Ristorante Zio Gigi: Home cooked food in the heart of Florence

We're traveling again. This time we're in Florence, where we spend our mornings in Italian class and our afternoons exploring this amazing city. 

In Florence there are hundreds of restaurants, pizzerias, osterias, tavernas, bars, cafes. It’s hard to choose; there are so many. We love to wander off the main piazzas, looking for that special little place where everyone likes to go. Where they know your name and they know how mamma made lunch. 

Last November we stumbled on a place like that: Ristorante Zio Gigi. It’s a little place like many others, but something about the menu caught our eye. And when the door opened, we heard singing. Loud, boisterous, welcoming. We had to go in--we had no choice. 

Bagna Cauda and a Winner!

Bagna Cauda means 'hot bath' in Italian. Why are we talking about hot baths? Because we have about 6 inches of snow on the ground here and a hot bath sounds pretty nice right now? Nah, it's because this specialty of Torino is the perfect thing for a cold snowy day.

If you're thinking apres-ski, you're in the right ball park. If you're like me, though, you're probably just thinking instead-of-ski. Heh, I went skiing once. It took me about 5 minutes to tear up my knee. That was my ski career. Whenever I see those amazing athletes barreling downhill, I head to the apres-ski zone toute de suite. Just watching them makes my knee hurt!

Play With Your Food!

I don't think it's a secret that I like to play with my food. When I have the time and energy, I love to take something ordinary and make it special. A little fancy. Maybe even fancy pants. Like these sandwiches.

Two Pesto Pasta

This is a re-post of a recipe that I cook often. It's one of my all time favorites. Why? Let me count the ways: it's easy, it's healthy, it's made in the time that it takes the pasta to cook, and it uses ingredients I always have on hand. I first posted it when my blog was brand new. Almost nobody saw it. I decided to re-post it so that you could all see it. You're welcome!

Mojo Pizza

I have a confession to make. No, two of them. First, I'm a yeast-o-phobe. I love things made with yeast: fresh dinner rolls, good crusty bread, cinnamon buns. Pizza. And I absolutely love the smell of yeast. But I never bake with it. I buy it regularly―in my supermarket they have these pretty little cubes of fresh yeast that look so nice in my fridge until they're about 3 months past their expiration date. Sigh. I love the IDEA of baking with yeast, but I just don't do it. I'll make anything with baking powder. But yeast, that's another story.

Olive Pesto

This month’s issue of La Cucina Italiana has an article on pesto, and recipes for lots of different kinds. When we think of pesto, we normally think of basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and parmesan. Those are the ingredients for the classic pesto, Pesto alla Genovese. But pesto can be made with any number of ingredients. The name ‘pesto’ comes from the tool traditionally used to make it: a pestle (and mortar too). In Italian, the word ‘pesto’ means ‘to pound’, which is what you do with a mortar and pestle.

1-2-3 Pasta

Sometimes you just want something quick. Something filling. Something comforting. At our house, that usually means pasta. The other day it was (still) snowing out, and I wanted something warm and comforting. Something a little spicy. Something that would make me think of warm climates while it fended off the cold snowy weather. Which is still here, by the way.

I had some merguez sausage and that seemed to be the perfect thing. Before we moved here, I didn’t know this spicy lamb sausage from Morocco. I was really missing something special! They’re used a lot here in Belgium, and we love them. They’re a traditional accompaniment to couscous and often grilled as a part of a mixed grill.

So, lemesee, it was snowing, which meant I had to use what was in the house, 'cause I don't drive in snow. I had merguez. I had some winter tomatoes (I know, but what can you do?), I had some onions. Pasta. Rice. And I had a bunch of fresh tarragon, which was making my kitchen smell like a corner of heaven.

So I used one one onion, two tomatoes and the three merguez to make a sauce--1-2-3 sauce! I wanted something else to add to it, and I didn’t know what I had. I was having a hard time thinking, because the tarragon smelled so good. What could I add--rosemary? No, not right with the merguez spices. Waht else did I have--basil? No, not in the hot sauce. Cilantro? Ew. And all the time I was smelling this lovely, elegant tarragon. Hmmm...

I had grave doubts about adding tarragon to merguez. Merguez has a gutsy, in-your-face spicy flavor, and tarragon always seems to me to be restrained, elegant, in-the-background. But I kept smelling it, and it seemed as if it might work. So I did what I always do when I’m not sure about adding a fresh herb to a sauce. I bit off a tiny bit of the herb and took a good whiff of the sauce at the same time.

You know what? Tarragon, that delicate ladylike perfume in sauce béarnaise, is a pretty gutsy flavor when it’s fresh. It has a strong, licorice flavor that goes PERFECTLY with merguez. I think I may have discovered a new culinary marriage-made-in-heaven, to rank up there with basil and tomato. Or chocolate and raspberry. Tarragon and merguez. It’s amazing. One day I'll be famous. I'll still be me, though. You know, humble. Yeah, that's it.

Did I mention that this is another pasta sauce that can be made in the time that it takes the pasta to cook? My favorite kind of meal! I should also tell you that these photos are of Dan’s plate. I ate mine over rice. As I was writing about the hummus flower and the days when I couldn’t eat wheat, I started to remember how I felt before I stopped eating wheat--tired, achey, bloated, headachey, insomniac, fuzzy-headed, and other-things-you-don’t-really-want-to-know-about. And I realized that I’ve been feeling that way again. So I’ve started avoiding wheat for a while to see if I might feel better. It’s early days yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

123 Pasta

3 merguez sausages

1 medium onion

2 large tomatoes

1 handful fresh tarragon

1/2 pound pasta, cooked

Fresh grated parmesan for serving

• Put a large pan full of water on high heat for the pasta.
• Cut the merguez into pieces about 2 cm / 1 inch long. In a pan large enough to hold both the sauce and the pasta, cook the merguez over medium high heat until it begins to brown. The casing will shrink, releasing some of the chopped meat. This is a good thing--don’t worry.
• Cut the onion into large-ish chunks. Once the merguez has started to release some of its fat, add the onion and saute along with the sausage. The sausage will release an alarming amount of fat. Don’t worry--we’ll take it out later.
• By now the water should be boiling. Add salt and the pasta. You know how to do this.
• Using a spoon or a turkey baster or whatever tool you have, drain as much of the fat as you can from the sausage and onion mixture. I probably got half a cup from three merguez. Fat little guys.
• Chop the tomato into large chunks and add it to the onion / merguez mixture. Stir to let the tomatoes melt into the sauce.
• Chop the tarragon roughly and add it to the sauce. Stir some more.
• Let the sauce cook till it’s almost dry--too dry, really. Then add a ladle or two or the pasta water, which at this point should have some of the pasta starch in it. This is a secret I learned in Italy--there’s a little bit of magic that happens when the starchy water meets a tomato sauce. Try it. Trust me.
• Drain the pasta and add it to the pan with the sauce.
• Top with fresh grated parmesan.

Serves 3 if they like it and 8 if they don’t.

Notes:

• I used penne for this because it was what I had. This would be better, I think with a wide noodle like pappardelle. But I’m not a purist.
• You could use canned tomatoes in this, but then it wouldn’t be 1-2-3 pasta. It would be something like 1-(half)-3. Ew.
• If you can’t find merguez, you could probably make this with a nice spicy Italian sausage.

CONIGLIO IN UMIDO: Rabbit Stew

It’s the season for gibier, or wild game here in Belgium. In the supermarket at this time, we have an amazing choice: wild boar, doe, wild buck, pheasant, pigeon, duck, guinea fowl, reebock, marcassin (baby boar), hare, and rabbit. During the holidays, game is on everyone’s menu. I will admit that I haven’t yet tackled boar or venison. Rabbit, though, is something that we eat from time to time.

In truth, we don’t eat that much meat. When we do, it’s usually something lighter, like poultry or pork. Rabbit fits nicely into that category. It’s a light meat, with more flavor than chicken. Slow cooked like it is here, it turns into a lovely stew. Perfect for a winter night.

This is another recipe that I have from my cooking class in Siena. In Italy they eat rabbit often, and have many ways of preparing it. This is probably one of the simplest. As usual with Italian recipes, the quantities here are suggestions, as are the ingredients. Feel free to substitute what herbs that you have for those used here.

In the course of a normal Italian meal, the sauce from this would be served over pasta for a first course. The meat would then be served as a second course with some vegetables. We just serve it as a stew.

Coniglio in Umido

1 rabbit, cut into pieces

100 g / 4 oz dried tomatoes, chopped

100 g / 3/4 cup sliced olives

40 g / 1/4 cup seasoned flour

2 Tablespoons olive oil, approx.

1 onion chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 sprig rosemary, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon thyme

125 ml / 1/2 cup white wine

1 can chopped tomatoes

• Soak tomato pieces in boiling water to soften. Soak olives in cold water to remove some of the salt.
• Heat the olive oil in a deep stew pot.
• Dip the rabbit pieces in flour, brown in oil over med high heat. You’ll probably have to do them in batches.
• When the rabbit pieces are brown, remove them and add the onion and garlic to the oil, (add a little more oil if you need to) and cook over medium heat till translucent. Add the celery, the rosemary and the thyme and cook for a few more minutes.
• Add the wine, and cook till the wine is almost evaporated. Stir continually while this is happening.
• Add the rabbit back to the pan, pour over the can of tomatoes, the olives, and the dried tomatoes with their liquid. Add enough water to half cover the rabbit.
• Cover and cook over medium heat for about an hour. Stir from time to time to ensure that the rabbit doesn’t stick. Check the liquid and add more water if necessary. At the end of an hour, it there’s too much water left, leave the cover off and let it reduce.

Serves 4 if they like it and 10 if they don’t.

NOTES:

• You can do this in the oven if you have a big enough baking pan. Just put it all in the pan at the point where it says “cover and cook” above.
• Chicken can always be substituted for the rabbit, of course.
• Chopped fennel is a nice addition--it can go in with the celery. Or instead of the celery.
• We served this with some good crusty bread and a fresh green salad.
• I have also served this with boiled potatoes.

Minestrone and Two Winners!

TODAY’S THE DAY! TODAY’S THE DAY! Today is the day when we choose the winners of the Double Truffles. According to random.org, the two winners are numbers 13 and 33. That’s Maria at Two Peas and Their Pod and Kate at Kate in the Kitchen. I’ll need your addresses--email me at Kate(underscore)and(underscore)Dan AT yahoo.com, and I’ll get the goodies in the post after Christmas. The post office is a madhouse right now!

I don’t know about you, but right now I’m tired of rich food. I want something a little lighter, fresher, full of vegetables and simple goodness. Minestrone fits the bill perfectly.

Like much of my favorite Italian cooking, minestrone is very flexible - it takes advantage of what’s available when you make it. At its most basic, it’s vegetable soup. Made right, it’s a revelation. This is a dish that is different every time I make it--because what I have to use is different every time.

This soup starts with the ‘aromatics’--onion, carrot, celery. In Italian, these are called ‘gli odori’. Now, normally I love the Italian names of things--they’re just so musical and evocative. But in this case I prefer the English name, because ‘odori’ sounds too much like old gym shoes. Actually, in our house we normally call them ‘the usual suspects’. In any case, they fill the house with a wonderful smell, which presages the flavor of this soup.

I think minestrone needs some pasta in it--not too much, but a little bit. Because this makes more soup than we can eat at one time, I don’t put the pasta in the soup until I serve it, so that it doesn’t turn to mush. You can use any kind of small pasta. I had some tiny squares I found in Italy, but you can use orzo or even vermicelli that’s been broken into tiny pieces. If you leave the pasta out, the recipe is gluten free.

Most recipes also call for chopped cabbage or cavolo nero, which is a very dark kale-type cabbage that grows in Italy. It’s only good after a frost, so it’s really a winter vegetable. We don’t have it here, but I did have a chinese cabbage, so I used that. I don’t really like boiled cabbage too much, so I didn’t add it to the soup either. I put it in the bowl and poured the soup over it. I did the same with the green onions to preserve their sharp flavor and crunch.

This recipe came from my cooking course in Siena. In Italy they throw the rind from parmesan into the soup pot. It adds a richness to the soup, and gives some gooey melted cheese pieces that are like the cheesy croutons on top of French onion soup. I sometimes forget to keep them, but this time I had a couple so I threw them in too.

Minestrone

Enough for 6-8

1 T butter or olive oil

1 large onion

1 leek

3 medium carrots

2 stalks celery, including greens

1 bell pepper (I used a red one, for color)

2 medium potatoes

1/4 celery root

2-3 medium tomatoes

125 g / 1/4 pound small pasta

3-4 kale or cabbage leaves

1 spring onion

a good handful of grated parmesan

salt and pepper

• Put the butter or olive oil in a large soup pot over medium low heat.
• Cut the onion in half, remove the peel, and slice it thin. Add to the soup pot.
• Cut the dark top off the leek, cut it in half, and clean it under running water. Slice it thin across the grain (giving you little semi-circles) and add it to the soup pot. Stir the pot.
• Cut the carrots into small cubes and add them to the soup pot. Stir the pot.
• Cut the celery across the stalks, including the greens. Add to the soup pot. Stir the pot.
• Chop the bell pepper into small cubes and add to the pot. You know what comes next.
• Chop the potatoes into small cubes and add to the pot. Stir it. By now all the onions and leek should be well sweated.
• Chop the celery root into small cubes and add to the pot. Stir it.
• At this point add water. I use boiling water, but it probably doesn’t matter. You want enough to come 8-10 cm / 3-4 inches above the vegetables.
• Chop the tomatoes into cubes and add to the pot. Yes, stir it again. Add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
• Leave this to simmer for about an hour and a half. Adjust salt to taste.
• To serve, boil the pasta and drain it. Chop the cabbage and the spring onion.
• Put some pasta in the bowls, along with some chopped cabbage and spring onions. Pour the soup over, and top with some fresh grated parmesan and pepper.

NOTES:

• Of course, you can adjust the veggies any way you like. I think it has to have celery, carrots, onions and potatoes. It’s good enough with just those, but add whatever you have to it.
• I never peel my potatoes or carrots. I buy organic ones and scrub them well. I like the peel!
• Celery root, on the other hand, has to be peeled. It’s a wonderful winter vegetable. We use it in salads, and add it cooked to mashed potatoes. It brings a light celery flavor to everything.
• In the summer you can use zucchini / courgette or any kind of squash in this. In the winter parsnips or turnips are good. Feel free to play with this recipe.
• We ate this with some good bread and cheeses.

CESTINI DI SALMONE

Cestini means ‘baskets’ in Italian, and when I saw photos of these in the September issue of La Cucina Italiana, I knew I had to try them. Of course I had to change them--their recipe had the cestini filled with shrimp and porcini mushroom, and I wanted to try to fill them with salmon.

I should warn you that when you slice the zucchini / courgettes, it’s easier with a mandoline. As long as you use the little safety device, of course. Don’t do what I did and slice the tip of your finger off. It’s harder to weave the strips of zucchini with a big bandage on your finger. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

These were very good. The salmon was perfectly cooked, juicy and full of flavor. I used my favorite combination of spices for salmon --pink peppercorns and cardamom--both on the fish itself and in the sauce. I wasn’t really satisfied with the photos, but there you are.

Cestini di Salmone

Ingredients

2 zucchini / courgettes

4 salmon filets, about 2.5 x 5 inches / 6 x 12 cm

2 Tablespoon pink peppercorns

4 cardamom pods

1/2 cup plain yogurt

black pepper

olive oil to brush cestini

Bread crumbs

Fresh dill or fennel leaves (optional)

• Preheat oven to 200 C / 400 F

• Slice the zucchini lengthwise into long strips. This is where the mandoline comes in handy. You’ll need 16 good slices, but you should make more than that because some of them till tear when you grill them.

• Trim the salmon into pieces approximately 2-2.5 inches / 5-6 cm square. Count on two pieces per serving. You can piece them together if you have to, but it will be harder to wrap them up.

• Crush the pink peppercorns and the seeds from the cardamom pods in a mortar and pestle.

• In a hot non-stick pan, grill the zucchini strips quickly. You’re only trying to soften them a little bit and maybe give them a little bit of color. I didn’t use any oil for this step, but it would probably help to keep them from sticking.

• Lay two strips of zucchini out on a work surface. Take two more and weave them into the center of the first two, as shown in the photo.

• Put a piece of salmon on the woven part (it should be about the same size as the interwoven section of the zucchini). Sprinkle the top with the cardamom mixture (you won’t use it all for this--the rest is for the sauce), and give it a turn of the pepper mill.

• Bring the sides up and around and weave them over the top. Turn them over to show the pretty weaving.

• Brush the cestini with olive oil, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, and bake for 15 minutes. While they’re baking, make the sauce: Mix the yogurt with the remaining pink peppercorn /cardamom mixture. Add some dill or fennel if you have it.

I served these with a green salad for lunch. Perfect.

Variations:

You could fill these with a nice fish mousse or use what the original recipe used: a mixture of chopped shrimp and chopped porcini with some sauteed potatoes.

Notes:

I think that next time I probably won’t use the breadcrumbs. I’m not sure what they added, except to keep the zucchini from burning. The problem is that they hid the really pretty woven pattern of the zucchini. Ok, maybe I’ll use them, but not so much of them.

‘Nother Note:

If you have the English language version of La Cucina Italiana, you won’t find this recipe--it was in the Italian version. For some reason, they don’t have the same recipes. Sorry.

RISOTTO ALLA MILANESE ...and a little bit about saffron

Saffron threads are the dried stigmas of a crocus flower, "Crocus Sativus Linneaus". Each flower has three stigmas, which are picked carefully by hand. Around 250,000 stigmas are needed to produce a pound of Saffron. THAT’S why it’s so expensive! Luckily for us, a little tiny bit goes a long way. Saffron is the distinctive flavoring and coloring agent in Spanish Paella. It’s also the main flavor/color in the Italian specialty Risotto a la Milanese (recipe below).

Saffron is produced in warm climates. In Europe, most of it comes from Spain or Italy or Greece or Iran. I usually buy it when I’m in Spain or Italy, and it’s (a little bit) cheaper that way.

You can buy saffron in two forms: threads or powder.

If you buy threads, be sure that they’re a dark red/orange color, and that they’re dry and brittle. If there are some lighter orange or yellow or beige threads in there, it’s a lower quality and won’t have the strength of good saffron--you’ll need more for the same effect, and in the end it’s more expensive. When you use the threads, they should be soaked for at least 10-15 minutes in a little warm water to release the flavors (but the longer you soak them the stronger the flavor). The resulting ‘tea’ can be mixed into whatever you’re making, along with the threads. I like to see the little threads in finished dishes. You can also steep the threads in warm milk or broth or whatever liquid you’re using if you don’t want the water to dilute the dish. Or you can steep them in room temperature wine or lemon juice.

If you buy powder, it should have the same dark red/orange color. It’s important to be sure that you buy from a reputable source, because it’s not all THAT hard to adulterate the powder. I use powder when I don’t want to have the little red threads in the finished dish, or when I want stronger color overall. You don’t have to soak the powder, you just add it to the dish near the end of cooking.

Whatever form you use it in, it should always be added near the end of cooking. Here’s one of my favorite ways to use it:

Risotto alla Milanese

1/2 liter / 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion or 2-3 shallots

7 oz / 200 g Arborio or Carnaroli rice

6 ‘portions’ saffron

75 / 1/4 cup ml white wine

100 / 4 oz g fresh parmesan, freshly grated

1. Finely chop the onion or shallots. Put the stock on to heat. It should be simmering.

2. In a wide, shallow pan, heat the olive oil and add the onion. Cook gently, till it starts to brown. Add the rice, and stir till the rice becomes translucent. It should look like this:

3. Add the wine, and stir till it’s gone. Add 1-2 ladles full of hot stock, and stir. Cook on medium low heat till the stock is absorbed by the rice, and then add some more. Stir the rice often to make sure it doesn’t stick. Continue doing this till the rice is done, about 25 minutes (if you run out of stock, you can use hot water).

4. Check the rice starting at about 20 minutes. It’s done when it has a creamy sauce all around it and there is no longer a hard center. You don’t want it soft, but it shouldn’t be crunchy.

5. When you add the last ladles full of stock, add the saffron and stir it in well. When the rice is done, you want it to be a little runny, because then you’ll add the grated parmesan. Stir it well, add salt and pepper and serve.

Serves 4 if they like it and 10 if they don’t.

Notes:

• You can use any rice that’s meant for risotto--this is short grained rice. Don’t use rice that’s meant to be steamed, because it won’t have the starchy exterior that it needs to make the sauce.

• If you don’t have stock, you can use hot water. If you want to make this vegetarian, use vegetable stock.

• There are two ways to serve risotto in Italy: creamy and not too liquid, or very runny. The runny style is called “alla onda”, and is the way Jamie Oliver says it should always be served. Pooh. I prefer it creamy and less runny.

TUSCAN AUTUMN SOUP

A couple of years ago, I was fortunate to be able to participate in a professional cooking course in Siena. We spent all morning, all afternoon, and into the night cooking. We prepared traditional Tuscan food and learned how to select, prepare, and cook the freshest ingredients. I also learned at a gut level (maybe I should say at a FEET level) how physically demanding restaurant work is. I went back to our apartment

every night exhausted, with my feet hurting and my head full of wonderful ideas. Some nights I couldn’t sleep because my hands ached from having rolled out pici (a round,eggless, spaghetti-like pasta) for 30 people by hand.

From this course I took away many things. Fond memories of meals and friends made, ideas shared in Italian and English and French. That wonderful moment when service was finished and we all finally sat down and ate something--sometimes the ribs that we had used as a roasting rack for the pork, or the brown, crusty ends of the turkey roll, or maybe just a bowl of rice with pepper and fragrant, grassy Tuscan olive oil. It was then that we enjoyed the bonds forged by working hard and performing a seemingly impossible task together.

I took away from the course a better understanding of ingredients and a sense of the Italian way of putting them together. I also took away from the course a notebook stuffed with recipes and ideas (of course!). In it are some classics, some cheffy new Tuscan dishes, and this soup. This is the soup I make when the weather first turns cold and I want something hearty. This is the soup I make when I am having company and I don’t have the time or energy to fuss a lot. This is the soup I make when I want to remember the taste of Tuscany in the autumn.

This soup is hearty, and it's a meal in itself served with salad and some crusty bread. It's also vegetarian, even vegan if you replace the butter with olive oil.

I have seen a lot of recipes for chickpea soup, but I’ve never seen this one except in my course. The first time I tasted it I almost cried, it was so good: complex, layered flavors, golden color, crunch from the croutons. Try this. You owe it to yourself.

Tuscan Autumn Soup (Passata de ceci)

Ingredients

7-8 cloves garlic

4 shallots or 1 large, mild onion

5 cups soaked, cooked chickpeas

12 - 15 sage leaves, the fresher the better

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 stick / 50 g butter

12-15 bay leaves, the fresher the better

Leaves from a bulb of fennel

4 oz/ 100 gr tomato paste or plain tomato sauce

1 cup brandy or white wine

5-6 doses of saffron

3-4 small dried hot peppers

To serve

3-4 slices stale bread

a walnut-sized piece of butter

In a deep pot, simmer the chickpeas and their cooking liquid with the sage leaves.

If your saffron is in threads, add it to a little hot water and let it steep. If it’s powder, you can just add it directly to the soup at the end of the cooking (below)

In a frying pan, melt the butter with the olive oil and add the chopped garlic and onions. Crumble the dried peppers over it, and add the bay leaves. Saute over medium low heat until the bay leaves are soft and fragrant and the onion and garlic are translucent. Do this relatively slowly, as you’re infusing the oil and butter with the flavors.

Add the tomato paste/sauce and the brandy/white wine. Cook over medium heat till it’s almost dry. Remove the bay leaves and add the mixture from the frying pan to the chickpeas.

Liquefy with an immersion blender or by transferring to a blender. Add water if necessary to get the consistency you want. Put the bay leaves back in and add the saffron and the fennel leaves. Turn the heat off and let it sit for at least an hour. Really. This makes a huge difference. Don’t forget to remove the bay leaves again before serving.

Before serving, cut the stale bread into cubes, and melt the butter in a small pan. Add the bread cubes, toss, and let brown slowly over medium-high heat. Toss from time to time to brown them evenly on all sides.

Ladle the soup into bowls, add the hot croutons (I love the sizzle), and enjoy!

Serves 4 if they like it and 10 if they don’t.

Notes:

1. You can substitute four cans of chickpeas. I don’t have to tell you that it’s better with the dried, soaked beans, but if you’re pressed for time, go ahead and use the canned. It’ll still be heavenly.

2. I never understood the point of bay leaves before this recipe. But now they’re among my favorite herbs. The smell of them as they sautee is out of this world.

3. In Siena we didn’t use fennel leaves, we used finocchio fiori, which are the dried petals of wild fennel flowers. Unless you’re in Tuscany, you’re probably not going to find this. Believe me, I’ve tried. You can substitute fennel leaves, if you can find a bulb with leaves on it. I just keep finocchio fiori in the freezer, and stock up when we’re in Italy.

4. You can skip the fennel flowers and the saffron if you can’t get them, but you’ll miss a subtle layer of flavor, as well as some of the golden color.

5. While this might seem like a fussy recipe, remember, it’s ITALIAN. Everything is approximate. Feel free to play with it!

6. This recipe is gluten free if you leave out the croutons.