After playing hide and seek and grab the grapes with the statues at il mostra artigianati in Firenze, I met up with Judy Witts Francini, aka Divina Cucina, for a walk around town–HER town: Firenze where she lived for many years; now she lives in a small town in rural Tuscany. Judy may have been born and raised in California, but from the moment she arrived in Italy many years ago, she was home. If you are going to hang out in Firenze and/or Tuscany, you couldn’t choose anyone better than hanging with Judy (www.divinacucina.com) .

We started off just walking around……walking around in Italy is as delectable as eating or drinking or listening to the gorgeous music of the language, and actually walking around is a great way to do it all.

I snapped photos, one here, another there, along the way: little morsellettes of a day out in firenze: a chalk-board bar snack menu…….fabulous building (Firenze is filled with them)……..very cute (stuffed) wild boar at a table set up in a deli–the term Norcia in a shop is usually an indication of salumi and other fabulous cured pork meats inside, often truffles, too……

Below you can see Judy in one of the most fragrant of shops, a Norceria: named after the people of Norcia famed for turning a pig into an array of the most luscious of salamis, and other cured meats. A Norceria is the kind of shop that simply walking in makes you realize: I’m in Italy! to be more clear: can you smell the salumi? but first: look at that mortadella gigante! then, the little plate at the right is full of samples of mortadella: fresh fragrant pistachio-studded mortadella. sigh. Don’t you love when mortadella is cut into small chunks instead of slices! for some reason when you bite into it and chew the little chunks, you taste a whole different flavour and aroma, feel a completely different texture between your teeth. it goes without saying that both are delicious in their own ways. I especially love to use chunks of mortadella in a flat omelet/fritatta, its something like the best “fried bologna you ever ate as a child transformed into your new best friend forever”. i mean: its delish!

One of the most iconic treats of the Mercato San Lorenzo, Firenze’s central market, is a sandwich made up of thinly sliced tripe, slathered in sauce and nestled inbetween slabs of gorgeous fresh bread. Here we are standing in line as the patron slices, hands out sammies……

As explained so well by  Judy: “the lampredotto is the 4th of the 4 cow stomachs– the other 3 are the white tripe which are more traditional. In florence, the lampredotto–which is more beefy in flavor and texture– is used for the sandwiches. It is the “Street Food” of Florence.”

and here is a tavola calda, an assortment of already prepared foods, to eat here or to take home: grilled vegetables, sauced and stewed meats, there is a little table on the right if you’d like to sit down right here and nosh!

the artichokes—the most divine, tiny little all-heart artichokes were in season at the mercato centrale. The vegetable stand owner told me he would choose the best for me! and he filled up a huge bagfull; that is the vegetable man hugging me to the right. he is so sweet! and his artichokes: his artichokes lasted and lasted, we ate them fried and sliced, in salads and in stews, with chicken and with fish and with pasta. we ate them and ate them and ate them. and when they were gone, all i wanted to do was return to firenze, and buy more.

Next stop: lunch at the cozy delicious Pepo on via Rosina: Judy to your left, on the right is food writer Julia della Croce, who writes about (mostly Italian) food for a wide variety of publications including a column in Zester Daily. Among Julia’s books is a pasta book, published by Dorling Kindersley, that was my pasta bible for years, its THAT good.

This snapshot was taken right before we order nearly everything in the restaurant–okay there were about 8 of us. so it was perfect. We ate lasagne, fresh pasta sheets layered between rich meaty ragu and creamy bechamel; spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and a few sprigs of basil, crisp fried little artichokes; a slice of polpettone–like a giant meatball, aka meatloaf–with roast potatoes and a tiny bowl of homemade mayonnaise that i started out by dabbing it onto the meat, then the potatoes, and ended up spooning it out of the bowl and eating just as it is. It was lush. Mega luscious. We ate porchetta, and crisp raw vegetable salad and i think there was even a plate of agretti, the plump strands of greens popular from Roma to Tuscany, with a flavour somewhere between samphire and green beans.

If you look on your right, just behind Judy you might see the most adorable little boy ever. Here is what he ate: the biggest ripest tomato salad ever. with a little basil. About 7 years old, with great seriousness and gusto, he ate his way through the tomatoes, forking thoughtfully, happily, and finally, at the end of his tomato-fest, taking a slab of bread and wiping up the juices before happily munching it. Everyone who moans and wails about how to get children to eat their vegetables needs to take lessons from this little boy.

And THEN……THEN we went to il Mercato Centrale– the central market San Lorenzo, near Santa Maria Novello, to the second floor which has just been redone as a food court/food hall, with a zillion tastes to savour and sips to enjoy, as well as a cheese counter (they make their own buffalo mozzarella from milk brought in every morning from Campania, the BEST bread in firenze (a French baker! he makes his levain from vin santo), as well as cooking classes. Oh, and did i mention the incredibly cute little brothers and their tramezzini shop: tramezzini being tradition small sandwiches on sliced bread kept fresh and soft by being covered with a damp towel, the insides stuffed with perky little fillings. Theirs are delightful.

Here is the logo for il mercato CENTRALE;  and here is Judy with Umberto Montana, the creative brains behind the renovation and creation of this amazing place. Umberto is a food guy, a design guy, a journalist and artist and people-loving italian food-loving Firenze-loving guy! To say that there is something here for everybody doesn’t even come close. There is SO MUCH here for everybody, even sweet Umberto himself!

Walking around the large, airy, high ceilinged space, i see prosciutti hanging, ready to be sliced off, their salty-sweet flesh melting as you eat it, accompanied by a glass of local wine. (the wine shop is amazing!). How proud the sommelier is of his choice, a fabulous rose.

The counter for the Gorgeous chocolates and other confections: big bows, elegant chic packaging, smooth seductive chocolately goodness.  The thing about chocolates, candies and confections in Italy is that they are gorgeous: they LOOK gorgeous, they TASTE gorgeous, and they make ME FEEL GORGEOUS as I take a bite and let that smooth chocolate melt…….Okay, slapping myself out of it……here are the two brothers who run a legendary stand selling the iconic Firenze market treat, Lampredotto: These guys inherited their tripe-making artistry; their grandfather was also a tripaio.

The “boys” take huge pride in the quality of their lampredotto. I had been hearing about lampredotto from italians who were waxing lyrical. I  couldn’t believe i had never eaten it before! However, when i realized what it was, i knew exactly why i had never eaten it: lampredotto is long cooked tripe. I was scared. i don’t like tripe. BUT you know, the boys were so cute and sincere, and this is served on thick bread or a roll, with spicy sauce. I was getting interested. The tripe cooks long and slow and ends up tender, fragrant rather than….well, you know tripe. so there it is, fragrant, and meaty, kinda like boiled beef in the most beautiful way possible,  and at this point it is all about the sauce: or in this case, the sauces, as there were three: a salsa verde: garlicky herby tangy delish, a red sauce that was spicy but not unbearably hot, and best of all: a tonnato sauce, a thick creamy puree of tuna, with capers and evoo. You can’t see it here but i licked my plate. Oh, God, everyone is so happy at il Mercato Centrale. I don’t know if its the delicious food (which is everywhere) or if they are just super-happy to see Judy (i’m sure of that too).

Someone brought us a pizza, truly neapolitan in all ways, from the ingredients to the oven to the guys were made them: this margharita, puffy lightly charred crust, topped with san marzano tomatoes and mozzarella, with a leaf or two of basil just because.

I love this spacey art deco lamp; the tramezzini guys also sell vintage furniture.

And THIS dessert: this dessert: buffalo mozzarella ice cream with candied cherry tomatoes, and basil syrup, and crisp sweet-toasted crostini. The flavours were familiar: tomatoes, mozza and basil, but the form and textures: dessert, melting where it should be chewy, chewy where it might be juicy, sweet where it might be herby, was completely different. And though i’m a little bit of a pendant on tradition for such iconic foods, this is a beautiful combination, the sweet concoction as blissful in its own way as the more familiar savoury one. If you would like to walk Firenze and/or the mercato centrale with Judy, contact her via her website. She also does tours of the Tuscan countryside, and classes with a variety of local and legendary chefs, as well as teaching her own.  her blog is Over a Tuscan Stove (adventures in Tuscan cooking and eating)  chez her website   http://www.divinacucina-blog.com/   and if you’re headed to Chianti she has an app for you!

And drop me a line if you’re going; maybe i’ll meet you there:  its always time for my return!

Tonnato Vinaigrette/Dip/Sauce

“The boys”, the tripe boys that is, served a tonnato sauce with their lovely braised tripe, a sort of riff on the classic: vitello tonnato, the summery dish from around Piemonte, the thick tuna sauce napping thin thin slices of cold braised veal. Of course you could serve it with turkey, chicken or pork instead: any white meat. Once, I ran a recipe in my column, The Roving Feast and recieved a letter from a reader yelling and screaming about how on earth could I concoct such a crazy dish of all-white as this (stupid) dish of meat with tuna sauce. what was wrong with me, was i nuts? who on earth could have come up with such a thing???? The reader was thoroughly convinced of her own culinary superiority against mine and against my utterly ridiculous as anyone could see, invention. Who on earth could come up with such a crazy dish, indeed!

And so I always get a perverted sense of pleasure whenever I eat this utterly classic dish, less invented rather than evolved over time, with no embellishments, a dish from the traditional Piemonte table: vitello (or turkey, pork, etc) tonnato. It is a rich dish, the thin slices of meat napped with rich thick tuna sauce. Because of this richness it is served in small portions, usually as part of the antipasto selection but I find, when the weather is hot and i’m really really in the mood, it makes the best summer lunch, with a handful of little greens such as baby arugula, and salty black olives scattered around the plate.

The combination might not look brilliant colourwise–slightly off-white on off-white, but tastewise? lush, completely and beautifully lush: the tuna is preserved which intensifies its flavour, pureed in a mayonaise-y mixture of olive oil and aromatics, a little egg yolk (or a spoon or two of good mayo), and hit it with capers as you whizz it up. Capers+tuna just combine into some sort of alchemistry: is it because the caper grows on the land which meets the sea where the tuna swims? I can wax lyrical here, but probably its just because both are preserved and salty and delicious.

Thick, the sauce can be eaten as a dip for raw vegetables, thinned down with vinegar or lemon juice, it makes a wonderful vinaigrette: I love eating it tossed with a lettuce-y salad, alongside a slab of porchetta. You MUST remember this next time you’re thinking of roasting pork!!!

1 tin tuna, in brine, drained
2/3 cup mayo
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2-3 tablespoons capers in brine
lemon juice (1 lemon?)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
extra vinegar for salad

Last Autumn when I returned from Poland, I was thinking about pierogi: thinking about the amazing pierogi i ate in the region of Gdansk and Sopot, about how wonderful and varied and ubiquitous they are, and also about how they were usually served plain, with a little butter, or with a luscious sauce, not with sour cream as they often are in the USA.

Thinking about that, i began serving pierogi all sorts of different ways: in clear broth, with wild mushroom sauces, dabbed in miso butter, i mean, you know me: limited by geography? i don’t think so.

Last night, noting that i had celeriac in my fridge, a new pot of tarragon on the window sill, and a half bag of pierogi (Russian, or Russkie: stuffed with potatoes and fresh cheese), i decided to make an impromptu stew. I would imagine the soup/stew would be good with any sort of savory pierogi, but i like the heft of the potato and the tanginess of the cheese. To be honest, Russkie pierogi are my faves, with mushroom (wild) a close close second. hmmmm then there is spinach. and sauerkraut, how did i forget sauerkraut? I mean, IS there a pierogi that isn’t delicious?

In the soup itself i had a secret ingredient: a bouillion cube made from Italy (often by the Star company), based on porcini mushrooms. I had to admit that while i usually eschew flavouring powders, etc, these stock cubes are little umami bombs of pure porcini flavour, served up with a generous dose of salt. I often use them as a base for a soup, or crumble a bit into a mushroom sauce to wildness, flavourwise.

Celeriac and Carrot Stew, with Pierogi Russkie and Tarragon

Serves 2-3 as a main course

About 1/2 a very big celeriac, or a whole small to medium one

1 big or 2 small to medium carrots

1/2 onion, cut into chunks

1 porcini bouillion/stock cube or other stock/broth of your choice

About 3 cups/750 ml water if using cubes, stock/broth if using stock or broth….

About 12 russian pierogi: with potatoes and fresh cheese

1 green/spring onion, thinly sliced

several sprigs: up to 2 tablespoons, fresh tarragon leaves

Peel/scrape the celeriac and carrots, then cut into thick slices or chunks. Place in pot with the onion, stock cube and water or stock/broth. Bring to boil then reduce heat and cook, covered, until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes depending on how large the chunks. Set aside until you are ready to serve.

Just before serving, heat the soup; cook the pierogi according to directions, then drain and add the pierogi to the soup/stew. Sprinkle with green onion, and serve right away.