Spring! The Monti Pisani that this season offer buds and wild herbs great to spice up the daily cooking adn the chef Barattini, offer a spring dish made ​​with wild asparagus. “The idea of this dish is born simply distorting the idea of ​​the classic risotto.” Aurelio says, “I wanted to tend to create a” risotto of home “as the main ingredients used are part of the culinary heritage of Lucca. Not a challenge, nor a comparison of the beloved risotto, but simply further proof that with the products of our land and a bit of imagination, we can afford to dare beyond “the walls”

During the weekend of 15 August “ferragosto”, a bank holiday in Italy, Careggine, is filled with a festive atmosphere and scents alltraditional, characterizing each year “in the Apuan Feast“.

The cheese. It is one of the many protagonists of the basket of Lucca, sheep milk cheese, goat cheese, dairy cheese .. typical products of tradition. Is produced for the most part in Garfagnana and from here marketed. But its use is not limited to its consumption. If I told you that cheese is sport, challenge, bet, aggregation? And not as regards its preparation, its consumption, its sale .. but .. its launch.

The Extra Virgin Olive Oil has come to town, within the walls of Villa Bottini, in two days of meetings involving all lovers of good food. Meetings with experts and nutritionists, challenges and cooking demonstrations by chefs, who use the extra virgin preparing their best dishes.

CRUMBS AND crotchets, ON THE TRAIL OF THE GREAT MASTER

The term pasimata has two possible derivations: from Latin pasimatum means “bread baked in the ashes,” or the Byzantine pasimet“unleavened bread”. It is a typical Easter bread of the Lucca area, which can be prepared in different ways.
According to tradition, is prepared the day before Easter and, together with the eggs contained in a little basket, is brought to the morning Mass, to receive the blessing.

Unce upon a time people used to put the bottle in the corner of the fireplace. The beans, soaked in water, cooked so slowly, keepingall their flavor. Cooked over a flame, in special flasks of tempered glass, a little EVOoil, a sage leaf and a clove of garlic, beans are an excellent side dish. If accompanied by leafy vegetables “rehearse in the pan“, a tasty and healthy dish, suitable for everyone.