If you’re planning a visit to Tuscany in Autumn, you’re in for a treat! With the landscapes showing off the charming Autumn palette, it’s lovely to drive around the countryside enjoying the colours of Fall. And, for anyone who loves its food, there are other good reasons to come to Tuscany in Autumn.
Seasonal delicacies like mushrooms, truffles appear on the menus, and you can try all sorts of traditional recipes made with local chestnuts. Earthy soups and spicy meat stews are perfect to be enjoyed on a cold evening with a good glass of Chianti. Autumn is also when the new olive oil is made, after the olive picking in November, and the the new wine can be tasted.
Here I want to share with you 5 of my favourite dishes to try in autumn during your trip to Tuscany. Recipes that I’ve enjoyed as a child in my granny’s kitchen, and refined dishes that fill the Autumn meals with a special kind of magic.
5 Tuscan Dishes to Try in Autumn
Tagliata with Porcini mushrooms
If you eat meat, this is a Tuscan dish that you absolutely must try. What is tagliata? A boneless piece of tender beef (our region is famous for its top-quality meat) which gets pan-seared then sliced thinly and usually served with chopped rosemary, shavings of Parmesan cheese, and a drizzle of olive oil. It’s very good this way, but if you add some porcini mushrooms, you bring it to another level!
During mushroom season, the earthy nutty porcini are sauteed and served on top of the tagliata, to create a perfect combination of flavours. The tenderness of the meat matches the fragrant taste of the mushrooms. Order a good Chianti Classico wine and you’ll have… Tuscany on a plate.
Do you like mushrooms but not meat? Porcini are heavenly also when eaten as a side dish. I love them fried, a sinful delight.
October and November are a great time to go wine tasting, and see the vineyards all dressed up for the fall, with all the shades of orange and red covering the hills. The Chianti region, with its beautifully combed vineyards, offers some of Tuscany’s most spectacular Autumn landscapes, and a range of wine tasting opportunities, form ancient castles to family-run wineries.
Tagliolini al tartufo – Truffle delight
When I see this on the menu, I can’t resist. Truffles are not something you get to eat often, but when they’re in season I enjoy the simple dishes made special with this peculiar ingredient that grows in certain areas of Tuscany. Because of its pungent taste and distinctive flavour (somewhere between earthy, musky and sweet) truffles are used sparsely, and used to garnish delicately flavoured elements like eggs or pasta.
Tagliolini is a type of egg pasta, quite thin (thinner than tagliatelle), that goes very well with truffles. Once the pasta is cooked, fresh truffles are shaved on top and made sweeter by abundant butter. A creamy intriguing dish, for refined tastebuds!
The top areas for truffles in Tuscany are the hilltop towns of San Miniato, Volterra, and the Crete Senesi region, south of Siena. During Autumn the most famous truffle festivals are held in these areas.
Castagnaccio – Tuscan Chestnut Cake
Chestnuts have a place of honour in Tuscan culinary tradition, particularly in the mountainous areas where chestnut trees grow aplenty. Chestnuts were the base of a peasant’s diet, a cheap and nutritious ingredient used for many preparations like bread, pasta, polenta as well as sweet treats. They can also be boiled or roasted them on the fire, to make bruciate. I absolutely love these with a glass of Vino Nuovo.
If you visit areas like Mugello or Garfagnana you’ll be able to try many traditional (and unexpected) recipes made with chestnuts – like chestnut ravioli, soups or necci – but here I want to introduce you to a simple chestnut cake that my granny used to make. Today you find it in bakeries, trattorie or even at supermarkets all around the region, during the months of November and December.
It has many names and variants depending on the area, but the base ingredient is the same: chestnut flour. Castagnaccio (in Florence we also call it migliaccio) is soft and thin, the colour is dark brown, and the traditional recipe uses raisins, pine nuts, and rosemary. No butter, no eggs, but abundant olive oil. A good simple sweet treat from the nonna’s kitchen. To be eaten with your hands!
Chestnut trees grows at high altitudes, so in Tuscany mountainous areas like Casentino, Mugello, Garfagnana, Pistoia mountains have a tradition of cooking with chestnuts. The “Marroni del Mugello” IGP and “Marroni di Caprese Michelangelo” DOP are the VIP’s of Tuscan chestnuts.
* Discover the Top Chestnut Festivals in Tuscany
Ribollita – Traditional Tuscan Soup
I have to include ribollita because it’s one of my favourite Tuscan dishes of all times. And also because when temperatures gets colder, and the Autumn rain appears, what could be best than a deliciously thick soup to warm your heart? Ribollita comes straight from the peasant kitchen. Creative cooking that comes from having a few poor ingredients, some left over and stale bread that needs to be eaten. Italian grandmothers were queens of cucina povera, inventing delicacies using simple ingredients from the pantry.
The base ingredients of ribollita are: stale Tuscan bread, cannellini beans (a top favourite in the region!) and Tuscan kale, or cavolo nero, plus a few more veggies (recipes varied depending on what was available).
Remember: the name Ribollita means ‘reboiled‘. Tuscan kale soup is supposed to be boiled twice, on the stove of course. It can be served very hot or lukewarm, with abundant Tuscan extra virgin olive oil. And one more thing… whatever you do, don’t add parmesan!
Schiacciata con l’Uva – Flat bread with grape
This “cake” reminds me of the vendemmia, the grape harvest (I took part once when I was a student, hard work but fun!), at the end of the Summer, and the first days back at school in September. The grape used for this Tuscan treat are the same varieties used to make wine; Cannaiolo or Sangiovese, both small with an intense red colour. This gives the cake the intoxicating flavour and juiciness.
Traditionally, it’s the dough used for bread to which sugar and abundant grape are added. Today if you come to Tuscany in September or beginning of October you find different versions, some (revisited versions) are a bit softer and more fluffy, or use seedless grape, others follow tradition more closely and have the firm texture of flat bread.
My favourite version is the one that we used to make at home, in the wood burning cooker, definitely on the crunchy side – I love it with abundant olive oil, a bit of rosemary, and also all the grape seeds!
Where to eat it? Mainly in Florence, and the Chianti area. A couple of places where you can find a genuine schiacciata con l’uva in Florence: inside Sant’Ambrogio Market, at Chicco di Grano artisanal bakery, or Antico Forno Giglio in Via Gioberti.
READ ALSO:
* Top Autumn Food Festivals in Tuscany
* 6 Good Reasons to Visit Tuscany in Autumn
* 10 Best Things to Do in Tuscany in Autumn
Author: Sabrina Nesi, founder of Lovefromtuscany.com, passionate about sharing the beauty of Tuscany and Italy with the world.
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