrone or vegetable soup from the previous day.
Make a fairly stiff dough with these ingredients, kneading it thoroughly, and adding more flour if it comes out too soft. Flour it and let it rest, covered, for about an hour. Then roll it out into an eighth-of-an-inch-thick sheet, and use a serrated pastry wheel to cut it into strips as long as your palm and two fingers wide. Make a cut down the middle of each cencio (so as to obtain two strips joined at the ends), twist the side strips without breaking them, fry them in hot oil or lard, and dust them with confectioners sugar when they’re cool. This recipe is sufficient to make a platterful. Should the dough have formed a crust while it sat, knead it again before you roll it out.
Vin Santo is a traditional Tuscan wine that is not only made commercially, but also on farms and in people’s homes. It’s a rich, sweet wine that got its name (Vin Santo means 'holy wine') as it used to be used by the priest in Holy Communion.Halfway between wine and whiskey, this almondy, caramelized sweet wine is some of the most distinctive after-dinner wines found in Italy.Traditionally, you might also be offered a glass of Vin Santo when you visit someone’s home – hence the nickname the ‘wine of friendship’.There are wide variations in Vin Santo's quality – those producers who make good ones tell ominous tales of others cutting their wines with spirits to bring them up to the required alcohol level, adding caramel for color and flavor, and so forth.
