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How to eat - and drink - like a Tuscan
A re-run of a piece I wrote a few years ago following a trip to Tuscany which reminded me how differently Italians approach food and wine from how we would eat and drink in an Italian restaurant here or at home.
My hosts were a local family called the Corsinis who own a traditional bakery, wine bar and restaurant in the hill town of Castel del Piano, south-east of Siena. All the meals we had with them were without choice. Food came to the table and was served to everyone from large platters, something that is typically Tuscan. I’ve had the same sort of meals when I’ve eaten with winemakers.
The food is simple and rustic, relying on good ingredients rather than great culinary skill. The Tuscans don’t like their food messed about. There is usually a soup based on beans or chickpeas, even in high summer, which may be the first or second course. Always some kind of pasta, often homemade. A main meat course (they prefer meat to fish) which can be followed by various vegetable dishes, a cheese course and a (usually rather creamy or boozy) dessert. Tuscans have a sweet tooth.
At lunchtime, instead of a hot main course there may be a platter of home-cured meats (salumi) such as salami, ham and lardo (finely sliced, aromatized back fat) and preserved vegetables such as cipolle (pickled onions) or carciofi (globe artichokes). But they wouldn't miss out on their pasta.
The one dinner we had together at the Aiuole, just out of town, consisted of what seemed like two very large, light gnocchi, but were in fact known as fiocco di neve or snowflakes - one based on ricotta and spinach ( I think - it could have been chard), the other on ricotta and potato. That was followed by chickpea soup, a pasta dish with aubergine, a dish of roast suckling pig served with a delicious cauliflower dish that was souffl-like in texture (sformato), courgette (zucchini) frittata, roast peppers stuffed with veal and mint and stuffed radicchio. (The number of vegetable side dishes was unusual and due to the fact, I suspect, that we had a vegetarian at the table but everyone else benefited too). Finally there was a bomba (a rounded sponge cake with an ice cream filling) and cantucci (little dipping biscuits) which were served with vin santo, a favourite Tuscan way to finish a meal (apart from a glass of grappa, of course)
Apart from the sweet wine, the same wine, a Montecucco, was served right the way through the meal, along with copious quantities of San Pellegrino (sparkling mineral water). It was light and refreshing, not there in any way to attract attention on its own account, simply as an accompaniment to the food.
It is typically Tuscan for red wine to do duty for white in this way. They drink white occasionally but mainly with seafood and it is far more common to take a red right through the meal like this. (The following day we drank a Morellino di Scansano with a plate of linguine and prawns, for example).
If different wines are served, as they are if you visit a winemaker or a more expensive restaurant, they are likely to be different grades of red - a young, unoaked wine with the pasta and soup, a riserva with the meat and an older, more prized vintage with a second meat course or with the cheese. (Tuscans cheerfully ignore the ‘red wine doesn’t go with cheese’ theory - but they don’t go in for very strong, French-style washed rind cheeses or blues).
Even if they’re 13% ABV or over, traditional Tuscan reds, which are mainly based on Sangiovese, are much lighter in style than those from comparable growing areas. Their dryness and high levels of acidity can make them taste lean on their own but are the factors that make them work so well with the sort of dishes with which you would more commonly drink a white.
It’s noticeable that the more modern fruit-driven Tuscan reds such as those from the Maremma region don’t work so well with the simple flavours of the local food and can frequently overwhelm it. It accounts for the enduring popularity of basic Chianti despite the fact that it sometimes fails to justify its price tag.
Casa Corsini is at 46, Corso Nasini, Castel del Piano. (Tel: 0564 957308)
Albergo Ristorante Aiuole (Tel: 0564 967300)
Food and Bordeaux: What they served at the gala dinner at Mouton Rothschild
I make a point of not going to Vinexpo, the biennial wine fair in Bordeaux (too hectic, too noisy) but it does mean you miss out on the occasional treat like the gala dinner that was held at Château Mouton Rothschild to celebrate the opening of their new chai.
A colleague* who went told me about it though and the menu and wines sounded so extraordinary I thought I must share them with you.
Guests were apparently served glasses of Baron Philippe de Rothschild champagne when they arrived then treated to a foie gras trolley that was wheeled around with terrines of foie gras, walnut biscuits and fig jam. (Even though I don’t eat foie gras I must admit that sounded amazing)
The first course was equally show-stopping: soufflés de brochet (pike) served in a copper pans - some feat for 600 - with 2005 Mouton-Rothschild and 2005 Clerc-Milon: an unconventional but apparently successful pairing.
Then blanquette de veau (a creamy veal stew) with imperials of 1975 Mouton-Rothschild (see above). An interesting - and wise - choice for an old wine, avoiding an intense jus that might have fought with the wine - and definitely more flattering than cheese with which I gather the same wine was also paired (correct me if you were at the dinner, and I’m wrong on that)
Finally a cherry clafoutis (batter pudding) which was served with a 1989 Château Coutet, apparently also an admirable match. It sounds like quite some feast.
I gather Bordeaux leading chateaux always vie with each other to put on the best spread during Vinexpo, even if not normally quite on this scale. My colleague Jane Anson, who reports from Bordeaux for Decanter, told me about this meal at Chateau Pavie (excuse the rather loose translations):
Saumon Mariné, avocat pilé, perles d'oeufs de saumon avec Champagne Egly Ouriet 2003 en magnum (marinated salmon, crushed avocado and salmon roe)
Homard en cote de Romaine, petits légumes juste croquant, vinaigrette au piment d'Esplette avec Monbousquet Blanc 2010 (lobster in lettuce, possibly? with just-cooked vegetables and a spicy hot pepper dressing)
Agneau en file rôtie, frotté aux herbes, carotes fane et marmelade d'aubergines fumées, jus d'agneau tandoori with Pavie 1998 in Imperiale (this sounds pretty wild: Herb-crusted roast lamb with a smoked aubergine compote and tandoori lamb jus)
Food for thought here: the Bordelais don't necessarily stick to conventional accompaniments and seasoning with their best wines.
If you went to any of the other dinners during Vinexpo this year do let me know what you ate and drank.
*Charlotte Hey who works on the marketing for this website
Photograph © Lucy Shaw of The Drinks Business.
Possibly the best truffle dinner ever
Did I want to go on a truffle trip to Spain at the end of January? Balmy Barbados seemed like a better option but since that wasn’t on the cards and the enquiry came from an old friend I said yes. The 2 day visit - the annual Viñas del Vero ‘Days of Wine and Truffles’ in Somontano would include an outdoor picnic in the foothills of the Pyrenees (eek), a truffle hunt and - the clincher - a multi-course truffle menu by one of the region’s most talented chefs followed by a gastronomic brunch. “Bring the Gaviscon”. my friend sagely advised.
I’ll be writing about the truffle hunting in due course so let’s concentrate on the dinner at Bodega Blecua which was the best truffle experience I’ve ever had. It kicked off in style with a selection of truffle-flavoured canaps including truffle flavoured macarons, parcels of truffle threads in lambs skein (sic), tartlets of pigs trotters and truffles (awesome) and best of all, truffle flavoured truffles of the satiny consistency of the best chocolate truffles. These were served with Tio Pepe (also owned by Viñas del Vero’s owner Gonzalez Byass) and V de V’s fragrant Gewürztraminer which I’m not sure I didn’t marginally prefer, to my surprise. (The 2009 is currently on offer at £6.49 at Majestic)
The first proper course was a glassful of truffles served with a hot broth which transformed it into truffle consommé followed by ‘Royal de Trufa with egg yolks and passion’. Fortunately this turned out not to be passion fruit as I had feared but a sumptous blend of truffles and pork fat of the consistency of creamy mash, scattered with yet more truffles. (I hadn’t thought of the combination of pork fat and truffles before but it’s a winner, let me tell you). With that we drank the 2010 Viñas del Vero Clarion, a rich, structured white about whose components they were curiously reticent but which seems to be Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer and Chenin Blanc.
That was followed by one of my favourite dishes of the meal, cardoons with oysters and almond sauce topped with a truffle shaving. Again a really imaginative and delicious combination of ingredients. This was served with a 2008 Clarion in magnum which suited the dish better than the younger fruitier vintage would have done.
They then brought on a potato ‘mushroom’ with ceps, a mound of fluffy truffle-infused mash moulded into a ... well, not a mushroom, more like a potato but fantastic anyway and a good match with the Blecua 2004 served in magnum.
Blecua is the flagship wine of Viñas del Vero - a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Garnacha, and Tempranillo from seven different parcels and possibly one of the best wines you've never heard of. It has more warmth and generosity than many Bordeaux and more finesse and complexity than most Spanish reds. The '04 also went perfectly with the next course, a truffle infused risotto topped with an outrageous amount of truffles.
By this stage even I was almost truffled out but just about found room for a mouthful or two of veal shanks with truffle sauce and chestnut purée (particularly good with the richer, more complex Blecua 2005) and some local truffled cheese.
And I didn’t make much impact on either of the two interesting desserts - a semi-frozen cylinder of something faintly ice creamy with amaretti crumbs and ‘snow truffles’ on muscovado cream, a truffle-inspired but, to some relief, not truffle-flavoured finale.
The general conclusion? That truffle dinners could be a lot more inventive than they generally are, that Spanish cuisine, dare I say it, has a lot to teach the French and that truffles can take younger, fruitier wines than you might imagine. Quite an experience.
The event I went to was a private one but If you want to sample chef Carmelo Bosque’s cooking go to his restaurant La Taberna de Lillas Pastia it’s in Huesca. It specialises in truffles and has a Michelin star. Tel: +34 974 211 691.
I attended the dinner as a guest of Gonzalez Byass.
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