Florence is one of our favourite Italian cities. Our daughter lived there for a year and discovered a number of hidden gems. From her experience, we learnt to explore ‘south of the river’. It’s very different from the hectic, touristy central part and has a very bohemian feel. The Santa Spirito piazza is a lovely open space that has a number of good restaurants, without the prices of those in the centre. The food at Gusta Osteria (two seconds from the piazza, on the corner) is very authentic and is often frequented by Italians. If you fancy sitting in the actual piazza itself, Borgo Antico is very enjoyable. Whilst it can be quite touristy, the quality of food remains. For the best pizza in town (Italian friends swear by it!), try out Il Pizzaiolo in Via de Macci. This place is always busy so be prepared. Our favourite restaurant in the whole of Florence is in the southern part of the city and in the outskirts. Although it’s fairly tricky to find, it’s worth it (and you’ll escape the tourists). The antipasti platters are particularly good! The restaurant is called La Beppa Fioraia, on Via dell’Erta Canina Gr which is two minutes from San Nicola. As with all restaurants in Florence, try to book.

For the best view of the city, the walk/climb to San Miniato is worth every step. Most of the tourists stop at Piazza Michelangelo but carry on up! We promise you won’t be disappointed.

The beach at Forte Dei Marmi attracts star names, while the town’s restaurants and cafe-bars serve up superb focaccia treats

Chef Valentina Harris shares the secrets of fabulous focaccia and lardo di Colonnata in an Italian region rich in family history

Lunigiana is where my mother’s family comes from. It is on the border of Tuscany and Liguria and was home to the ancient Luni people, moon worshippers. The town ruins are all that’s left. You can, however, taste the local Colli di Luni wines (cantinelunae.it) from the Bosoni vineyard, which is almost adjacent.

Forte dei Marmi has been a chi-chi sort of place since the 1920s, and my mother went there as a young girl. The beach has seen the likes of Giorgio Armani and Donatella Versace visit, and the streets, set back from the coast and shaded with pine trees, are wall-to-wall with the villas of the elite. The swanky Principe hotel sells quite possibly one of the most expensive cappuccinos in the world – although it is very good coffee.

To eat, keep it simple but delicious at  Focacceria Orlando (via Colombo 80). It has been famous for oily, soft, dense, steering-wheel-sized focaccia for as long as I can remember. They are two inches deep and are cut into eight, split and then stuffed with fillings that you choose from vast terracotta jars on the marble-topped work surface – braised peas, cheeses, seafood, aubergine, any extraordinary combination that takes your fancy – then placed in the oven to get hot and crisp.

These days it has evolved into something of a proper restaurant, but a focaccia and fruit tart with a crème patissière filling is all you could possibly want. Sitting under the pine trees with that and a quarter-litre of white wine is just heaven.

Colonnata is a tiny spot, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it old town that grew up around marble mining. Eat at whichever of the two trattorias, Venanzioor Da Mafalda is open and order lardo di Colonnata, which, traditionally, is made by placing pork belly fat in a scooped-out piece of marble with wine, herbs and salt, then covering with another piece of marble to cure. It is then dried on top of the marble, until it’s ready to be finely sliced and served on top of searing hot polenta so that it melts slowly.

Travelling along the coast, hop over the Tuscan border into Liguria, and the town of Lerici. Walk along the harbour, keeping the water on your right, passing three little fish shops built underneath the castle (where, incidentally, I’ve bought the freshest, most amazing fish ever) and you’ll see a tunnel to your left, going under the castle. Follow it to the end and you emerge to find yourself facing a tiny cove to the left. Turn right, admiring the burst of bougainvillea over the rocks, and you’ll find Ciccillorestaurant.

My favourite thing in life is eating fritto misto and they do the best in the world, occasionally including seaweed and sea anemone. My second favourite thing in life is eating spaghetti alle vongole, and they do the best version of that too – made with rosemary, which is extraordinary but utterly delicious. There are sunbeds beneath the terrace and you can ask the staff to wake you up with a coffee in a few hours (they are all incredibly beautiful Italians as well).

Lerici’s main square. Photograph: Filippo Maria Bianchi/Getty Images

From Lerici, take a boat across the La Spezia bay to Porto Venere, where poets Shelley and Byron went swimming. There are a slew ofrestaurants on the harbour – I tend to go for the one at the far end, Del Corsaro (102 Calata Doria, +39 01877 90622), for the view, but go wherever they can fit you in. What I am looking for here is pesto – Genovese-style – dressing a classic Ligurian dish, made with one-third potatoes, one-third green beans and one-third pasta, which I promise is delicious. Occasionally you’ll find pasta here made with borage in the dough.

• Valentina Harris’s memoir and family recipe collection, Fiori di Zucca, will be published in June by Duncan Baird, £20

Cooking a steak to perfection is a truly rare skill and chef Aurelio Barattini and his father are masters.

Before cooking, head waiter and Aurelio’s younger brother, Lambi shows the diner the choice steak.

The meat derives from the long horned white Chianina cattle, a rare breed from Tuscany, Umbria & Lazio, and one of the oldest breeds in the world.

The Barattini’s have created their own ingenious grill using olive wood which is the hottest burning of all woods. They have introduced an extractor fan to remove the smoke, so the dominant flavour is the wonderful meat and not smoke.

Antica Locanda serve their Bistecca alla Fiorentina rare. Because they are so large at 1.2 – 1.8 kg, it takes 35 – 45 minutes to cook the meat and so allowing the middle of the steak to become hot.

Aurelio hangs his meat for 10 days, believing the fat tastes sweeter when the fat is white rather than yellow.

The steak is cut at the table by the chefs and served with a drizzle of their wonderful olive oil, rocket or finely sliced artichokes.

www.anticalocandadisesto.it www.aureliobarattini.com

The Winter of 2012/13 was exceptionally cold and very wet. It was the worst since the terribly cold winter of 1986, which devasted the Olive trees in Tuscany and changed the landscape for years ahead

Spring is always a wonderful time in Tuscany. The olive trees have all been pruned, the wood neatly stored for use in pizza ovens and the meadows full of wonderful flowers.

During April the Swallows arrive and almost immediately start building their nests. Frogs and toads collect around the streams ready to breed. Either side of the hill at A Corte the streams are still full of fresh water from the mountains and the roar can be clearly heard from the house.

The sound of the Cuckoo echoes from the woods and Hoopoes look for ants in the lawn. From April to early June the rich medley of liquid notes of the Nightingale can be heard piercing the night air.

In May the emerald green grass turns a little browner as the temperatures begin to rise. Buzzards and Eagles soar high in the sky with wonderful courtship displays during the breeding season.

The Cinghiale (wild boar) generally move higher up the mountains until their piglets have matured. Shrikes catch insects, which they attach to thorns and use as their larder, hence their nickname  the ‘butcher bird’.

As the fruits ripen more birds are attracted to the garden. The Golden Orioles love the fig trees and in the evenings Bee eaters hunt insects above the fields. Nightjars sit on the track at night enjoying the heat from the stones. Their camouflage makes them blend in perfectly; sometimes we have to move them from in front of our car to avoid them being run over.

At night Porcupines are sometimes visible on the track and their quills are often found in areas where they have been frightened.

This is a very busy time for farmers. Once the olives trees have been pruned and fertilised, the weeping willows are tightly cut back to the trunk with the straight whips used for tying up the grape vines. Nothing is wasted in Italy

Just north of Lucca, on the Serchio river is a small sleepy town called Ponte A Moriano. Apart from a Tuesday market, very

little happens apart from a constant flow of people who flock to the Ferramenta, the busiest shop in the town attracting men

and women of all ages.

I would describe it as an ironmonger, but it actually sells everything apart from food and clothes. We call it Aladdin’s Cave

because there is nothing it doesn’t sell. Whether you want a nut or bolt, polish, basket on wheels, bbq it will sell it.

Maurizio, his Dad & Uncle run the shop with a little help from his Mother too (to add the feminine touch). Maurizio is deadly serious and wants to provide every customer with exactly what they want; if it doesn’t fit he will find a way. Nothing is too much trouble.

Although the shop entrance is small, it extends in every direction. I know it is a cliche, but in Britain we dont manufacture anything so when we need a part for a tool it always has to be ordered or replaced, whereas, Maurizio in his perfect English would say ‘What size is the tool and show a huge selection of parts?’ The British mindset is ‘if it is old, let’s replace it’, but the Italians will mend everything. If a nail can be straightened then it will be tapped until straight; nothing is wasted.

It may be cheaper to buy new nails, especially when you are paying a builder by the hour, but this is not the Italian way, tap,tap,tap.

This attitude to age is in the Italian’s blood, whether people, plants or objects. In the countryside many olive trees are over a 1000 year old; they would have been pruned annually, but no one would ever consider chopping them down and replacing them.

What is so unique about Italy are the old fashion values. Everyone is accepted at face value and no one is hurried. If you require a particular item, they will discuss it with you for hours, even though the queue has grown to over twenty and is winding out of the door.

Nothing is too much trouble. If something is required, the 3 wheeler van will zoom off and collect. There is no ‘white van man’ in Italy, just a man on 3 wheels.

Opposite the shop is a very popular Gelateria (ice cream parlour), but you will never see the boys in there – they are too busy, the heart beat of the town, whether selling or ordering more stock, just so another gadget can be mended, the Italian way.

During the Autumn, Tuscany’s restaurants are full of seasonal produce with wonderful Porcini salads (with mint & lemon) or Porcini Fritto – crunchy with fantastic soft mushroom within.

For anyone travelling to the Lucca region they should definitely explore 3 differing restaurants, the wine bar, the trat with a modern twist and a traditional family trattoria. Any other suggestions are always appreciated.

Enoteca Marcucci is set in beautiful Pietrasanta, the hometown of Michaelangelo, http://www.enotecamarcucci.it & Paul Smith’s favourite restaurant. An Enoteca is a wine bar, but this one is unique. It’s set amongst rows of expensive wines or during summer, outside in the street. Pietrasanta attracts the wealthy and chic from Milan and Turin; the Enoteca is so popular you have to get in early – Abramovich and his entourage were turned away which didn’t go down too well with Russians who are used to getting their own way. It isn’t cheap, but a memorable experience, with all the waiters dressed in black Armani.

5 kms away in Viareggio is a trattoria with a modern twist, Buonamicio http://www.trattoriabuonamico.it

Situated near the coast, this serves up great seafood, many influenced by the port of Livorno (likened to Marseille) resulting in strong pungent tomatoey fish soups – Cacciucco alla Livornese.

I am not a lover of Tuna, but good fresh Tuna is different. A chunky rare Tonno Rosso cooked over charcoal is special as was Buonamico’s sliced tuna.

Another alternative in Viareggio is a restaurant near the port serving the freshest daily caught fish http://www.ristorantedamiro.com This restaurant comes highly recommended by Antica Locanda chef, Aurelio Barattini

Of course there is no meal in Italy without Nonna’s apple pie.

Talking of La Nonna, there is a fantastic family restaurant set in Ponte A Moriano on the river Serchio. Antica Locanda has been a restaurant since 1368 and is a wonderful grand solid building. The dining experience is wonderful, the atmosphere serene, food brilliant and the family is the absolute heartbeat of the restaurant. Unsurprisingly this is our family’s favourite restaurant. http://www.anticalocandadisesto.it http://aureliobarattini.blogspot.co.uk

To start, I love the Zuppa Frantoiana, Cavolo Nero hearty veg soup or Pappa di Pomodoro, both drizzled with their wonderful olive oil. The Pappa changes with the season, fresher in the summer and heartier in the winter.

Mama, Raffaella makes the pasta and pudding with her mother, something they have worked together on for years. The menu changes seasonally apart from a few specials. One pasta I have never tasted before was the Gramigna del salsiccia, a thick beautiful curly pasta using a rare Tuscan pig for the Cinta Senese sausage.

Aurelio & his father, Adriano (master wine & olive oil maker) are in charge of the grill which uses olive wood but extracting the smoke so the flavour of the food isn’t effected. The Bistecca al Fiorentina is cooked to perfection and served as a tagliata with rocket or finely sliced artichokes (drizzle of olive oil). The steak takes 35 mins to cook, which amazes me as it is so rare in the middle and yet the olive wood burns at such a high temperature and is only 20-30 cm below the grill. The flavour is amazing, the best beef you’ll ever experience anywhere in the world.

The tables are served by Lambi, the youngest of the family, who quietly helps guests enjoy the experience.

Meanwhile across the pond, courtesy of ‘Big George Foreman’ is the alternative version – eat at your peril.

Nb: Please note none of the bbq dishes are genetically modified (or so they claim!)

Many Gastro Pubs in Britain have Scotch Eggs challenges & my local, the Sandsend and the Ship are some of the most successful bar meal creaters, so it was good to be asked by Carluccio’s to record their Italian twist – the Arancini challenge.

We photographed two Sicilian chefs, both from Catania (famous as the 80’s & 90’s murder capital of Europe), Luciano from Carluccio’s and freelance chef Umberto.

Arancini’s are fried rice ball snacks and come in various disguises; some are round, others coned or even hearts with each shape distinguishing a flavour. They are usually stuffed with various fillings, ragu & peas, pesto, cheese. These Sicilian treats also have some unusual varieties – speck with pistachio and scamorza are a huge hit and also cinnamon and milk arancini stuffed with giandiuia (chocolate) and served with a butterscotch sauce.

We wanted to create an image of two heavy weights ready for battle, just like two heavy weight boxers before a bout. Ali v Fraser. Pomp mixed with hormones.

The pro at work (notice – not hard at work!)

It’s been a great project, not just to work on, but also to meet new faces, as well as the lovely people at Carluccio’s.

The battle was between two Sicilian chefs, Carluccio’s Luciano Nastasi @LucianoNastasi1 and Umberto, the Sicilian Donkey http://www.siciliandonkey.co.uk . Both chefs have worked so hard with wonderful Arancini recipes, worthy of the competition.

The judges were Victoria Cameron from @spoonfulofsugr, Gemma Gannon from @gemma_gannon & @BandofBakers, Anita-Clare Field from @http://www.loverofcreatingflavours.co.uk, and David Gatenby from @foodographer123 , my wonderful assistant and also very talented amateur chef. He stood in for MasterChef winner, Shelina Permalloo at the last minute; a daunting task, but I wasn’t bothered as Dave’s knowledge of cooking is immense and what he doesn’t know he’ll more than make up for with enthusiasm (and a lick of his lips!). If you love food blogs or tweets and want a good read, please follow the judges above.

I originally thought Arancinis were fried rice balls, but these delicacies offered much more, with wonderful flavours – Artichoke & mushroom with Taleggio, “Alla Norma” aubergine with tomato sauce & ricotta salata, Thai prawn fusion with black rice and Asian style dip, Speck with pistachio di Bronte and Scamorza cheese, Osso Bucco with Sicilian Provolne, Cherry & chocolate, Gianduioso chocolate with caramel sauce, Creamy smoked salmon with dill & lemon zest.

The empty platters proved how tasty the chocolate balls were.

So whose balls won? It was so even, 2-2 was the judges verdict with Umberto just winning by a hair’s breadth.

My children may be in their 20s but Pancake Day is still their favourite day. This year my daughter’s cooking Crespelle stuffed with Radicchio and Goat’s Cheese (not quite the simple orange and sugar concoction they used to devour as children!)

Ingredients:

¾ cup plain flour

2 eggs

1 cup milk

Pinch of salt

EV olive oil

1 red onion (finely chopped)

3 heads of Radicchio (roughly chopped)

1 tsp fresh rosemary (chopped)

8ox goat’s cheese

2tbsp balsamic vinegar

¼ cup parsley (finely chopped)

3 tbsp unsalted butter

Start making the batter by sifting the flour into a bowl. Crack the eggs into the flour & beat, adding the milk gradually until fully incorporated. Add the salt and allow to rest for 20 mins.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.

Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a deep sauté pan and heat. When it’s smoking, add the onion and sauté over a medium heat for 5mins, until soft. Add the radicchio and sauté until soft. Remove from the heat & place in a bowl, before stirring in the goat’s cheese, balsamic vinegar and parsley. Set to one side.

Add a little oil to a pan and heat through. Turn the heat down to a medium setting & place 1 ½ tbsp batter into the pan. Cook until pale golden & flip. Cook briefly on second side & remove. Repeat the process with the rest of the batter.

Fill each crespella with 2 tbsp of the goat’s cheese filling (making sure you leave ¼ cup remaining).

Lightly butter a ceramic dish before adding the crespelle. Finish by smearing the remaining filling over the crespelle and bake for 12 mins or until hot and crispy on top. Enjoy with a chilled glass of white!

Zeppole: Italy’s doughnuts

Although doughnuts aren’t typical of Italy, a delicious equivalent is zeppole – a species of ring-shaped doughnut often found on street stalls in the south.  Whilst there are many variations (including sweet custard fillings, ricotta with chocolate bits, butter & honey mix, jelly) our favourite is the simplest version: topped with cinnamon sugar.

Ingredients

1 cup plain flour

2 tsp baking flour

Pinch of sea salt

1 ½ tbs sugar, plus ½ cup for coating

2 free range eggs

1 cup whole-milk ricotta

½ tsp vanilla extract

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Ex v olive oil

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt & 1 ½ tbsp. of the sugar in a bowl & gently combine with a fork

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then beat in the ricotta, lemon zest and vanilla. Fold the flour mix into the egg-ricotta mixture.

Put 1 ½ – 2 inches of oil in a deep frying pan. Set over medium heat & get the oil to 360 F (a small bit of bread with brown in about 1 min).

When the oil is hot enough, drop 4 tablespoons of the batter into the hot oil. NB don’t fry anymore than 4 at a time to prevent the temperature from dropping.

The zeppole will quickly brown & rise to the surface of the oil, though you may need to give them a nudge. As they fry, try to gently pierce each one with a skewer to make them crisper.

Cook the zeppole until they are a deep nut-brown, then remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a rack to drain & cool slightly (make sure you have some kitchen roll underneath!)

When all the zeppole are done, combine the cinnamon with ½ cup of sugar in a bowl. Roll each one in cinnamon sugar (normal sugar if you prefer) and place in a bowl for serving. Buon appetito!