Magnets on a Fridge #4

A random collection of links, books, and recipes

Summer means panzanella and caprese on repeat

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Welcome to the fourth issue of Magnets on a Fridge, a random collection of things worth reading/cooking.

After the unbearable heat of mid-July, the season turned into one of those perfect summers with clear skies, cool nights, fresh air, and long days. Even though we're still working—albeit we are on a summer break with classes—I manage to carve our pockets of holidays: a morning walk, an hour on the sofa reading a cookbook, or a late afternoon chat in the garden with my family. Blessed are the nonni who take care of Livia while we work!

So what happened in our life in the past two months along with many, many cooking classes and several exciting food discoveries in my hometown, Colle Val d’Elsa?

• We launched our brand-new e-course, Food Writing: Share Home Recipes with the World, on Domestika. If you join now, it is heavily discounted.

• We also introduced our 3-day Seasonal Cooking Masterclass, for a deep dive into Italian cuisine: having classes in the summer is getting more and more challenging, so we want to offer a new immersive experience for the autumn and winter months. Read more about them here.

• I finally sit down to record a new podcast episode, Why I’m asking you to skip Florence on your next trip to Tuscany, and that sparked a very interesting conversation here on Substack in the comments.

• In recent months, the most appreciated newsletters have been Don’t Underestimate a Recipe, An Ode to Ada Boni, and Learn how to cook Stanley Tucci's cod recipe that moved Robert Downey Jr. to tears (I see why!)

And now, let’s start, I collected something to share with you. This is going to be a long list, so get comfortable and enjoy reading!

Something to read and listen to about Cucina Povera

Thanks to your precious support and love, Cucina Povera is on the second printing! A cookbook with more than 100 soul-satisfying recipes, that celebrates the best of the Italian peasant cooking, where every recipe is more than the sum of its ingredients.

Cucina Povera is on discount on Amazon right now! Or pick up your copy here.

Here you can read something that has been published about Cucina Povera in the last month:

• Four chefs share their nostalgic summer recipes on Hush Magazine. The article features my recipe for pappa al pomodoro from Cucina Povera. Pappa al pomodoro is my ideal summer comfort food, glistening with extra-virgin olive oil and perfumed with the heady smell of basil.

• Three New Cookbooks Explore the Reality and Diversity of Italy and Its Food on Eater. Elena Valeriote has written such a brilliant article about Cucina Povera, Pomegranates & Artichokes: A Food Journey from Iran to Italy, by

  Saghar Setareh
  , and Portico: Cooking and Feasting in Rome’s Jewish Kitchen, by
  Leah Koenig
  .

• Tastemakers: Giulia Scarpaleggia from Juls’ Kitchen. An interview about Cucina Povera, our classes, and my most memorable meal.

• I was on the Flavor of Italy Podcast speaking with

  Wendy Holloway's Flavor of Italy
  about Cucina Povera. You can read it here and listen to the episode here.

Here on the blog all the links to pick your copy of Cucina Povera. And if you spot the book in a bookstore, please snap a pic for us, it will be like travelling vicariously through your photos!

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A sneak peek of our home kitchen during preserving time.

Something to cook/preserve

In the past years, I used to devote whole days to preserving: I ended up with a messy kitchen, a stack of jars for the winter, and the impelling urge to sleep for a week. It was satisfying and gruelling, but I enjoyed those moments to bits. Now, trying to work with a young daughter at home from school, it’s basically impossible to allocate long days to preserving.

So, I started carving out moments during the day when she is with my mum and I am working at my computer. Rather than canning the whole supply for the winter, I worked on small batches of tomato sauce, pesto, and jams.

This is what I’ve been cooking and preserving on the margins.

Pomarola. Quicker to make than pelati or puréed tomatoes, pomarola is a tomato sauce with celery, carrot, and onion. Perfect to use those tomatoes in your vegetable box that are getting a tad too ripe. In the winter, simply open a jar of pomarola and dress your favourite pasta (a knob of butter is my mum’s secret touch here).

Limoncello. With the unexpected number of classes we had this year, I quickly went through my limoncello reserve, so I had to prepare some more limoncello for my fall and winter classes. I’ll be sharing my recipe in Friday’s newsletter for our paying subscribers (thank you all!)

Basil Pesto. If during the classes I picked my basil sparingly, yesterday I went heavy on my basil plants, as it will have two weeks to grow again before the next classes. Pasta al pesto is Livia’s favourite dish, something she eats even on her worst days (she is not the easiest child when it comes to mealtime). So I have to make sure I have enough pesto in the freezer for the winter months.

Yellow plum jam. We picked a basket of yellow plums from our plum tree, and I’ll be making a batch of jam soon. That’s the only jam I made this year so far, as I had still plenty of jam left from last year.

Have you read, cooked or watched anything interesting lately that you want to share with us all?

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Three favourite newsletters on Substack

I haven’t been reading many books in the past months (except Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch, by Erin French, which I absolutely loved). But I read newsletters. Many. Some of these newsletters are cherished appointments during the week.

A Private Chef.

Will Cooper

is a chef and writer from rural England. Every post is an inspiration for fresh new flavours. Did you know you could make a pesto out of zucchini leaves? Or what about blackcurrant wood oil? I learn to make the most epic roast chicken thanks to his recipe.

Edible Living, by

Sarah Copeland

. Sarah has an unmistakable, strong voice, a sense of place that draws you in, that makes you want to read further, and cook whatever she writes about: crispy fried zucchini, cornbread, oven-baked chicken with lemon and olives… Is she my favourite food writer on Subtack? Probably. When I read her recipes, all I want is to share a table with her.

To Vegetables, With Love, by

Hetty Lui McKinnon

. If you are drawn in by a sense of community, this is the newsletter you want to read. You’ll find vibrant recipes with seasonal vegetables, collections of curated links, and Hetty’s warm voice to welcome you.

Cheers to all our beloved subscribers

Why you should consider upgrading your subscription and the launch of the Referral Program

We’re trying to keep things as free as possible, but if you are at a point in your life to support our newsletter becoming a paid subscriber, would be a perfect time, as there is great content coming in the next months.

With your subscription, you support us directly.

We’re slowly but steadily working to shape our family business into what is more sustainable for us: our cooking classes, our cookbooks (we’re working on a new cookbook proposal at the moment! Finger crossed!), and this newsletter.

For us, it’s like having our own independent publication, a way of sharing great content, and recipes that we like, created to inspire you, to bring a little taste of Italy to your kitchen, for you and for your family.

When you subscribe, in addition to the free newsletter, you will receive:

• Exclusive content inspired by ingredients, seasons, or traditions every week. Just a few examples of recipes we already shared: rice puddings tartlets, Artichoke and pecorino tart, saffron tagliatelle with artichokes, ham and mozzarella stuffed thin focaccia from Siena, and many more.

• complete access to the whole newsletter archive (the archived posts older than 1 year old are slowly getting behind a paywall),

• behind-the-scenes voice memos or videos,

• you can take part in the monthly Live Talks and Cook Along.

If it is not a good moment for subscribing, you can support us by becoming an ambassador of our work and sharing the newsletter with your family and friends or on social media, or buying our cookbook, Cucina Povera. Speaking of this…

We launched the Referral Program.

Substack has recently introduced subscriber referrals. As a reader, I’m happy about this opportunity, as I can support my favourite writers by sharing their work and get, at the same time, special benefits such as complimentary subscription months. Now we enabled the referral program for Letters from Tuscany, too.

How does it work? When you use the referral link below, or the “Share” button on any post, you'll get credit for any new subscribers. Simply send the link in a text, or email, or share it on social media with friends.

When more friends use your referral link to subscribe (free or paid), you’ll receive special benefits.

• Get a 1-month comp for 3 referrals

• Get a 3-month comp for 5 referrals

• Get a 6-month comp for 25 referrals

You can track reward progress and find out more about the Referral Program on my Leaderboard tab.

Thank you for helping get the word out about Letters from Tuscany!

September Cook-Along

We will meet SUNDAY, September 17th at 9.00 pm CET - 3.00 pm EDT - 12.00 pm PDT. What are we going to cook? That’s up to you! You have one week to cast your vote.

This is an event designed for those who subscribed to Letters from Tuscany: we’re slowly building friendships and shared memories and having lots of fun!

As always, it will be a moment when we cook together, but you can join just to have a chat, or a laugh, ask questions, share stories, or simply listen while having a good cup of tea (or wine, according to where you are!)

Pici all’aglione for everyone!

Favourite dishes during the Summer classes

Hot, it has been hot. We adapted our menus to the sultry weather, favouring quick dishes like caprese, panzanella, and roasted fruit.

Here you can find some of the recipes we’ve been cooking in recent classes, something you could replicate at home for a Summer gathering:

• Fried Sage Leaves. Fried sage leaves are probably the easiest appetizer you can serve to open a summer Tuscan meal. They are usually paired with other fried goodness, such as zucchini flowers or leftover slices of stale bread.

• Pici all’aglione. Pici are thick, hand-pulled spaghetti from Valdorcia, made just with flour and water. I often toss them in a punchy aglione sauce, made with a local variety of garlic, huge, sweet, and delicate.

• Panzanella, the local, Tuscan bread salad. Here’s my recipe from Cucina Povera.

• Eggplant meatballs. These meatballs demand to be eaten with bread, as it would be a serious sin not to mop the sauce on your plate.

• Peperonata. A luscious, silky, sweet and sour pepper stew. I’ll be sharing the recipe soon here in the newsletter. Keep your eyes peeled!

• Any kind of fruit with mascarpone pastry cream. Over the years, I’ve grown fond of that light, delicate touch a fruit dessert gives to a meal, often a more balanced end than a slice of cake.

Cooking Experiences in Tuscany with us

Do you know we also offer in-person cooking classes and edible experiences in Tuscany? Our Fall and Winter calendar is slowly filling up, almost 400 people have already booked a class this year, and there are only a few openings in October and November. And yes, bookings for 2024 are already open, too!

Every meal will be an excuse to travel through Tuscany thanks to local recipes, memories and stories. Learn more about our cooking classes here.

We also launched our 3-day Seasonal Cooking Masterclass, for a deep dive into Italian cuisine.

These masterclasses are thought to highlight the seasonality of local produce, recipes, food traditions and cultural habits. Learn more about the Three-day Masterclass here.

2023-2024 Masterclass Dates

• 15-17 November 2023

• 13-15 December 2023

• 10-12 January 2024

• 7-9 February 2024

• 6-8 March 2024

In November we will feast on Fall products—porcini, squash, chestnuts—and we will bake pan co’ Santi, the local sweet bread studded with walnuts and raisins. In December it will be about Christmas, so we will work on a Christmas Tuscan menu, and we will bake the typical Sienese treats, from panforte to ricciarelli and cavallucci. In January and February, we will focus on winter ingredients, warming soups and stews, and we will sneak in also a couple of Carnival treats. In March we will finally focus on the early Spring vegetables and we will also introduce a couple of dishes for the upcoming Easter.

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