Food in Tuscany

There is so much to say about it…

Food in Italy is always simple, fresh and great… I love to go shopping on the markets (there are markets pretty much everywhere) and find some local delish, I love to cook the simple fresh vegetables in season. My favorite Italian vegetables are zucchini, with the flower even better), fennel, artichokes, celery, radicchio, ceps and tomatoes. I love also the fresh pasta, the million varieties of cheeses and the prosciutto and the speck… but Italy is also great for herbs and dry fruits: pine nuts, hazelnuts, pistachios depending on the region. Pisa province is a region where pine nuts are produced and I couldn’t help but try them and bring some back to Japan! Recipes using them coming soon!

While in Italy I cooked a few different and very simple meals. I am a big fan of pesto soup and minestrone, so as soon as I can I usually cook one. In particular when the fresh beans are in season. It is really simple: celery, tomato, zucchini, fresh beans is the base, then add whatever: spinach, chard, carrot, onion… cook in salted water, serve with olive oil and grated Parmigiano. Enjoy warm or cold.

Fresh pasta are always good at least so much better than anything you can find elsewhere that there is no need to make tour own!! And stuffed pasta are always my favorite. Ricotta-spinach ravioli is on the top of the list, served with either a tomato sauce or chards and basil simply blanched and then cooked in olive oil with the ravioli. An other quick and delicious recipe!

When I have more time I like to prepare risotto with fresh and seasonal vegetables. Fennels that can hardly be found in Japan make a fresh risotto served with fennel flowers picked during a stroll in the garden. An onion to start with, plenty of olive oil, the perfect risotto rice, a large fennel, vegetable broth, and here is a beautiful risotto after 30 minutes!

Here it is for my selection of simple recipes for a little dinner fix in Italy!

September 4, 2018

Tuscany

Well… I’m just back to Tokyo after spending one week in Tuscany, one beautiful week.

It was A. 5th trip and my third in the span of 9months and now is time to share a few addresses and places I really loved.

One of my strong requirement during our trips was to have a kitchen, and for all our trips except that one we stayed in Florence downtown in a very nicely furnished and large enough appartement at the Domux home Ricasoli. The location is ideal to visit the city, go shopping at Sant’Ambrogio market, San Lorenzo market as all detailed in post on Florence. It is also close to the station and to the Duomo.

This time we wanted to avoid crowd and heat so we decided to rent a house in the countryside, something a little typical of Tuscany: a farmhouse on top of a hill. The villa I picked: villa Monterosoli (top picture) didn’t disappoint us. Remote location but still less than 1h drive from all good places and my work places, very quiet and a nice view. A pool for the morning swims, and a cat visiting, some vineyards and olive groves around.

As for visiting options they are endless. I usually work in Florence and in Pisa, but there are so many options a short drive away to go for a visit for a few hours. From this summer visits I would say that San Gimignano was a great discovery, Siena’s duomo with the full pavement visible this time was amazing, and Lucca a beautiful small and lively town.

Lucca on top of its historical and classic attractions has a nice vibrant downtown with many shopping options, nice cafes, a cinema in the old villa Bottini with a broad movie selection (old and new), a contemporary art biennale which exhibited large paper sculptures in the street. It felt more crowded than the other places we visited.

Lucca contemporary art biennale: paper-art-design

View from San Gimignano’s fortified path

San Gimignano was a really great discovery, the scenic going there, the beautiful towers in the city, the churches with beautiful paintings, the paved streets, the view from the fortified path. Everything there was Tuscany at its top. And curiously it was not crowded!

And of course Siena was as beautiful as it was in February when we first visited. The Duomo this time had the full marble mosaics visible (only from mid-August to mid-September) and that was s great surprise. The modernity in the drawings and the beautiful scenes depicted with only white, ocre and black were really stunning.

And of course there are many other small villages to stop by on the way, to discover, to take a short walk, drink a coffee or a freshly squeezed orange juice (my favorite drink in Italy), such as Palaia, Monteriggioni, Greve in Chianti to only cite a few.

There are also the many farmers markets in the morning to go grocery shopping and discover some of the local products. Talk about that in my next post!!!

September 2, 2018

Paris

Going to Paris in August is always a feast! The city is empty of angry Parisian and everything is smooth and nice. Of course there is no theatre show nor opera to see, little exhibitions and some shops and restaurants are closed for the summer holiday, but who cares? It’s the best time to visit Paris to me. The parks are beautifully refreshing and quiet, no little brats to disturb the quietness, the terraces of cafe are less busy, and everything seems to move at a slower pace or in a foggy heat.

I particularly love to walk in the Luxembourg Gardens, stop here and there and look at people, those playing chess, those playing tennis, those seating and lazying, those running frantically… it was perfect because I was working at ENS and we stayed at the newly reopened Lutecia, and the best way to travel back and forth is by crossing the garden!

So one word about the Lutecia… it has always been for me a landmark on the left bank and a place I wanted to stay at. After years of renovation, it finally reopened in July and I was happy A. booked there for this trip. The renovation is in fact not fully finished and it feels like it will be better in a year or so once they will really have finished it.

One thing that I love when traveling is to do a kitchen take over if I don’t have my own kitchen, and after 3 days in Paris I was longing for cooking and took over my best friend’s kitchen for one evening. She picked a recipe she wanted me to prepare and I picked the dessert.

We ended with some gnocchi with jus d’herbe as proposed in Passedat’s book, snd a mirabelles tart. Two simple and delicious recipes.

Mirabelle tart:

– 1.5 kg of mirabelle

– flour and butter for the dough

– a little bit of sugar to sprinkle on top

Prepare the sablé dough with the flour and butter. Roll it, not too thin (mine was and couldn’t absorb all the juice) to the size of your pie dish. Wash the mirabelle and pit them. Set a thick layer of mirabelle in the dough (they will reduce, so really pack them). Sprinkle a bit of sugar. Cook in the oven for 40min at 180deg.

August 26, 2018

Away from the heat

I am quite ok with the heat in the summer, I move slowly, plan things ahead to never have to run, carry water with me and dress lightly. And if I can swim it’s perfect. I guess my body is also used to it from growing in the South of France. But little Parisian A. is more affected. So we decided to drive north a bit in the Nasu area and the Oku Nikko area for a very short refreshing time. The last time we visited the area was in 2007 in the winter, so quite a change of scenery and a few things have changed since then. Noticeably the Nikki club has closed last summer so we couldn’t stay there again, instead they have transformed the staff quarters into a much cheaper hotel called Artbiotop, where one can experience some craft activities and see the beautiful installation of Ikegami: the water garden. Overall Nasu was almost as hot as Tokyo during the day but nights were a bit cooler. It only really gets cooler when hiking mount Nasu at 1700m and in Oku Nikko by the Chuzenji lake where we visited the British and the Italian residences that have opened to the public since we first came in 2004. And of course we had yuba, a traditional product of Nikko, soba and river fishes. And we discovered by chance a very nice place to eat, while everyone rushes to Chus, the very marketed place to be downtown, we went to Cu-eri, a nice little restaurant that cooks local products with plenty of herbs in a French inspired way.

http://gentianeetantoine.com/igk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/img_7240.mov http://gentianeetantoine.com/igk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/img_7221.mov

July 23, 2018

Australia

Writing while I’m waiting to board a plane to go back home, I’m trying to reflect on this week spent in Western Australia. For the second time only in Australia I’ve found the Brisbane experience a very good one. I had the memory of a rude and rough Sidney, but it was also a long time ago… The nature and the ocean are still wild and beautiful as I reminded them from our trip in New South Wales. This time we didn’t go in any sanctuary to see and pat the animals, though I was dying to pat koalas again, they are so cute… instead we just went to see wild life in the wild, pademelons, roosters, possums, big bats, dolphins and whales along with short hikes here and there around Brisbane. To visit the city and go to work, we used quite a lot the citycycle system to avoid too much walk for my still hacking but not broken toe. It allowed to move quickly from one neighborhood to another. One thing that strikes me usually is the diversity of foreign countries but here it was quite the contrary. A lot of white people and more over blonde, a kind of Japan but whitish!!!

On the food side, not a lot of new experiences except for the already mentioned lemon myrtle that was a great discovery. A lot of local and fresh products though: delicious cheeses, fresh fruits and tropical fruits, local avocados and as it was autumn: pumpkin, sweet potatoes… One great discovery was the sunflower sprouts we bought at one of the organic store, really sweet and delicious. Very little cooking but enough to have fun and play in another kitchen.

Cooking consisted in lentil pasta with olive roasted zucchini, avocado and sunflower sprouts for dinner and coconut and buckwheat pancakes. Nothing really breath-taking but fresh and a nice change to restaurant food.

May 27, 2018

Detour @Brisbane

So, we’ve been in Brisbane for a couple of days now and we’ve tried a few places to dine out but it is not too easy to find nice restaurants in at a reasonable distance from the city center that serves local products… hopefully our friend C. found one very very nice place where we had a great dinner in a nice casual environment. The place is called Detour and is in the neighborhood of Woolloongabba, a short Uber ride from the center.

The menu features an omnivore and an herbivore section. The guys tried the crocodile dumplings, D. and I just stick to vegan/vegetarian dishes that were all excellent. The carrots had a real something different that made them amazing. The desserts, using a bit more molecular cooking were also great. I discovered lemon myrtle, a very Queensland thing, that is just something I would love to eat more and try to cook!!!

Pictures are from the restaurant website.

Detour:

6/11 Logan Rd
Woolloongabba 4102, Brisbane, Australia
07 3217 4880
enquiries@detourrestaurant.com.au

May 24, 2018

Spring savory delights

Nothing to do with the recipe I am presenting today, but the other night we went to check the newly opened Tokyo midtown Hibiya. A new building with many shops, a large Toho cinema and a terrace garden with a view on Hibiya park and the imperial palace. The place just opened so it was very crowded in apparence but the overall place was quiet and walking around was smooth and nice. Shops are for the most the same as elsewhere. Brand names, big and small, chains. Nothing really to impressive. The only thing that I found fun and interesting was the retro corner on the 3rd floor, with some craft, a barber, a book store and some sculptural clothes.

There is one trend tough that I find quite interesting. 15 years ago when we arrived in Tokyo there a few cinemas, mainly old, that little by little were closing down, until it was a real pain to find one. Recently many of the new shopping places downtown have a large dedicated cinema. Toho cinemas are really spreading and now it is really easy to find a screening in original version too. Yet movies release is still super delayed compared to other countries and we usually watch the “new” movies on the international itunes store before they are available in Japanese theaters!!! And what to eat with a good movie? Pasta or a good and simple Japanese vegan meal with rice and sautéed vegetables. To celebrate spring I really like snap peas, for the crunchy texture, the little tart and sweet taste, and the brillant green. And I also love the salted sakura flowers with rice in particular, but not only ( I made some sable last weekend and it was great!). And since I still have some lotus root (I bought a giant one!) I cooked the all thing to be served together. Sautéed in a little of oil for the lotus root, then add a little of water to steam the snap peas on top, finish with soys sauce. For the sakura, I wash the salt in water and add them to the cooked and hot rice. Serve all and eat happily while watching a movie!!

April 6, 2018

Your kitchen is mine!

Kitchen take-over in Waterloo.

I’ve been in Canada for 10 days now and I really missed cooking, so when D. and C. offered me to take-over there kitchen I couldn’t resist and I had to say Yes!!!!! Please let me cook!!! So all set, on our way back from work D. and I stopped grocery shopping. Given the season (temperatures vary basically between -10 and 2) there is not a lot of local products available but we managed to find a few simple ingredients: spinach, mushrooms, potatoes, pears. The menu was all decided: I would cook vegan for D., some spinach and mushrooms ravioli. And for dessert she wanted spicy pears. So then I went to there place and while we were chatting I took their kitchen and prepared the promised menu. It was so nice and relaxing to be in a kitchen, to touch the food, the knives and to cook for dear friends. We after that sat for a nice dinner, my last one, tomorrow I’m flying back to Tokyo!

March 24, 2018

Toronto

Until today I couldn’t really say “I’ve been in Toronto”. When I was a teenager I spent a few hours there on a trip to Niagara with my American family, I remembered the CN tower and around but that was all. So when D. and C. proposed to spend the weekend in Toronto while I was visiting Waterloo for work, I thought it was a great opportunity. A. could join for the weekend from Florence and we would enjoy what the city has to offer in the end of winter: good food, nice walks, theater shows…

We walked all over the city, from the Old Toronto to the East Bayfront, and the Distillery district, through China town to Kensington market and back to the Waterfront… stopping for a bite, a show, or design stores (on King street)…

Here are a few recommendations for enjoying you stay in Toronto.

– stay: I would recommend the Old Toronto where you can find all the big 5 stars hotels. It’s convenient to walk everywhere or so. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton. Nothing exceptional about it but great efficient service.

– coffee/breakfast: Hot Black Coffee on Queens street is a nice tiny coffee shop open early in the morning. Nice Chai latte, and a wide selection of items for breakfast: muffins, toasts…

– lunch: El Catrin is a Mexican restaurant in the distillery district, their vegetarian tacos were amazing, inventive and refreshing.

– dinner: Actinolite is THE place to eat. A restaurant with a chef that uses exclusively local and oc course seasonal products and makes an inventive, perfectly balanced menu, with the right textures and flavors, and the perfect size. Plating was also great. There is no Michelin guide of Toronto but if there was, it would surely be in with 2 stars at least.

Picture from Actinolite website

March 19, 2018