During the summer we hopped on the train to Modena, a wonderful city nearby, famed for being the birthplace of Pavarotti, the home of Ferrari and now Massimo Bottura’s, wonderful Osteria Francescana.

Modena is a really interesting city, a university town full of beautiful warm tones. It neighbours, Bologna the real food capital of Emilia Romagna (& Italy) where so many famous dishes have originated, such as Bolognese, Lasagne, Mortadella, Cotechino and Zampone and only a stones throw from the beautiful city of Parma – Parmigiano cheese & Parma Ham.

Massimo is one of the most relaxed chefs in the world and his recipes carry so much charm, humour and taste fantastic. The restaurant is so serene, surrounded with fantastic paintings, quirky sculptures from Damian Hirst and other international artists. The atmosphere is very relaxing, uncrowded with lovely knowledgeable but relaxed service.

Part of the 3 part starter from the Italian sensational’s menu

little pillows stuffed with baccala (salt cod), part of the starter

wonderful parmesan & truffle fingers

Massimo’s humorous take on fish & chips (ice-cream). A crisp stuffed with aola (fresh water fish) & carpione ice cream

Delicious crispy tempura with a wonderful soft squid & tempura in an amazing Mediterranean tomato & caper consume

Lasagne, as a child Massimo’s family used to argue who was going to eat the crispy top to the lasagne, this is his crispiest top with the colours of the Italian flag

Eel swimming up the river Po. This was a truly amazing dish, delicious eel with sharp apple & polenta

Local working man’s lunch – mortadella with focaccia, served with a beer. A classic Bologna dish

Five ages of Parmigiano Reggiano in different temptures and textures

Foie gras ice lolly, made with 50 year old balsamic and hazel nuts, so wonderfully smooth

Turbot with green sauce

Caesar salad, which includes 2 ingredients hidden within

Freddie tucking into the veal

Spin-painted veal with horse radish

Seafood bisque served fish heaven – John Dorry with squid ink

Oop’s, I dropped the lemon tart?

Rice pudding

Coffee & chocolates

This experience was one of the best things we’ve ever done. It is booked up several months in advance and dates are released every quarter, so you have to be quick as they go in seconds.

We also had the wine pairing (which included beer & dessert wine). The wines were not classics but fantastically sourced to compliment the dishes and were very generous, unlike the wine pairings in London restaurant, which are extremely mean. Massimo is a wonderfully generous spirited person.

Osteria Francescana, Via Stella 22, Modena, Italia 41121 www.osteriafrancescana.it
Tel: +39 0592 23912
E-mail: info@francescana.it

Tuscany is a very long province on the west side of Italy and as a result has so many wonderful different foods. These foods really typify the people and the landscape. The links below show some fantastic foods.

Rare Tuscan & Ligurian pasta called Testaroli, a thick pancake, sliced, made with chestnut flour and cooked over chestnut wood, usually served with pesto or mushrooms.
http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/allthingstuscany/tuscanycious/summer-food-escapes-in-tuscany/
http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/allthingstuscany/tuscanycious/tuscan-cheese-guide/
http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/allthingstuscany/tuscanycious/tuscan-food-products-google-map/

Weddings are now taking place all over the world, with lots happening in Tuscany.

Our daughter got married in Kings Road, Chelsea, London in May and had a week long party in a large house that slept 65 for all their lovely friends. It over looked the Lucca plateau, 30 minutes east from our house during the 2nd week of June.

Post blessing meal looking over the Lucca plateau

Millie & Tom with their best men & brides maids

The wedding dress

Quick get away

Pre blessing pizza evening – slick back hair is essential…

I am always in admiration of the Tuscan farmers working in the valley throughout the mid-day heat, with temperatures sometimes in excess of 35C. The valley is a reflection of traditional organic farming with cows still milked by hand, small pastures of rotated crops and grass full of herbs and flowers. These farmers sadly are a dying breed, as younger generations opt for an easier life working in the towns.

Pump up the volume! It is so good to have so much wild life and Tuscany is so organic. The dawn chorus can be deafening – the occasional whistling sound is a golden oriel

Male golden oriel

They love fruit, especially the figs

Pecorino is the family name of a hard Italian cheese made from ewes milk. The name Pecorino derives from the Italian ‘pecora’ meaning sheep.

Most pecorino is produced on Sardinia but it it’s also produced in Tuscany, Sicily  and Lazio in mountainous areas which are too steep & rocky for other animals. The cheese, like parmesan has been granted a Protected Designation of Origin.

There are various types depending on how long they have been aged. The more mature cheeses referred to as stagionato (aged) are harder but still crumbly with a buttery, nutty texture. Other types, semi-stagnionato and fresco are milder and milkier in taste.

In southern Italy, it is traditional to add black peppercorns or chilli flakes. Nowadays there are several new variaties with walnuts and truffle flavours. The Sardinians intentionally allow sheep flies to create a speciality Pecorino Sardo called Casu Marzu.

A good pecorino is often eaten with pears, walnuts or with chestnut (castagno) honey or as an alternative to parmesan with pasta.

Family meal in the Garfagnana mountains

In the the winter months the flocks of sheep are kept in the lowlands, away from extreme weather and wolves.

In the spring the shepherds move the flocks into the hills and mountains and live in the old traditional shepherd’s stone houses

After the fields have been cut in the autumn, the shepherds move the flocks back to the protection of the farms on the low lands

Pecorino is sold in Ponte a Moriano market and a very good cheese shop within the entrance walls at Piazza St Maria

The buttero are cattlemen in the Maremma region of southern Tuscany, a low lying damp area along the coast and similar to the Camargue in southern France. They wear course cotton trousers, velvet jackets, a cape to keep them dry called a ‘pastrano’,  black hat and use a stick called a mazzarella to control the cattle. They are a romantic view of a past life in Italy, one that is now rapidly changing as Italy modernises since the war and transport links divide all areas of the country. However, it is wonderful seeing this area and traditions remaining within the National Park.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the drainage between Rome and Livorno became choked, turning the Maremma into an inhospitable marshland with stagnant pools, plagued by malarial mosquitos. Re-draining began in the late C18th and with the help of insecticides the area became free of malaria in the 1950’s. The butteri have been part of the landscape for over 250 years. During the war they moved further north from Rome to the Maremma, an untamed wilderness of mountainous forests and marshland.

They are skilled horse riders and work for semi-feudal landlords, breaking in wild horses and driving wild longhorn cattle.

Today there are only six large herds in the unspoilt national park but they still participate in local rodeos.

Maremma sheepdog watches over large flocks of sheep & cattle, protecting the livestock from wolves

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/italy/tuscany/9372800/Secret-seaside-Parco-Naturale-della-Maremma-Tuscany.html

We are lucky to have 2 Michelin starred restaurants near the house. The Butterfly http://www.ristorantebutterfly.it is on the main road from Lucca, near Esse Lunga supermarket & L’imbuto  http://www.limbuto.it is a new addition and in the centre of Lucca. There are others too in Viareggio & Forti di Marmi

http://www.mapitout-tuscany.com/2014/12/tuscanys-best-restaurants-michelin.html

Italian food is very simple and seasonal and our favourite restaurant for food & ambience is a nearby family trattoria http://www.anticalocandadisesto.it

We all take a loaf of bread for granted, but nearby in Ponte a Moriano di Sesto  there is a wonderful artisan baker, Fratelli Paganelli Panificio, where every loaf is cooked with so much love and care in their olive wood-fired oven. See local chef Aurelio Barattini, an important person in Tuscany’s slow food movement, wonderful short video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO073VYYMzY

Our bread in Britain or the US often comes in a plastic wrapper and has no flavour; we even discard the crust. This bread is delicious and is wonderful eaten plain or with a drizzle of olive oil (or even with the delicious artisan butters). Yummy!!

Lucca hosts a wonderful music festival every July with great names like David Bowie, George Michael, Alicia Keys, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Leonard Cohen, Anastacia, Lenny Kravitz, Stevie Wonder and in July 2015, two of the stars that will be playing are Robbie Williams on July 23rd and Mark Knopfler on July 22nd.

Click the link http://www.summer-festival.com/home as other musicians will be released soon. All the action takes place within the walls, in the wonderfully picturesque Piazza St Michaele.