I am a Tuscan born and bred country girl, from a family of people who love traditional food. Olive oil runs through my veins, and I love nothing more than pappa al pomodoro, our famed stale bread and tomato soup. I stock my pantry and my fridge with local beans, pecorino Toscano, our typical unsalted bread, chestnut flour, and Tuscan kale in the winter.

At Christmastime, my family has always closed our festive meals with local sweet treats from Siena. When I was a kid, we would buy them at the supermarket. Then, when my passion for good food grew and became contagious, my mum and I started baking everything from scratch: first ricciarelli, delicate almond paste cookies; then panforte, the Sienese nut and fruit spiced cake; and finally cavallucci, sturdy walnut Christmas cookies. We would line the ricciarelli up on our marble table and bake trays of cavallucci in our wood-burning oven, the spiced aromas of these medieval treats permeating the kitchen.

At the end of a meal, we would open the decorated tin boxes where we kept these cookies, belonging to our Tuscan traditions, and serve them with pride.

Along with my Tuscan traditions, though, I’ve also always cherished my Southern roots.

My paternal grandfather was from Melfi, a hilltop town in Basilicata, famous for its medieval Norman castle and its proximity to a volcanic lake. I owe him my baroque surname, and my love for dried oregano, semolina bread, and onion-stuffed focaccia.

When we spent festivities and family gatherings with my aunt Teresa, the best home cook of the Southern Italian branch of my family, the table was a triumph of rich lasagne made with tiny meatballs, caciocavallo cheese, and spicy salami, and breadcrumb-stuffed peppers.

As for the sweets, Christmas tasted like calzoncelli, tiny parcel-shaped cookies filled with chocolate and almonds, with a hint of lemon zest. In the beginning, my aunt would bring them back from Melfi when she visited the family. Eventually, she started making them in large quantities, trying to meet the requests of all her nieces and nephews.

When I met Tommaso, I embraced his mixed traditions, too.

My father-in-law is from the mountains over Florence, so we often share very similar habits, but Lucia, my mother-in-law, was from Salento, the heel of the Italian boot, a land of generous people and incredible food. I fell head over heels for this land of sun, sea, and wind, for the local breakfast made with cream-filled pasticciotti and almond-scented caffè in ghiaccio, for the taralli and olive-studded bread, for the homemade orecchiette with tomato sauce and fermented ricotta.

Whenever Tommaso’s aunt and uncle joined us for Christmas, they would come with a selection of local specialities. And so our celebrations gained the citrusy scent of puccedduzzi, honey-glazed fried dough buttons covered with sprinkles; the taste of almond paste cookies and fried baccalà; the sounds of belly laughs and prosecco bottles being uncorked. Among the trays of cookies and the bags of taralli, I discovered mostaccioli salentini, dense, nutty, diamond-shaped cookies with a chocolate glaze—marking the beginning of an ongoing love affair.

Every year now, starting around the beginning of December, I pay tribute to the different souls and traditions that make up my family and that make our Christmas unique. I’ve learned that choosing what is meaningful for us, mingling the traditions, and keeping it simple are the keys to having a relaxed, intimate, and genuine Christmas season.

A (mostly) Tuscan Christmas menu

Appetizers

Along with the typical Tuscan appetizers, we have a staple of every Christmas, originated in the ‘80s: smoked salmon crostini. Back then, it was a luxurious ingredient which we would purchase specifically for Christmas. We would butter the bread, drape a piece of smoked salmon on top and decorate it with a small wedge of lemon. Now smoked salmon is a more common ingredient – I often have it for breakfast –, but those Christmas crostini still taste different, there is something special about them.

Artichoke and green olive tapenade
Crostini neri, chicken liver paté
Sausage and stracchino crostoni (paywalled recipe)
Pittule Salentine, fried dough balls from Salento (paywalled recipe)

First Courses

It has to be fresh pasta. Tommaso as every year asks for the potato tortelli from Mugello, dressed with a robust meat sauce, either a beef ragù or a wild boar sauce. I usually prefer tortelli with ricotta, like the ones we made for our wedding, but in a festive shape like in these cappellacci. My mum and grandma are partial to lasagna.

Ricotta ravioli
Tortelli mugellani - Potato stuffed tortelli (paywalled recipe)
Butternut Squash and Ricotta Crêpes
Grandma’s Tuscan lasagna
Lasagne alla Bolognese

Main Courses

Speaking of the main course, after a decade of roasted salmon (an ‘80s legacy), it is usually meat. This year I might prepare again the stuffed pork loin, maybe adding some grated orange zest along with the dried fennel flowers. We often prepare wild boar as a main course for Christmas, doubling it as a pasta sauce. The longer the cooking, the better the result: slow braised meat is my go-to choice when we have many guests, as you can prepare it in advance and reheat it when ready to sit at the table.

Sausage stuffed pork loin
Stewed wild boar
Arista alla Fiorentina - Roasted pork loin (paywalled recipe - this is today's exclusive new recipe for our I love Toscana project)
Arista con le mele - Roasted pork loin with apples

Letters from Tuscany

L'arista alla fiorentina – Florentine style pork loin

This is an exclusive recipe for the subscribers. It is part of a serialized Tuscan cookbook that you will receive over the course of one year, a collection of tested classic Tuscan recipes to add to your cooking repertoire. Learn more about the I Love Toscana project…

a month ago · Giulia Scarpaleggia

Side Dishes

Although I absolutely adore all the Christmas food, I’m partial to the side dishes. Flans have always been a dish that can not be missed on our Christmas table. Over the years our main courses evolved from the ’80s baked salmon to a more traditional boiled meat course, from stuffed roast chicken to arista alla fiorentina, but never, ever, we sat at the Christmas table without baking a vegetable flan.

Broccoli and squash flans
Cavolo nero salad, with walnut, orange, and honey
Cauliflower flan - Sformato di cavolfiore (paywalled recipe)
Roasted baby potatoes with parsley yoghurt sauce
Tuscan braised Savoy cabbage with sausage
Fennel gratin

Desserts

To my ideal Christmas cookie box, I add the rustic Tuscan cavallucci of my childhood, made with walnuts and candied citrus peels; the tiny, chubby calzoncelli from my aunt Teresa, with their brittle outer shells and moist chocolate and almond filling; and the mostaccioli salentini from my husband’s family, dark and dense and enrobed in that chocolate glaze. Each bite is a way to travel through time and space, visit dear ones who are no longer with us, and teach my daughter the meaning of family and tradition.

Tuscan cavallucci (behold! the revised recipe is coming next week as last Christmas project!)
Calzoncelli - Chocolate and almond cookies from Basilicata
Panforte (paywalled recipe)
Il tronchetto di Natale - Yule log
Ricciarelli - Siena’s almond cookies

If you make any of these recipes, share it via email and send me a picture at juls@julskitchen.com, or on Social Media using the hashtags #myseasonaltable #julskitchen and #lettersfromtuscany, and tag @julskitchen

December Cook-Along and Live Talk

We will meet SUNDAY the 18th of December at 9 pm CEST - 3 pm EDT - 12 pm PDT. This is an event designed for those who subscribed to Letters from Tuscany. (You’ll receive the link for the live events in the next few days). It will also be the right chance to have a little Christmas party and to wish each other Merry Christmas!

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS IF YOU WILL BE THERE, SO I’LL BE WAITING FOR YOU!

We will make ricciarelli. If you want to join me and cook along with the other participants, you must prepare the ricciarelli dough on Saturday and let it rest overnight in the fridge, so that it will be ready for the Sunday Cook Along. You find all the ingredients you will need and the instructions in the working sheet below. Of course, you can also join us just for a chat, no need to cook along with us!

Ricciarelli Working Sheet

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Thank you for reading! - Giulia and Tommaso