SOME RECIPES OF TUSCANY!

Countryside Bread Salad (Panzanella)

Known as a Tuscan peasant meal - store in a cool place, once prepared.

Soak stale Tuscan (salt free) bread in cold water for about 30 minutes (about 150g per person). Dice a cucumber, a capsicum, two sticks of celery, a carrot, two onions, two hard boiled eggs and 4 anchovy fillets. 
Squeeze out the bread with your hands and place in a salad bowl, with the other ingredients. Mix in olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Add two sliced tomatoes, some basil and mint, torn with your hands.

(Thanks to Cucina Regionale - I Sapori della Toscana)  

Tuscan bread on sale at the city's San Lorenzo food market. Photo by florencewalks.com.au 

Chestnut Cake (Migliaccio o Castagnaccio) 

Picture courtesy of Google Images

Chestnuts are a popular winter treat in Tuscany and are often sold in the streets, having been roasted on open fires.

Here's one old Tuscan method of using them.

Sieve 500g of chestnut flour into a soup tureen, slowly adding 0.75l of cold water and a few spoons of olive oil, as well as a pinch of salt.

Mix well, until it becomes a batter.

Grease a baking pan with oil and pour in the batter, sprinkling it with pine seeds, raisins and chopped walnuts.

Bake in a hot oven until a good crust develops.

(Thanks to Cucina Regionale - I Sapori della Toscana)

Picture courtesy of Google Images