The renaissance cooking, rich and nourishing.
Here it meets happily with the Tuscan cooking, plain and genuine.
Dishes of great country people tradition are sometimes repro-posed with personal interpretation.
Commencing with tasty horse-d’oevres, great asset of the kitchen, we have an idea of the fancy and variety with which they are presented: next to fancy pies of game or meat, you can find pies or delicate fritters of buttermilk curd and pumpkin flowers and inevitable, in Winter, the Tuscany"bitter-sweet onions.
In the choice Tuscan soups, the one with Spelt, so typical of the region, it is flavoured with the addition of chick-peas and rosemary, brows beans and stewed with mushroom in order to obtain a soup with simple ingredients but perfect in the harmony of taste.
The egg-dough rigorously home-made, besides its classical union with various meat gravies - duck, wild boar or hare - are interpreted better and in a more fanciful manner according to the Seasons; therefore the "lasagnette" (a kind of paste) with greens, au gratin" with Pecorino cheese from Pienza, so tasteful and perfect in the balance of taste. Among the second courses, or which we Tuscans are great estimators, are the marvellous “ Chianina “ meats - tenderloin "au gratin' with thyme a fresh tomatoes - with plainer meat, such as pigeon and guinea-fowl, boned and filled with dried fruit and savouring. Rabbit is often served simply with black olives and fresh tomatoes. When in Season, cooked with stewed pods with fresh tomatoes. When in Season, cooked with stewed pods and enveloped with bacon and savouring. In other seasons we must mention rabbit leg cooked with apples in the oven according to a Renaissance recipe. Fish, although " The Oil Press " (Strettoio) is far from the coast is always easily available and fresh. Pumpkin flowers filled with fish and stewed with fresh tomatoes, or lobster tails covered with bread crumbs and herbs, and fried.
In Winter a traditional dish is stockfish; Leghorn style as proposed Now a days: spaghetti with spicy stockfish and parsley.

2.Deserts are also subject to a more modern production and next to the classic English Custards, which I have made more Tuscan by the addition of Vin Santo (Holy Wine). We can always, according to the Season, warm puff-pastry with raisins served with our home-made figs jam (which we prepare every
September, according to an old family recipes) picked in the kitchen gardens that surrounds the Villa and which often furnish us with the items necessary in our kitchen.
In Summer the taste of fruit is added to delicate creams: apricots boiled in brandy, filled with raspberries and served with fruits picked in the woods. Not to forget the classic Florentine cakes, for example, the "schiacciata alla Fiorentina" or "zuccotto" mixed with fruit of the Season. The chef, Elizabeth Piazzesi, has written, with the assistance of her husband, Pedro Di Vito, expert sommelier and patron, an interesting collection of antique Tuscan recipes on desserts entitled "Tuscan Deserts" (ed. Demomedia). This together with other texts ( see Italian Regional Cooking -ed. Demomedia) on Florentine Cooking (ed. Bonechi) and other various publications on recipes. These are part of a culture and reparation which reflect every day traditional dishes in which the main interpreters are the superb EXTRA PURE OLIVE OIL, unsalted bread, the Tuscan perfumes, professional, and great love in the work done. The choice and wines suggested are entrusted to the patron Pedro professional sommelier and official taster. The chart includes 150 kinds with special regard to the well known Tuscans. A collection of about 300 liquors of which most are for collections. They are the pride of THE OIL PRESS (Lo Strettoio). They are suggested at the end of a meal with ample choice of home-made liquors: old Woman's Milk, Rosolio of roses, or Tuscan Nut (Nocino). These are considered gifts for few estimators due to their length preparation.