Tuscan Summer Recipes. Eggs cooked in tomatoes and panzanella bread salad
plus, finally, the July Cook Along Announcement!
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 here and find all the recipes here. You can upgrade and get access to this, as well as all our monthly cook-along and live talks, on the link above.
Summer is in the soft shade of the two century old linden trees that tower next to the gate, in the green smell of tomato leaves, in the hypnotic chirp of cicadas in a lazy Tuscan afternoon. Summer is back, and so are we.
I don't know how this is possible, but 3 months have passed since the last cook-along. I have to blame the weather, a winter dotted with colds and seasonal bugs, and a spring bursting with cooking classes. Oh, and I didn’t have a kitchen for a while (on this matter, updates coming soon).
The cooking class season is far from coming to an end anytime soon, but I so wanted to meet you all again, so I picked the first available Sunday to gather, cook, and chat—and it will be live from my new kitchen, so you’ll have a preview, too!
We will meet SUNDAY, July 9th at 9.30 pm CET - 3.30 pm EDT - 12.30 pm PDT. This is an event designed for those who subscribed to Letters from Tuscany.
As always it is a moment when we cook together, but you can join just to have a chat, or a laugh, to ask questions, share stories, or simply listen while having a good cup of tea (or wine, according to where you are!)
This is an event designed for those who subscribed to Letters from Tuscany: we’re slowly building friendships, shared memories, and we’re definitely having lots of fun!
We will be making panzanella, the queen recipe of the Tuscan summer, the most refreshing bread salad you’ll ever taste, and we will be following the recipe from Cucina Povera. If you already have the book, you can find the recipe at page 250.
While soaking the bread (THIS! this step is essential to make an authentic panzanella!) we will talk about all the possible uses of stale bread in Italian regional cuisine, delving into the culture of stale bread salads, which is a thing in Italy!
For the occasion, I will be joined by a SPECIAL GUEST, my friend Enrica Monzani from A Small Kitchen in Genoa. While I will be making panzanella, she will demonstrate the Ligurian take on summer salads, cundijun, and she will be talking about her freshly published cookbook, The Flavors of Liguria.
If you are not already familiar with her, Enrica has been our guest before:
This is an unmissable event that will kick off the Letters from Tuscany Summer Season! 🏖️ 🍉 ☀️🍅 🥒
Panzanella, the Tuscan bread salad
Known since Boccaccio’s time as “washed bread,” this ancient Tuscan recipe was later immortalized by Renaissance painter and poet Bronzino (1503-1572), who wrote of a green panzanella made with onion, cucumber, purslane and arugula. Tomatoes were not included, as they had just been introduced to Europe from the Americas and were not yet commonplace.
In my family, we tend to make the classic panzanella, without exception. But then friends arrive, each wanting a different version. Some want a panzanella without onion, while others prefer it without cucumber. Panzanella is one of those dishes that invariably bend to the mood of the day and what’s on hand in the garden or pantry.
If you want to read more about the many Italian bread salad, there’s an archive post from last year, Anatomy of a bread salad.
Anatomy of a bread salad
This summer I made panzanella very often. I think it was due to the combination of availability of plenty of sourdough bread gone stale, and an abundance of seasonal produce from the garden: ripe heirloom tomatoes, fresh onions, crisp cucumbers, and handfuls of fresh basil leaves.
What’s your favourite summer recipe?
RECIPE. Uova al pomodoro - Eggs stewed in tomato sauce
Tuscan cooking is deeply connected to the vegetable garden and its seasonal products. In the summertime, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and zucchini are the protagonists of many of our most loved dishes: forget bistecca alla fiorentina or stewed wild boar, a variation of seasonal vegetables is what we eat at home.
Many traditional dishes preserve the freshness and flavour of the vegetables, celebrating their simplicity, such as panzanella for tomatoes, or, even more simple, pane e pomodoro.
To make pane e pomodoro, slice a crusty loaf, rub a ripe tomato on the bread, until it is stained with its pulp and juices, then drizzle with olive oil, and season with a pinch each of fine sea salt and dried oregano. Eat voraciously, with olive oil dripping on your chin.