Stuffed squash blossoms with anchovies and soft pecorino cheese garnished with parsley and olive oil drizzle.
My wife and I recently traveled to Florence and Tuscany in general and it was great. I’m pretty sure Florence, if it isn’t already, should be considered a ‘foodie’ Mecca of sorts. Here are a few pictures. In the coming days, I’ll start posting some Holiday cakes, most of them Italian in honor of our trip. I’m also going to post a wonderfully simple yet complex egg and mushroom dish, a roasted pumpkin quinoa recipe, and other treats and goodies that I make along the way leading into the Christmas and New Years holidays.
One of my personal favorites: La Proscuitteria, a little wine, meat, and cheese place that serves all of the above in a casual setting. They make their own dried and cured meats including aged proscuitto.
More from La Proscuitteria.
More taste of Florence pictures after the jump….
The quintessential dish from Florence, Steak Florentine, was as great as it looks. It definitely lived up to the billing!
Another shot of the steak Florentine with sides of Tuscan white beans and roasted pumpkin.
It was truffle season in Tuscany when we were there. This dish celebrated Italian truffles by pairing simple gnocchi with a cream sauce. A generous portion of shaved truffles were added over the top. Simple, elegant, and extremely good!
One of my wife’s favorite dishes was wild boar ragu over fresh wide noodle pasta. Delish.
Surprisingly to me, we didn’t see a whole lot of variety in terms of vegetable offerings (or we chose to ignore them…). This is a vegetable pasta that I ordered one afternoon along with a salad as I was definitely feeling the need for vegetables!
Last one for now…braised pork shoulder with a delicate and light ravioli stuffed with pecorino cheese and parsley. Note, that the pecorino of Florence isn’t the aged cheese that’s similar to parmesean. Rather, Tuscan pecorino is a semi soft lightly aged cheese more similar to provolone and the like. It’s great for melting and in one dish that I plan to publish shortly, it’s melted almost like fondue…you’ll see. Sta y tuned for that.
culinary flights of fancy 