Food

The reflection of Italy's home cooking could be found in its vital center which is Tuscany. Incomparable simple dishes are what the Tuscans are famous for.Seafoods which is readily available and abundant on the Tuscan coasts give way to the creation of a popular seafood soup called cacciucco, a dish whose ingredients vary everyday depending on the days catch.

The meat in Tuscany is cooked by grilling it over open flames. The most popular meat dish is the bisteca fiorentina which is a T-bone steak cooked accurately over uniform flames.

Vegetables are aplenty in the region, growing everywhere. The local people use these vegetables creatively to bring out its full flavor. The process of cooking vegetables is called saltare. Tuscans are also noted for their love of beans, they are often referred to as the "bean-eaters of Italy". One of the famous beans which is a Tuscan favorite is the fava beans which is eaten in the raw or steamed. Another favorite is the dried white cannelini or the toscanelli beans.

Herbs which are readily available grow everywhere like their vegetables. They find their uses in almost every Tuscan dish. The main herbs used most often are rosemary and sage.

Like any other Italian region you will notice while driving around Tuscany that there are a lot of olive trees which grow everywhere. Tuscan olive oil is taken from these olive trees but is not the best to be used for cooking; it is used as a condiment instead.