Top 10 (or so) Gourmet Corners of Siena

Lately I have found more and more people who have stopped in Siena having even skipped Florence, which is quite surprising being in the classic triangle of "Venice - Florence - Rome". I am delighted to hear that many find Siena prettier than our neighbour guelfa.

Without sounding over-biased, there are certainly smaller hoards of tourists (or at least they manage to blend more with the bricks and the locals)  and the atmosphere is pretty unique. So I thought to compile a list of the best gourmet places which might help all those of you who would like to go back or are planning a trip soon to Siena.

Just in case you doubt my local nose and taste-buds living 600km away from it, I have done my thorough research and checked with a few affecionados who know everything about Siena, where to get the best ham and cheese, where to eat the crunchiest pizza or where to sip the best Vin Santo with a couple of cantucci.

A Panzanella in Chianti

Every time that I go back home (my other home, in Tuscany) I find myself astonished by the beauty of my birth region. Everything is drawn together in such a harmonious way that one cannot doubt the presence of a divine painter brushing colour with care and skills.

Salvia fritta - fried sage leaves

Very few know how exciting fresh sage can be. It is undoubtedly unique chopped and mixed with mashed onions and breadcrumb to flavour the dull turkey or scattered among roasted potatoes with sprigs of rosemary for a truly Mediterranean spirit.

In Siena we fry it. Can you eat raw sage?!? Yes you can, no worries. Sage is not toxic. In fact I remember the many times my mother extolled the many virtues of salvia officinalis...

Sage, or salvia (from *salvare, to save) acts as an anti-inflammatory, relieves soar throat or tooth ache, calm stress and even improves memory. I bet you won't throw away your salvia now..

Citrusy Winter Salad

I know, I must admit it. I have been really lazy during these Christmas holidays. And once again I have failed in my grand plans of hand-made food presents as I had promised. 2011 resolution? Mhmmm...

To my disculpa I can blame R. for not having brought the right camera cable, my mother's oven for playing with the temperature, my sister for dragging me into endless shopping, and...and...I think I just have the excuse of hanging the pan up and using that suitcase I left under the bed for too long.

Siena was lovely. Especially in the snow. And after. R. seemed to be the lucky one and experienced it all on his way to Tuscany; a simple 3 hour trip turned into a real Odyssey lasting more than 10 hours...but I think we can really blame the wrong type of snow.

On Boxing Day before dashing back to the airport we had lunch at my sister's future mother-in-law who despite falling into a last minute panic prepared a light but festive lunch. This salad can be done in no time and will impress your guests. It has a real Winter flavour and is very straightforward. It is a bit on the white side but with a few drops of balsamic and if you really want to be festive even a few pomegranate seeds it will acquire some cheerful colour.

Winter Salad

For 6 people

1 fennel

1 head of Belga salad

1 celery

1 lemon

1 celeriac

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

pomegrante (optional)

salt & pepper

1. Cut the fennel, celeriac and celery into thin strips.

2. Cut the salad leaves into halves or leave them whole if they are not too big.

3. Cut the rind of the lemon making sure you don't include the white part or it will be too bitter. Make the rind into thin strips.

4. Mix all the ingredients and dress well with oil and vinegar, season to taste.

5. Cut the pomegranate into half and whack the bottom of each half to help the seeds fall out of their little holes. Sprinkle the seeds over the salad before serving.

6. If you want to be extravagant (and found it in your Christmas stocking!), you can also either grate a few slices of white truffle on the salad or scatter a few drops of truffle oil. The truffle will give a real earthy and scented taste. Carluccio or Olio & Farina sell the truffle oil for what it seems a lot of money, as for the same price you can buy 2 litres rather than 50ml, but it does last long as it would be too strong to use as you use other oils.

The snow to my disappointment and to the joy of my family (as otherwise they couldn't move the car and leave the house) melted away quite quickly leaving us in a Tuscan bleak mid-winter.....

More chocolate

I did warn you that more recipes involving chocolate would have followed. I hope I will make some of my followers happy!

Last weekend I was in Siena at my parents' and every time I'm there I feel that I need to cook something for them. It might be as a way of thanking my mother and be in charge of the kitchen for a tiny bit after she slaves behind the cookers for days; or it might be to finish up some of the ingredients that lay around the cupboards for months (if not even years!) until complete putrification....my father and I have often suspected that my mother was running for the Nobel prize in medicine of moulds.

So before the Easter egg chocolate started acquiring that suspicious grey colour I decided to go through a wonderful book on chocolate that my mother has on her "cooking library" which must contain more than 150,000 recipes! And made dark chocolate tartlets. On Sunday the weather looked rather dodgy and inspired a real oven session instead.

The day before though the sun was shining and the temperature scarily warm. So I suggested to go and inspect the castle where my sister is planning to organise her wedding. I thought that was my duty of older sister....the photos below were sneakily taken in the garden.

In the garden there was an amazing tree that the owner claimed her son normally climb until the very top - that is something that needs to be tested...maybe not during the wedding though!

But back to our chocolate treat. The recipe is quite simple. What you need to make sure you do is to leave the base dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or it will be all floppy and difficult to arrange on the moulds.

Dark Chocolate Tartlets

Makes 6 medium tartlets

200g flour

100g cocoa powder

3 eggs

200g butter

100g caster sugar

200g dark chocolate

20dl cream

10 dl milk

1 egg

1. Make the base first. Mix the butter with the egg and whisk well. Mix the cocoa to the flour and sift them to the wet mixture.

2. Work quickly the paste and form a ball. Cover it with foil and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (up to 2 hours).

3. Prepare the cream. Melt the chocolate at baigne-marie and then add the cream/milk and the beaten egg. Whisk well to ensure everything gets incorporated.

4. After the cooling time in the fridge, remove the base and use it to cover the bottom and sides of 6 tartlet moulds which you will have greased and floured before to avoid the pasty sticks to the bottom.

5. Cover the pasty with silver foil and fill them with dry beans so that the pasty won't raise while it is cooking. Don't pour the beans without the foil as I did once!

6. Cook them in the oven for 8 minutes. Once they are cooked, remove the beans and foils and set aside to cool down for a couple of minutes.

7. Fill the bases with the chocolate cream (if it has formed a foil on the surface, just whisk the cream again) almost up to the top leaving half a cm.

8. Cook the tartlets in the oven at C180 for 10 minutes.

9. Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool on a rack for at least 1 hour. Sprinkle before serving them with icing sugar.