Equal Time for Tuscany

Say one negative word about Tuscany and you’ll get an argument from Giuliano Bugialli. Not only was he born there (in Florence), but he’s written a book dedicated to its cuisine.

So when Bugialli spotted the words “Forget About Tuscany” in a recent Times Food section, he was predictably upset. (The phrase was the tongue-in-cheek headline on an article about neighboring Emilia-Romagna.)

“You don’t know what you are talking about . . . you make me upset about this . . . I resent this statement,” he sputtered during an interview in which he lustily praised Tuscan food, lauding its variety and boasting about its popularity in other parts of Italy.

As for variety, just consider pasta, he says. Tuscans make the dough in countless ways--with chestnut flour, with farro (wheat-berry) flour, with cornmeal, with unbleached flour. Seasonings and colorings add still more variety. And then there are the sauces.

The scope of the food is astonishing, from simple Florentine grilled steak to a Livornese dish of couscous with cannellini beans and meatballs that involves so many details it’s one of the longest recipes in Bugialli’s new book, “Foods of Tuscany” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang: $50).

Think you know every way to cook chicken? Then try baking it with pomegranate seeds and Renaissance spices. Or bone the whole thing, stuff it, shape it like a loaf of bread, poach it and cover it with gelatin. That’s pane di pollo-- chicken bread--another dish from Livorno, where they seem to like complicated food.

If your kitchen skills aren’t up to such feats, don’t fret. Difficult dishes are not necessarily the best, Bugialli says reassuringly. “I feel that sometimes the high sophistication of a dish is the simplicity. Haute cuisine does not mean very rich ingredients with one on top of the other.”

Tuscan foods may sometimes be loudly seasoned, but the region’s cooks also know how to soft-pedal. In Versilia, there’s a focaccia embedded with basil leaves. The leaves remain on top while the bread rises and bakes but are removed before the bread is served. “You taste something, but you don’t know what it is,” Bugialli says.

Sage, rosemary and basil are the leading Tuscan herbs and appear frequently in Bugialli’s book. But one recipe is notable for its lack of basil. It’s winter pesto sauce, a nut concoction from the mountainous northern area, Garfagnana. When summer basil dies away, people there blend a pasta sauce from garlic, pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, cheese and olive oil. Any basil leaves still clinging to the plant are employed as garnish.

Tuscans are beef eaters, but they enjoy an abundance of seafood and they know how to do wonderful things with vegetables, including timbales of pureed cannellini beans with rapini and tomato sauce, or an outrageous torte of lemon-flavored sweet pastry filled with Swiss chard, raisins, pine nuts and cheese, seasoned with sugar, brandy and nutmeg.

Bugialli says he is constantly finding new dishes but is “sick and tired” of cookbooks that simply list recipes. So this one takes another approach, delving into culture and history and picturing the food in some extraordinary places. Bugialli is especially proud of a photograph that shows a table of breads and fruits against a fresco of the Last Supper. Painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in an abbey in Florence, the fresco has not been photographed for publication before, he says.

Instead of focusing on food only, photographer John Dominus captured landscapes, buildings, markets, artworks and festivals, turning this cookbook into a travel experience. Dominus also worked on “Giuliano Bugialli’s Foods of Italy,” which won a Tastemaker award as best cookbook published in 1985.

Bugialli spent only a single tightly packed day in Los Angeles. He’ll be back in Florence by Christmas to teach a holiday cooking class, involving students in preparation of a Tuscan Christmas dinner. The repast will start with consomme, then appetizers, followed by an extravagant selection of boiled meats, including turkey. Next comes the roast course, a suckling pig accompanied by a salad, seasonal vegetables, mashed potatoes and lentils. Desserts will include an assortment of regional specialties such as panforte from Siena.

Fresh basil for pesto is available all year in Southern California, so it’s not necessary to resort to substitutes. However, this rich and nutty pesto can stand on its own, defying its Italian name, pesto povero, which means “poor pesto.” More complete instructions for forming the pasta dough are given in Bugialli’s cookbook. Spaghetti may be substituted.

PASTA COL PESTO POVERO (Pasta With Winter Pesto Sauce)

6 large cloves garlic, peeled

1 cup pine nuts

1 cup shelled walnuts

1/4 cup blanched almonds

1 cup freshly grated aged Pecorino or Parmigiano cheese

1/4 cup olive oil

6 ounces cherry tomatoes, about 8, optional

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

Fresh Pasta

16 medium-size fresh basil leaves, optional

Place garlic, pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, cheese, olive oil and tomatoes in food processor or blender and blend until very smooth sauce forms. Transfer sauce to crockery or glass bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper, mix well and refrigerate, covered, until needed.

When ready to use, remove sauce from refrigerator. Remove 3/4 cup boiling water from pot in which Fresh Pasta is cooking and stir into sauce. Ladle half of sauce onto large serving platter. Drain Fresh Pasta, place on prepared dish, add remaining sauce and mix gently but thoroughly. Sprinkle with basil leaves to garnish and serve hot. Makes 8 servings.

Note: No extra cheese should be served with this dish.

Each serving contains about:

646 calories; 311 mg sodium; 116 mg cholesterol; 38 grams fat; 59 grams carbohydrates; 24 grams protein; 1.22 grams fiber.

Fresh Pasta

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup finely ground yellow cornmeal, preferably imported Italian

4 extra-large eggs

2 extra-large egg whites

4 teaspoons olive oil or vegetable oil

Dash salt

Coarse-grained salt

Place flour in mound on work surface. Make well in flour. Place cornmeal, eggs, egg whites, olive oil and dash salt in well and gradually incorporate with flour. Gather dough together and knead 2 to 3 minutes, absorbing flour from board as needed.

Using pasta machine, work dough down to last notch. (Pasta dough made with cornmeal will not always go to last notch without breakage. Use next-to-last notch if necessary.) Cut pasta into 3-inch squares using pastry wheel with scalloped edge. Let stand on cotton towels until needed.

Place large pot of cold water over medium heat. When water reaches boil, add coarse salt to taste, then pasta. Cook 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes, depending on dryness of pasta.

The old custom of cooking meat with fruit has been revived in contemporary Italian cooking. This dish originated during the Renaissance.

POLLO ALLE MELOGRANE (Chicken With Pomegranates)

1 (3 1/2-pound) chicken

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

5 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup dry white wine

Ground cinnamon

Freshly grated nutmeg

1 to 2 cups chicken broth, preferably homemade

Seeds from 2 large pomegranates

Ground ginger

Cut chicken into quarters. Rub with butter and season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat oil in medium-size casserole over medium heat. Add chicken in single layer. Saute 2 minutes, then turn and saute 2 minutes longer. Add wine and let evaporate 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add large dash of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Add chicken broth, little at time, turning chicken 2 or 3 times and adding more broth as needed. When chicken is almost cooked, about 25 minutes from start of adding broth, add pomegranate seeds. Mix well, cover and cook 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally to make sure seeds don’t stick to bottom. Adjust salt and pepper to taste if needed. Just before serving, sprinkle large dash ginger over chicken and pomegranates, mix well and transfer to large serving platter. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

712 calories; 417 mg sodium; 160 mg cholesterol; 51 grams fat; 14 grams carbohydrates; 40 grams protein; 0.15 gram fiber.

This torta from Prato, near Florence, resembles American poundcake but is baked in a ring mold. Serve it with fruits, nuts and a sweet wine for a holiday dessert. We doubled the recipe to give it more substance.

TORTA MANTOVANA

2 extra-large eggs

6 extra-large egg yolks

2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter

4 cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour

Grated zest of 1 orange or lemon

1/2 cup almonds, blanched and finely ground with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Powdered sugar

Place whole eggs, egg yolks and granulated sugar in crockery or glass bowl or in food processor bowl or blender. Blend or mix with wooden spoon until sugar is completely incorporated and mixture resembles whipped custard cream. Melt butter in top of double boiler and cool completely.

Add flour to egg mixture, little at time, constantly mixing or blending. Add cooled butter and grated zest and mix again. Pour batter into lightly buttered and floured 10-inch tube pan and sprinkle almonds on top. Bake at 325 degrees 1 hour 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cake stand at least 1 hour before unmolding onto serving platter. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Makes 16 servings.

Each serving contains about:

210 calories; 8 mg sodium; 88 mg cholesterol; 11 grams fat; 26 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 0.13 grams fiber.