Lasagna with roasted squash, taleggio, and guanciale

and how we developed the recipe for Cecchi Winery

Oct 20, 2023

∙ Paid

Ciao, how are you feeling this early Autumn Friday? The world seems a little scarier every day, for us and especially for our children, and for all children. I do not ignore what is happening, I try to read and understand, and then I seek refuge in humble activities, grounding walks, and good food. I hope this space of ours can turn into a corner of serenity and beauty.

I’m wearing socks for part of the day, so it means that Autumn has finally arrived in this corner of Tuscany. Along with socks, a light quilt is now covering the bed, for the happiness of Teo, our shy, rescue dog, who loves nothing more than curling in between us at night.

Today’s recipe was born as a collaboration with Cecchi, a winery in the Chianti region that borders Val d’Elsa, where we live. My relationship with Cecchi dates back to 2012 when I cooked a Christmas lunch here at home for some of their employees, which then became a Christmas series on the blog with a serialized Tuscan Christmas menu paired with their wine.

Since then, we’ve created different content through the years, mainly as recipe developers, one of the aspects of our job that we absolutely love (scroll to the bottom of the email to discover those recipes).

I hope this recipe will bring you a sense of warmth and conviviality.

The history of the Cecchi family began in 1893 with Luigi Cecchi, an extremely talented wine taster. The Cecchis soon became famous abroad for their skills. In the 1970s they moved to Castellina in Chianti, in the area historically famous for the production of Chianti Classico, and there they began their wine-making adventure. In the following years, they expanded their production areas to include Maremma, the southern coast of Tuscany.

Cecchi was one of the pioneers of wine production in Maremma, where they make one of the most representative local wines, Morellino di Scansano, and various wines in the appellation (rosé wine made of Sangiovese, a white wine made of Vermentino and Merlot). The new wine introduced in 2023 is La Mora Toscana IGT, a blend of Sangiovese and Merlot.

To celebrate their new wine, we developed a recipe that could complement La Mora Toscana IGT and that well represented the idea of conviviality.

In today’s newsletter, instead of sharing directly the recipe, I’d love to shed some light on the creative process, showing you how I came up with a recipe that could complement La Mora Toscana IGT wine.

This is an aspect of our job that I adore: a pen and a notebook, my favourite cookbooks as inspiration and reference, a deep dive into seasonality and my appetite: I love to write about the things I crave in a season and a moment of my life.

How I came to today’s recipe for lasagna

Everything starts with the tasting of La Mora Toscana IGT.

Tasting notes
With an intense ruby red color and violet reflections, it presents a complex aromatic profile reminiscent of ripe red fruits and a sweet spicy note accompanied by hints of cocoa. The palate entry is ample and enveloping. The tasting experience progresses with good freshness, with well- integrated acidity and tannic structure. The finish is savory and persistent.
Food pairing
Ideal paired with cured meats and cheeses, as well as pasta dishes and main courses based on meat or flavorful vegetables.

When we tasted La Mora Toscana IGT, with the help of their pairing notes, I knew it had to be pasta—homemade pasta, as at the moment this is what excites me the most—with plenty of seasonal vegetables and some cheese. I had thus laid the outline of the dish idea, narrowing my research to one course.

Seasonality.

Even though eggplants and peppers are still the main vegetables I cook these days, as our Italian summer is stretching well into October—I won’t hide how alarming this climate situation is right now—my mental season is set into autumn, fostered by the warm, oblique light that lights up the countryside during my after-work walk.

Searching for a pasta dish based on flavourful vegetables, my mind and my appetite set on squash, roasted, with nutmeg, taleggio cheese, and maybe some crisp guanciale to match the sweet, spicy notes of the wine.

A change in appetite and season means also a shift in the herbs I use. Basil, parsley, and mint make way for the woody notes of rosemary and sage.

Sage looked especially right for the dish I was assembling in my mind, and Niki Segnit confirmed my assumption in the sage entry of her The Flavour Thesaurus.

“A rugged herb, not to all tastes. Some find it too strong, too bitter, or are put off by the medicinal associations of its camphorous-eucalyptus flavor. (…). Fresh or dried, sage has a particular affinity for dense, sweet-savory foods that benefit from its pronounced flavor and bitter finish—butternut squash, white beans, cooked onions, pork and chicken.” - The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook, by Niki Segnit

Another important aspect to include in the recipe development process is conviviality.

What food conjures conviviality for you? Is it more a soup, served with a ladle directly from the pot, a tray of roasted vegetables topped with crumbled cheese, where everyone can pick their favourite combination of vegetables, or a shrimp tartare with burrata?

What screams conviviality to me is lasagna, because I can make it in advance and just reheat it before serving, thus meaning I will be part of that convivial scene of people sitting at a table, chatting, and sharing the food, rather than being confined in the kitchen to give the last touches to a dish. Lasagna is also the embodiment of traditional family gatherings around long tables, of a crowd-pleasing food, that delights both those who like the crips corners and those who go for the creamy, buttery central pieces.

Letters from Tuscany