Welcome to the first part of my mini-series on Tuscan food.

For information on what DOP and IGP mean, go to the bottom of the post.

Crostini Neri

This is a famous starter. It consists of a thick slice of Tuscan bread (Pane Toscano DOP)—a type of bread without salt—covered with liver paté (paté di fegatini). The paté is made with liver (chicken or veal), onions, anchovies, broth, desalted capers, white wine, olive oil, butter and salt. The slice of bread is either lightly dipped in the broth or toasted. Here’s a fun fact. The Italian adjective sciocco means stupid and silly, but also bland. Pane Toscano is also called pane sciocco in reference to the bland taste resulting from the lack of salt.

Panzanella

This is a fresh summer salad made with stale bread (pane raffermo), ripe tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, basil leaves, olive oil, wine vinegar, salt and water (to soak the bread).

Panigacci (or Panigazzi)

This is a flat, round, unleavened bread that is cooked in a terracotta pan. It’s also made in Liguria.

The Cheeses

Tuscany is highly specialised in one type of cheese—pecorino. If you’re lucky and look in the right places, you may find special versions with extra ingredients, such as truffles, walnuts or black peppercorns. Be careful, they can cost up to 50 dollars a kilo. Pecorino Toscano (DOP) is the official name of a type of pecorino.

Cured Meats

• Finocchiona IGP

Finocchiona literally means large female fennel and is a type of salami seasoned with wild fennel seeds—hence the name—red wine and garlic. The locals are really proud of this product, so be careful.

• Lardo di Colonnata IGP

This is cured pork fat. As simple as that. Before you turn away in horror, know that it’s one of the most prestigious cured meats in Italy and is delicious.

• Soppressata Toscana

Southern Italy is the king of soppressata, but the Tuscan version is worth a try. Soppressata is a dry pork salami and is my favourite cured meat.

• Sanguinaccio

I’m only including this because Linda is German. Sanguinaccio is the generic Italian term for blood sausage. In Tuscany, the two regional versions are called biroldo and buristo. Unfortunately, they’re not that easy to find.

• Mortadella di Prato

Mortadella is a sausage made with ground cured pork, fat and spices and is associated with Bologna. However, the town of Prato makes its own version, seasoning the meat with spices, garlic and alchermes.

IGP and DOP

All you need to know right now is that these are food labels designed to “protect” (non-local) consumers. When you buy an IGP or DOP product, the label on the packaging guarantees that the product has been produced using the “traditional” method(s) in the “traditional” production area(s). That’s an oversimplification, of course.

Sorry for the long post.