Among all Italy’s regional delicacies, Tuscan cuisine is more well known because of the many visitors we host as well as the numerous tuscan Trattorie spreading abroad. Everybody appreciates the simple and tasty dishes of Tuscan cuisine, based on local products and traditional recipies evidence of the peasant world of Tuscany from a heritage centuries old.
How can you forget the charcoal-grilled T-bone steak you had at that trattoria in Siena or Florence? …or the merenda consisting of spicy salamis, prosciutto and melon and pecorino cheese with raw broad beans that you were offered while wine tasting in the Tuscan countryside ? Our beef is from the chianina breed originally from the Valdichiana valley, located just south of Siena. A large cattle used for centuries both for farming our unique land and for official and religious ceremonies because of its pure white coat.
Our pork is from the cinta breed of pig named after its black stripes (cinta meaning belt in Italian) famously represented in the frescos of Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Good Government of the 14th century (Gli effetti del Buon Governo, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena) as a symbol of the Sienese countrylife of the time. This special breed has remained a precious ingredient of Siena’s rustic, “peasant” diet. Our pecorino cheeses are produced from the milk of a local breed of sheep, small and agile compared to the larger north European species bred mainly for their meat. These smaller sheep can be found grazing Tuscan hills, continually moving from one pasture to another under the protective watch of the white maremma shepherd dogs. Sheep breading around Siena has traditionally concentrated in the mountain-like areas – less suitable for agriculture – such as the Montagnola (east of Siena near Sovicille) and the more well known Crete and Valdorcia (south of Siena, towards Pienza).
In an attempt to capture all of this–the food and their sources and history–in our photographic tour that will take you to meet the people who dedicate their lifes to make these wonderful sienese products: small and family-run farms immersed in the beautiful sienese countryside.
Come to visit us, find them and …
Buon Appetito !
Spannocchia Estate, located at Chiusino in province of Siena.
Ham curing cabinet.
Cinta Senese Pig ham.
View of the castle at Spannocchia Estate.
La Fratta farm in Sinalunga (Siena).
La Chianina, Fierli Farmhouse in Foiano della Chiana in province of Siena.
Nicola Fierli Portrait.
A selection of pictures of Fierli Farmhouse in Foiano della Chiana.
La Fratta Estate, Sinalunga (Siena).
A portrait of the owner of La Fratta Estate.
La Fratta Estate, Sinalunga (Siena).
The butcher shop of the farmhouse.
Chianina meat at the butcher shop.
The butcher slices Chianina meat.
Meat sliceat the backroom of the butcher shop.
Refrigerateing room of the butcher shop.
Minced Chianina meat.
Chianina meat hamburger.
The restaurant “La Toraia”.
Chianina tartare served at the restaurant “La Toraia”, located at the Estate.
The entrance of Antica macelleria Cecchini in Panzano in Chianti in province of Florence.
Aperitif served at Antica macelleria Cecchini in Panzano in Chianti in province of Florence.
L’Officina della bistecca of Dario Cecchini, the owner of Antica macelleria Cecchini in Panzano in Chianti in province of Florence.
