La Cucina Toscana · The Tuscan Table

Tuscan Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Step into the farmhouse kitchens of Tuscany, where every dish begins with green, peppery extra virgin olive oil, sweet butter, and a little rendered lard. Real ingredients, slow and unhurried, the way the casa colonica has always cooked.

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Extra Virgin Olive Oil❦ Sweet Butter❦ Rendered Lard
A rustic Tuscan pasta dish dressed simply with olive oil and herbs
❦ Pici all'Aglione
From the recipe collection
No. 01

Olio Nuovo First

Every Tuscan dish leans on the fresh, grassy extra virgin olive oil pressed from the autumn harvest, the soul of the regional pantry.

No. 02

Butter and Honest Lard

For richness we reach for sweet butter and a spoon of rendered lard, the traditional fats that carry the flavors of the contado.

No. 03

Never Vegetable Oil

No seed oils, no shortcuts. Only the fats the Tuscan countryside has trusted for centuries, nothing refined, nothing borrowed.

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From Our Kitchen

Tuscan Country Recipes

Six honest dishes from the Tuscan table, from the bistecca of the Val di Chiana to the cantucci of Prato, each cooked with only pure, traditional fats.

Meat Bistecca alla Fiorentina

Bistecca alla Fiorentina

35 min·2 servings·Medium

The legendary Florentine T-bone, grilled hard over wood embers and finished with nothing but olive oil, salt, and lemon. A monument to good beef cooked simply.

Ingredients

  • 1 T-bone steak, Chianina beef, about 1.2 kg, cut 5 cm thick
  • Coarse sea salt
  • Freshly cracked black pepper
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 lemon, halved
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
  • 1 clove garlic, lightly crushed
  • Flaky finishing salt
  • A handful of arugula, to serve
  • Wood embers or a very hot grill

Instructions

  1. Take the steak out of the fridge at least 1 hour ahead so it comes fully to room temperature.
  2. Build a fierce fire and let it burn down to glowing embers, then set the grate close to the heat.
  3. Grill the steak for about 5 minutes per side without moving it, then stand it on the bone edge for 5 minutes more so the center stays rare.
  4. Rest the steak on a warm board for 8 to 10 minutes, seasoning generously with coarse salt and pepper.
  5. Warm the rosemary and garlic gently in the olive oil, then brush the fragrant oil over the meat.
  6. Carve the fillet and the strip off the bone, fan over arugula, and squeeze the lemon across the top.
  7. Finish with flaky salt and serve at once while still warm.
Fish Cacciucco alla Livornese

Cacciucco alla Livornese

1 hr 20 min·6 servings·Hard

The grand seafood stew of Livorno, five kinds of fish and shellfish simmered in red wine and tomato, ladled over garlic toasted bread. Coastal Tuscany in a single pot.

Ingredients

  • 1.5 kg mixed fish and shellfish (scorpionfish, octopus, mussels, prawns, squid)
  • 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1 fresh red chili, chopped
  • 1 glass dry red wine
  • 500g peeled plum tomatoes, crushed
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
  • 6 thick slices rustic bread, salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Clean all the seafood and cut the octopus and squid into bite sized pieces, keeping the firmer fish separate from the delicate shellfish.
  2. Soften the onion, garlic, and chili slowly in the olive oil until sweet and fragrant.
  3. Add the octopus and squid first and stew gently for 25 minutes, then pour in the red wine and let it reduce.
  4. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato paste with a little water and simmer for 20 minutes into a rich broth.
  5. Slide in the firm fish, then the prawns and mussels, and cook just until the shells open and the fish flakes.
  6. Toast the bread and rub each slice with raw garlic, then set one in the base of each bowl.
  7. Ladle the cacciucco over the bread, shower with parsley, and serve with the remaining olive oil drizzled on top.
Vegetable Fagioli all'Uccelletto

Fagioli all'Uccelletto

50 min·4 servings·Easy

Creamy cannellini beans stewed in olive oil with sage, garlic, and tomato. A humble Tuscan classic, named for the wild bird herbs that flavor the pot.

Ingredients

  • 500g cooked cannellini beans (or 2 cans, drained)
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
  • 8 fresh sage leaves
  • 400g peeled plum tomatoes, crushed
  • 1 small dried chili, optional
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • A splash of bean cooking water
  • Crusty Tuscan bread, to serve

Instructions

  1. Warm the olive oil gently in a wide pan with the crushed garlic and sage until very fragrant.
  2. Add the chili if using and let it perfume the oil for a moment.
  3. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes until slightly thickened.
  4. Fold in the beans with a splash of their cooking water and season with salt and pepper.
  5. Stew gently for 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce clings and the beans turn creamy.
  6. Rest off the heat for 5 minutes, then serve warm with crusty bread to mop the pan.
Soup Ribollita

Ribollita

1 hr 30 min·6 servings·Medium

The famous reboiled bread and vegetable soup of the Tuscan winter, thick with cavolo nero, beans, and day old bread, finished with a stream of green olive oil.

Ingredients

  • 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
  • 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk, all diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 bunch cavolo nero (Tuscan kale), shredded
  • ½ small Savoy cabbage, shredded
  • 400g cooked cannellini beans
  • 400g peeled plum tomatoes, crushed
  • 1.2 litres vegetable stock
  • 300g stale rustic bread, torn
  • Salt, pepper, and a sprig of thyme

Instructions

  1. Soften the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic slowly in the olive oil until sweet, about 12 minutes.
  2. Add the cavolo nero and cabbage and let them wilt down into the soffritto.
  3. Stir in the tomatoes, half the beans, the thyme, and the stock, then simmer gently for 45 minutes.
  4. Mash the remaining beans to a purée and stir them in to thicken the broth.
  5. Fold in the torn bread and cook 15 minutes more until the soup is dense and spoon coating.
  6. Rest overnight if you can, then reboil the next day, which gives ribollita its name.
  7. Serve in deep bowls with a generous swirl of raw olive oil and cracked pepper.
Bread Schiacciata all'Olio

Schiacciata all'Olio

2 hr 30 min·1 large loaf·Medium

The dimpled Tuscan flatbread, crisp and golden with pools of olive oil and a crackle of coarse salt. The bakery smell of every Florentine morning.

Ingredients

  • 500g strong bread flour
  • 7g instant yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 10g fine salt
  • 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the top
  • 330ml warm water
  • Coarse sea salt for finishing
  • A few sprigs rosemary, optional
  • A little olive oil for the bowl

Instructions

  1. Whisk the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt, then add 3 tbsp olive oil and the warm water and mix to a wet, sticky dough.
  2. Knead for 8 minutes until smooth, then place in an oiled bowl and cover.
  3. Let it rise in a warm spot for about 1.5 hours until doubled and bubbly.
  4. Stretch the dough into an oiled baking tray and dimple it all over with your fingertips.
  5. Pour the remaining olive oil into the dimples, scatter coarse salt and rosemary, and rest 20 minutes.
  6. Bake at 220°C (425°F) for 20 to 25 minutes until deep golden and crisp at the edges.
  7. Brush with a little more olive oil straight from the oven and serve warm.
Dessert Cantucci di Prato

Cantucci di Prato

1 hr·40 cookies·Easy

The twice baked almond biscuits of Prato, crunchy and studded with whole nuts, made tender with sweet butter. Traditionally dipped in a glass of Vin Santo.

Ingredients

  • 350g all purpose flour
  • 250g sugar
  • 3 large eggs, plus 1 yolk
  • 80g butter, melted and cooled
  • 200g whole almonds, skin on
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • Zest of 1 orange
  • 1 pinch fine salt
  • 1 egg, beaten, for brushing
  • Vin Santo, to serve

Instructions

  1. Whisk the eggs and extra yolk with the sugar until pale, then stir in the melted butter and orange zest.
  2. Fold in the flour, baking powder, and salt to a soft dough, then mix through the whole almonds.
  3. Divide into 3 logs on a lined tray, flatten slightly, and brush with the beaten egg.
  4. Bake at 180°C (355°F) for about 25 minutes until set and lightly golden.
  5. Cool for 10 minutes, then slice each log on the diagonal into 1.5 cm cookies.
  6. Lay the slices cut side down and bake 10 minutes more until dry and crisp.
  7. Cool completely and serve with a small glass of Vin Santo for dipping.
A rustic Tuscan table set with bread, olive oil, and wine
Meet the Cook

The Kitchen Behind Roqle Cucina

Roqle Cucina is a small home kitchen devoted to la cucina povera, the generous, thrifty cooking of the Tuscan countryside where nothing is wasted and everything tastes of the land. We write the recipes down the way they have always been made in the farmhouses between Florence and Siena, slowly, simply, and with a steady hand.

Our one house rule is an old Tuscan one: green olive oil pressed from the new harvest, sweet butter, a spoon of honest rendered lard, and nothing else. You will never find vegetable oil in our pots, because it was never in the pots we learned from.

Buon appetito, to the table and to good health.

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