Tuscan holiday houses | Podere Santa Pia in the south of Tuscany

Abbadia San Salvatore

Abbey of Sant'Antimo

Albarese

Acquapendente

Archipelago Toscano

Arcidosso

Arezzo

Asciano

Badia di Coltibuono

Bagno Vignoni

Barberino Val d'Elsa

Beaches

Bolsena Lake

Bomarzo

Brunello di Montalcino

Buenconvento

Campagnatico

Capalbio

Castel del Piano

Castelfiorentino

Castell'Azarra

Castellina in Chianti

Castelmuzio

Castelnuovo Bererdenga

Castiglioncello Bandini

Castiglione della Pescaia

Castiglione d'Orcia

Castiglion Fiorentino

Celleno

Certaldo

Chinaciano Terme

Chianti

Chiusi

Cinigiano

Città di Castello

Cività di Bagnoregio

Colle Val d'Elsa

Cortona

Crete Senesi

Diaccia Botrona

Isola d'Elba

Firenze

Follonica

Gaiole in Chianti

Gavorrano

Gerfalco

Greve in Chianti

Grosseto

Lago Trasimeno

La Foce

Manciano

Maremma

Massa Marittima

Montagnola Senese

Montalcino

Monte Amiata

Monte Argentario

Montefalco

Montemassi

Montemerano

Monte Oliveto Maggiore

Montepulciano

Monteriggioni

Monticchiello

Monticiano

Orbetello

Orvieto

Paganico

Parco Naturale della Maremma

Perugia

Piancastagnaio

Pienza

Pisa

Pitigliano

Prato

Punta Ala

Radda in Chianti

Roccalbegna

Roccastrada

San Bruzio

San Casciano dei Bagni

San Galgano

San Gimignano

San Giovanni d'Asso

San Quirico d'Orcia

Sansepolcro

Santa Fiora

Sant'Antimo

Sarteano

Saturnia

Scansano

Scarlino

Seggiano

Siena

Sinalunga

Sorano

Sovana

Sovicille

Talamone

Tarquinia

Tavernelle Val di Pesa

Torrita di Siena

Trequanda

Tuscania

Umbria

Val d'Elsa

Val di Merse

Val d'Orcia

Valle d'Ombrone

Vetulonia

Viterbo

Volterra



 

             
 

Podere Santa Pia | Kitchen
Surroundings
       
   
 
   
   
The Tuscan cooking is sober and presents simple tastes prepared with expert mastery. With its original kitchen and the wood burning pizza oven, Casa Santa Pia offers an upbeat atmosphere.

The simplicity of dishes is bound to a cultural story of poverty and misery. The difficult conditions of life imposed the utilization of poor food on the population, that's the reason why oil is preferred instead of lard and soups are preferred instead of pasta.
The fundamental food is without doubt bread, that is present in one thousand shapes including the long loaf, the wheel, from crostini (cruncy bread) to focacce (sort of flat bread), from schiacciata (another kind of flat bread) with oil to pan di ramerino (bread dough with rasins and rosmary). Also the absence of salt once too expensive which represents the typical appearance of simplicity, of poverty that characterized the cooking traditions of this territory. It is actually with bread that Tuscan recipes are made for example: the Panzanella, bread that has been soaked in water, and blended with fresh vegetables, the pappa al pomodoro that is bread cooked with garlic, parsley, basil, salt, oil and tomatoes and the famous ribollita that is a soup boiled several times. This recipe was from peasants that warmed up the soup, which was left over from the day before.
Still nowadays in Tuscany there is a incredible historical continuance, analyzing each Tuscan city we can notice that Firenze is well known for steak, tripe, stews, doughnuts with grapes and the rags ( cenci) that were and still are cooked around Carnival time. The rags are strips of pasta fried and icing sugar sprinkled on top.
The close city of Prato is known for a different sort of cooking, where the main recipe is that of cantucci, crunchy and tasty biscuits to be soaked in a typical spirit called Vinsanto.
In Pistoia, cooking is made of minimum, simple ingredients cooked wisely.
A soup named "the prisoner" made with giblets is well remembered because it was distributed to prisoners, the so-called briachina is, instead, a green and red salad, while bertoli are apple quarters dried in the hot sun.
Lucca presents the buccellato, a mixture of water, flour, yeast, sugar, anise and raisins, the Garfagnana on the other hand is the land of spelt, the ancient Roman cereal, whose soup is on more sophisticated tables today.
In Pisa, the truffles and simple fish recipes, which include cod, or eel dominate in cookings.
The protagonist Maremma, symbolizes, once more, simplicity with a famous well known recipe called Cooked water (acquacotta) which is made of nothing, as the name suggests, which was prepared for feeding herdsman and coalmen. A soup that during the years was enriched with bread, oil, salads of the season, eggs, mushroom and a handful of percorino cheese.
Among Tuscan sweets there are the so-called brilli, that are donuts with honey on top, the so-called sospiri made of egg whites whipped, sugar and zuccata an energy jam. The high mountains offer, as main typical dish, the so-called necci that are flat breads or schiacciatine made of chestnut flour, which are cooked on iron plates and served with, for example, ricotta. On the other hand there is the plane area that offers to visitors another kind of sweet: a pastry with anise.
This sweet was defined by the historical Italian gastronomist Artusi "special delight of Tuscany" to point out the delicious taste.
   
   
 
   





Tuscan farmhouses | Podere Santa Pia