Back to Recipe Books
Back to Contents
Tuscan Home Cooking
A rustic Tuscan farmhouse with a grove of olive trees and hills covered in grapevines is at the center of many of our American fantasies about the good life in Italy. Of course, such idyllic places do exist, and Giovanna Folonari Ruffino, a member of the famous Chianti region wine-making family, inhabits a stunningly beautiful example of one, the Villa di Zano in the Chianti hills. Her kitchen, where she conducts classes for culinary students from around the world, turns out precisely the kind of food that we imagine would cover the old wooden table in the stone-floored kitchen of that farmhouse of fantasy. She's collected 100 of her recipes for authentic Tuscan home cooking in a new book, CHIANTI FAMILY COOKING, each one illustrated with beautifully reproduced color photos. These are simple dishes, most consisting of a few pristine ingredients combined without fuss, and many are not often seen outside of home kitchens in Italy -- dishes like asparagus custard tart, rolled veal roast stuffed with a golden ham omelet, spaghetti with onion sauce, and artichokes stuffed with ricotta cheese. Others, like Penne Puttanesca, Ricotta Torta, and Vitella Tonnato (veal with tuna sauce), are more familiar. For lovers of authentic regional Italian cooking, CHIANTI FAMILY COOKING will hold some unknown treasures, along with traditional versions of old favorites.
Recipes from Chianti Family Cooking
Budino al Parmigiano Reggiano
Parmesan Cheese Pudding
4 servings4 large eggs
3 tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour
7 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper
butter for greasing pan
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Beat the eggs and add the sifted flour, grated Parmesan cheese, milk, and cream. Combine well. Season with salt and pepper.
Grease a pudding pan or 4 individual molds. Pour in the mixture. Set the mold (or individual molds) into a pan with hot water coming halfway up the sides of the mold, like a bain-marie. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the pudding is firm to the touch.
Remove from oven and from bain-marie.
Invert onto a serving dish (or individual serving plates), unmold, and serve hot.
You can serve the pudding with porcini mushrooms, finely sliced and sautéed in olive oil with 1 chopped garlic clove for 5 to 6 minutes.
Spaghetti in Salsa di Cipolle
Spaghetti with Onion Sauce
4 servings2 medium-sized white onions
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
4 anchovy fillets, chopped
1 pound spaghetti
grated Parmesan cheese
Slice the onions very thin.
Heat half of the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and 2 tablespoons of hot water, a pinch of salt and pepper, and cook over low heat, covered, for about 15 minutes.
Add the anchovies and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the remaining olive oil; remove from the heat and keep warm.
Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. Stir in 1-1/2 tablespoons of salt. Add the spaghetti and cook al dente.
Drain and put into a warmed serving bowl. Dress with the onion sauce, tossing it well.
Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.
Torta di Carote
Carrot Cake
8 servings10 ounces carrots
3-1/2 ounces ground blanched, skinned almonds
1 ounce amaretti cookies
4 large eggs, separated
1/3 cup sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 ounce sifted cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
salt
butter and dried bread crumbs for the mold
confectioner's sugar
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Peel and finely grate the carrots. Pat dry in a clean dish cloth.
Process the almonds to a fine consistency. Crumble the amaretti cookies.
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar with an electric beater. Add the grated lemon zest. Add the cornstarch, yeast and a pinch of salt.
Stir in the carrots, almonds, and amaretti, with a rubber spatula and combine well.
Beat the egg whites. Gently fold into the mixture, little by little.
Grease a round 9-inch springform pan and dust with bread crumbs. Pour the batter into it.
Cook in the oven for 45 minutes. Cover the cake with foil after the first 15 minutes.
Dust with sifted confectioners' sugar before serving.
