Wild hare with a sweet and sour sauce is an autumnal allegory in Tuscany. The strong flavor of the hare is balanced by a brilliant sauce made with the pan juices and vinegar (this on the sour side), and a combination of sugar, Smyrna raisins, pine nuts, chocolate, and candied fruits on the sweet side. The combination must sound appalling to some ears, and it has to be tasted to be appreciated. It doesn't call for a distinguished wine, however! This specialty is best known in Grosseto, a large city in the southern part of Tuscany.
Lepre Dolce-Portc
Skin, clean, and cut a wild hare into serving pieces and put the pieces in an earthenware terrine or casserole. Bring 2 cups red wine almost to a boil with ½ onion, chopped, 2 cloves. 1 table. spoon chopped parsley, 1 bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, and a few peppercorns. Cool, pour this marinade over the hare, and let the hare marinate for 6 hours.
In a saucepan saute 1 onion and A slices of fat bacon, both chopped, until the onion is golden and the bacon is crisp. Dry the pieces of hare, roll them in flour, and sauté them in the bacon fat until lightly browned on all sides. Strain the marinade over the hare, bring to a boil, and cook until the liquid is reduced to half. Add about 2 cups hot chicken stock, or enough to barely cover the pieces of hare, cover the saucepan, and simmer for I hour.
In a small heavy saucepan heat 2 tablespoons sugar with a few drops of water until it begins to caramelize. Stir in ½ cup vinegar and add this to the sauce with 1 tablespoon each of chopped candied fruits and finely chopped bitter chocolate, and 2 tablespoons each of raisins and pine nuts. Simmer for about 5 minutes longer.
Firm Florentine favorites which you will see in most rotisseries in the less luxurious streets of the city are uccelletti. These arc little lavender-brown birds. usually larks, well plucked. With their heads still on, a dozen or more of them are strung neatly on a skewer, with a small slice of crusty bread, cut on the bias, and a leaf of laurel between each. They arc roasted on a revolving spit over charcoal, and are absolutely delicious to anyone who doesn't belong to the Audubon Society. Sausages and other selected fragments of the pig are harpooned between crusts and similarly served to munching Florentines. One variety is culled fegatelli di maiale all'uccelletti, and makes a good democratic noontime stuck for the more adventurous gastronome.
Another delightful dish, light, original and satisfying, and a true Tuscan specialty is tortino di carciofi. It is a sort of artichoke omelet, if you wish. but the cooking procedure is original. Small tender artichokes, sometimes precooked but more often not, are cut in thin vertical slices and sautéed in oil in a small two-handled pan. When the slices arc cooked, two eggs are beaten and added to the pan and stirred. The omelet is rushed hot to your table. Any good Florentine restaurant can turn out this dish with dispatch. Chefs use the same procedure with eggplant and the pale lavender truffle from Piedmont.
Needless to say, plenty of fish are pulled in from Tuseany's coastal waters, and from the Adriatic not far away. One of the regions most individual fish dishes is cacciuccao, a fish soup par excellence. A miscellany of Mediterranean fish is cooked in a broth based on an abundance of onions amplified with tomatoes, garlic, and a good spot of red wine. This dish is the gastronomicglory of Livorno, or Leghorn, and may sometime be integrated into the folklore of American cooking.
Caccincco Leghorn
In a soup kettle saute 2 cloves of garlic, chopped, 1 tiny red pepper, and 3 onions, chopped, in ¾ cup olive oil until the onions are delicately colored. Add ¾ pound of shrimp, shelled, deveined, and chopped, and ¾ pound of squid, skinned, cleaned, and cut into small pieces. Cover, and cook over a low flame for 30 minutes, or until the squid is tender. Add ¾ cup dry red wine and cook until the wine is reduced to one-quarter the original amount. Add 3 tablespoons tomato paste, 6 cups water, and salt to taste and cook for 5 minutes. Add I ½ pounds of cod filets and ¾ pound eath of scallops and halibut, all cur into small pieces, and cook for 15 minutes longer. Place a slice of Italian broad, toasted and rubbed with a cut clove of garlic. in each serving dish and pour the soup over it.
It is fitting that the Florentines, the Bostonians of the Italian peninsula, shall we say, should be inordinately fond of beans. Let other Italians call the beans. with a hint of disdain, mangiafagiali, the citizens of Florence remain faithful to their white beans, which closely resemble the French soissotts. They serve these beans in soup, or with rice, lentils or game. A wild boar wouldn't be accepted without them. The best known manner of preparing them is
Fagioli allUcclletto
Wash ¾ pound of white beans and put them in a large saucepan with 2 tablespoons olive oil, ½ teaspoon powdered sage, 2 cloves of garlic, 4 cups water, and 1 large tomato, peeled and chopped. Cover the saucepan and cook the beans over a low flame for about 3 hours, or until tender. Just before serving add salt and pepper to taste and 2 tablespoons olive oil.
The famous sweets of Siena are known far beyond the boundaries of Tuscany. Cavalhicci are rounded little cakes about two inches across, quite firm and crisp on the outside, but they melt in your mouth. Not too sweet, they arc liberally nuggeted with walnuts and carry a haunting, faint aroma of anis.
Cavallucci di Siena
In a bowl combine 2 ½ cups flour, ¼ cup finely chopped candied orange peel, I tablespoon powdered anise seeds, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, and ½ cup chopped walnuts.
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