In a saucepan dissolve I ½ cups sugar in 1/3 cup water, bring to a boil. and cook until the syrup forms a soft ball when a little is dropped into cold water. Add the flour and nut mixture, remove the saucepan from the fire, and stir vigorously until well mixed, Pour the thick paste on a slightly floured board to cool a little, When the paste is cool enough to handle knead it thoroughly and roll it out 1/3 inch thick. Cut the paste into cakes about 2 inches in diameter and bake them on a buttered and floured' baking sheet in a very slow oven (250° F.) for about 30 minutes so that the “little horses” can dry without becoming brown.
Sweeter, softer, flatter, diamondshaped and delicious are ricciarelli, A cousin to a macaroon, perhaps, but lighter in color and dusted with powdered sugar. They sit on thin rice wafers and arc packed and shipped all over Italy.
Ricciarelli di Siena
Blanch and remove the skins from ½ pound of almonds and put them in a warm oven to dry. but not take on color. Set aside 2 ounces of the almonds and pound the remaining 6 ounces in a mortar, adding ¾ cup sugar little by little. Rub the paste through a fine sieve and work in ¼ cup sifted confectioners' sugar and a few drops of vanilla. Mix 2 egg whites to a froth with a fork and add them gradually to the almond and sugar mixture, beating thoroughly after each addition until the mixture is the right consistency to be molded in the hands. Do not add all of the egg whites unless necessary.
Shape the paste into small ovals about ¼ inch thick and place each on a diamond of wafer or rice-paper on a baking sheet. Let the paste stand for several hours or overnight, then dry the ricciarelli in a very slow oven (250° F.), being very careful not to let them color. Cool on a cake rack and sprinkle generously with confectioners' supgar.
The most famous of Tuscan sweets, and rightly so, is panforte. This is composed mostly of whole tender almonds held together with a spicy binding containing lemon and citron peel. Sugar and the perfume of oranges, cinnamon and anonymous spices.
Panforte di Siena
Combine ¼ pound of almonds, blanched. ¼ pound of hazelnuts, lightly toasted, 1/3 cup cocoa, 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon, ¼ reaspon allspice, ½ cup flour, and ¾ cup each of finely cut candied orange peel, citron, and lemon peel. In a large saucepan combine ¾ cup each of honey and sugar, bring to a boil, and simmer until a little of the syrup dropped into cold water forms a soft ball. Add the fruit and nut mixture, and mix well.
Turn the mixture into a 9-inch springform pan lined with buttered paper and bake in a slow oven (300° F.) for 30 minutes. Remove the bottom from the pan, and cool the cake before removing the pan sides. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon cinnamon.
This gastronomic tour of Tuscany can touch only a few highlights within its limited space, and we are conscious of some omissions. Viareggio. for example, is known to have one or two fine summer restaurants along its radiant shore. Most of the small towns, however, offer small choice, and it is in the larger cities that the prospector for epicurean nuggets must plant his fork. Foremost among them, of course, is
FLORENCE
After that morning in the art galleries and the leather shops, with the first pleasant pangs of hunger just asserting themselves, what a relief to come to a cafe table and a cool aperitif! Where to have a good luncheon? Sitting in the large Piazza della Repubhlica. which was formerly named after Victor Emmanuel, as your aged Baedeker will show, the predicament is a pleasant one, and nor hard to solve. For those who don't cotton to sweetish Italian aperitvi and seek something quieter, by the way, the GRAND HOTEL has recently opened a perfectly charming bar-as svish and handsomely decorated a spot as you will find anywhere. And the Martini cocktails are up to the best standards.
Florence is a city of a quarter of a million and more, filled with hotels and pensiones and a corresponding wealth of dining places. This city is a little like Lyon-it would be difficult to sit down to a really poor meal. If you simply adore your fellow tourist and want to go just where he or she does, DONEY'S at 57 Via Tornabuoni or NATALH. facing the Arno at 80 Longarno Acciaioli, will bring the sweet music of American speech to your ears, accompanied by perfectly good food and service. There is a most agreeable outdoor place, LA LOGGIA. on the Piazza Michelangelo high above the city, where one can sit in the garden in summer and enjoy the skyline of Florence It is the captive of the tourist also. Mind you, we don't decry the great American tourist, being precisely that ourselves. Bur you may share our belief that the most obvious places arc not always the answer to a gourmet's prayer.
There is another category of Florentine restaurant which exerts a picturesque appeal and attracts visitors in droves. These are the buche, the “holes in the ground, '' vaulted cellars with a somewhat contrived atmosphere and decor. The BUCA LAPI, in the cellar of the Palazzo Amnion, and the BJCA SAN RUFFILLO near the Duomo arc the best in this category. The lights are soft, the food is good and there is always music at some time of the evening. With a bevy of school girls on my hands (and if bus happened) I would Choose one of these without question.
When the gentle art of gastronomy is uppermost. however, we would suggest a different selection. which follows. It doesn't sparkle with originality. All of these ristoranti are familiar to Florentines, and each has its quota of foreigners. Hut the names represent a few weeks of poking about, and you might like to jot them down in your little black book-or do people carry those anymore?
Pinterest
