Family Meal Ideas: Seasonal Recipes from Tuscany

Review of Twelve: A Tuscan Cook Book by Tessa Kiros

Oct 17, 2009

If you love the idea of cooking with seasonal produce as the Italians do, then take a look at Twelve. This Tuscan recipe book has ideas for every month of the year.

Cooking with the seasons seems to come naturally to people in Tuscany. Fresh young nettles or asparagus are picked and added to dishes like frittata in Spring; round orange pumpkins and delicious mushrooms are used to flavour pasta in the Autumn. Many gelateria in Tuscany close for the winter (why eat ice cream when it’s cold? they reason) and no one would dream of eating Easter cakes at Christmas. So it’s not surprising that food writer Tessa Kiros, who has lived in Tuscany for several years, chose to celebrate the seasonal nature of Tuscan cuisine in her recipe book Twelve: A Tuscan Cook Book (pub Murdoch Books £16.99). The dishes she describes are generally easy to make and ideal for healthy family meals.

Introduction to Tuscan Wines

Twelve is a reference to the fact that the book contains recipes for a whole year. There are chapters for each month, with recipes for all courses of an Italian meal. And, recognising that not everyone lives in Tuscany, Tessa Kiros gives suggestions for alternatives to harder to source ingredients. For those who love Tuscan wine, there’s an introduction to the varieties produced in the region – from well-known reds like Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino and Nobile di Montepulciano, to lesser known whites like Bianco di Pitigliano.

Memories of Holidays in Tuscany

The recipes are clearly written and redolent of this gorgeous part of Italy: just reading them will bring back fond memories for anyone who has had a holiday in Tuscany. There are meaty dishes such as pappardelle alla lepre (pasta with hare) and coniglio in umido con olive verdi (rabbit with tomato and green olives), as well as dishes for vegetarians like ravioli di zucca con burro e salvia (pumpkin ravioli with butter and sage), and gnocchi verdi con panna ed erbette (green nettle gnocchi with cream and fresh herbs).

Recipes for Tuscan Chickpea Soup and Castagnaccio

Soups in Tuscany are delicious and filling – almost a meal in themselves, and this book has recipes for classics including zuppa di ceci (Tuscan chickpea soup), as well as soups made of beans, of wild mushrooms and even fish.

Amongst the desserts you can try are zuccotto, a chocolate and vanilla sponge pudding; a cake made from pine nuts (very popular in Tuscany) and castagnaccio, a cake made from chestnuts that is traditionally eaten in the winter.

Learn to Make Pasta

At the end of Twelve, Tessa Kiros has included a very useful section on making the basics. There’s a recipe for homemade pasta and a simple tomato sauce, as well as instructions on how to make Tuscan ragu (a meat sauce used in many dishes), and a fragrant herb infused olive oil.

The copyright of the article Family Meal Ideas: Seasonal Recipes from Tuscany in Regional Italian Specialties is owned by Rebecca Ford. Permission to republish Family Meal Ideas: Seasonal Recipes from Tuscany in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.