A Taste of Tuscany

For our honeymoon, we went to Cinque Terre, Siena, Chianti, and Florence. The food in this region is marvelously simple, but because the ingredients are fresh and the preparation timestakingly traditional, the food is amazing. We've found it almost impossible to go back to eating Italian food in the states, so I've made it my mission to learn how to cook traditional Tuscan food. YEAH. right.

The freshest bruschetta straight out of a coal oven in Riomaggiore

Seafood pasta in Vernazza

The best caprese salad ever. You're probably thinking, it's just tomatoes and mozarella, how good could it really be? That's what I thought too, but it really, truly is so delicious! Everything from the most ripe tomatoes, to mozarella so fresh I could practically taste the cow, to peppery olive oil, and grassy basil.

These two pasta dishes were some of our favorites. We ate at a reastaurant called La Bottega in the small town of Volpaia. It had beautiful views for dining outside and I highly recommend this restaurant if you're ever in Tuscany. I thought this tiny town was far more charming than San Gimingiano and I'm sure the Volpaia castello winery has a nice tour as well. The above is a truffle pasta, with generous shavings of truffle (I can't tell if these are black or white?), and below is a tagliatelle in wild boar sauce.

This dish below is a spicy pancetta pasta from Osteria dei Benci, our favorite restuarant in Florence. They have the most amazing Bistecca alla Fiorentina (Florentine T-bone steak of white oxen). And their pastas are fantastic as well!