Another Tuscan Dinner

Last night, I tried making another Tuscan dinner. This one was for two friends (including a follower of this blog) and my sister. Except for the dessert, I was happy with the results. The menu was:

- Bruschetta
- Zuppa di Fagioli (Bean Soup), from Florence
- Peposo dei Fornaciari dell'Impruneta (Peppery Stew of the Terra Cotta Tilemakers of Impruneta)
- Tegamata di Peperoni (A vegetable dish of sweet peppers, tomatoes, and pancetta), from Grosseto
- Migliacco al Miele, a cake from Arezzo
- A backup dessert of store-bought gelato because the migliaccio was blah.

All of the recipes except the bruschetta were from the cookbook - Tuscany The Beautiful Cookbook by Lorenza De' Medici, a descendant of the Medicis of Florence. While I have made a number of dishes from the cookbook and have enjoyed most of them, the two desserts I have tried have failed. The other dessert was "Coffee on a Fork." Both were very simple recipes. I think something has been lost in translation with these desserts.

The bruschetta recipe was from the URL:

http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/allthingstuscany/tuscanycious/bruschetta-recipe/

I used four plum tomatoes rather than six Tuscan tomatoes. I used ciabatta bread instead of saltless Tuscan bread because that's impossible to find here. This bruschetta turned out much better than the last bruschetta recipe I tried. I think one reason for the last failure was partially due to the fact that the bread I used was a pseudo-baguette from Publix. (The only similarities between a Publix baguette and the real thing are the name and the shape.)

The wine I served was the 2008 Villa Antinori IGT Toscana red. As always, it was very nice.

Peposo is the signature stew of the town of Impruneta near Florence. Impruneta is famous for making terra cotta tiles. The fornaciari were the operators of the kilns (furnaces) in which the tiles were made. The wives of the fornaciari would make the stew for their husbands to take to work. They would warm it in their kilns. Peposo means “peppered” because it is made with peppercorns.

This dish is from the town of Grosseto in the Maremma area of Tuscany. “Tegamata” means “potful.” In Italian, “peperoni” means “bell peppers.” The word has nothing to do with “pepperoni” the salami which is an Italian-American creation, not Italian. The one problem I had with this dish was that it called for six yellow and/or red bell peppers. The peppers I bought at Publix were huge, so I really only needed two.

There are several very different Italian dishes called, "migliaccio," including one made with fresh pork blood. This one was a simple cake.