• Yildiz100 on May 02, 2016

  I bought this book in preparation for an upcoming trip to Florence and I'm so happy I did! She includes so much great information about the city. The photography is gorgeous and the recipes are appetizing. She includes both weight and volume measurements for the ingredients. (Yay!) The author states that Florence isn't known for it's desserts, but ironically I found that to be the most interesting chapter in the book. Can't wait to cook from this!

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Apple cake (Torta di mele)

  • Astrid5555 on October 26, 2016

    This is a lovely cake! However, against my better judgement I followed the instructions closely and ended up with a curdled mess of a batter. She has you add all the milk and lemons zest in one go to the thick and and creamy butter/sugar/egg mixture before folding in the flour. I normally would have added the milk and flour alternately in several additions. Nothing that could not be saved in the end and it did not affect the final cake. Quick to make and big hit with the kids.

  • Melanie on July 27, 2016

    Simple and tasty cake, I liked the addition of lemon in this cake. Best on the first two days.

• Rosemary & sultana buns (Pandiramerino)

  • Yildiz100 on April 15, 2018

    Very nice, even though I forgot the salt. She says a pinch but I think I will start with a half a teaspoon in the dough next time. Dough was a bit dry and I needed to add about 2 tbs to get it to come together. These are mildly sweet, nice for tea or breakfast.

• Grape focaccia (Schiacciata all'uva)

  • jzanger on September 09, 2018

    Absolutely delicious, and reminiscent of the treat I remember from Florence's outdoor market. This was well worth the effort I put into deseeding every grape, and the rest of the process was pretty simple. I made the dough the night before and kept it in the fridge. After a few hours of being in the fridge it had risen quite a bit so I punched it down. The next morning I took it out of the fridge and let it come to room temp while I fussed with the grapes. A few notes for next time: The recipe uses no salt (which is traditional in Florence, I know), but I think I'd add a pinch of salt along with the layers of grapes, sugar, fennel seed, and olive oil. Also, the dough is super sticky, so be sure you oil your bowl and be sure to follow their guidance to oil your hands while handling the dough.

• Beans in tomato sauce (Fagioli all'uccelleto)

  • Yildiz100 on May 02, 2016

    I make a million versions of white beans and tomato sauce, but I had to try out this version too. I thought it was good-not any better than any of the other recipes I use, but I'd say just as good. It was, however, even simpler, since it didn't include any onions to chop. I love that she includes both volume and weight measurements. However, I found the two cups of cooked beans didn't nearly equal the weight she indicated. I went with the weight because 400 grams/14 oz of passata is a lot. In fact, next time if I use passata I will reduce the amount a bit. I suspect if using whole canned tomatoes (the other option she suggested) the ration would be just right.

• Florentine-style green beans (Fagiolini alla Fiorentina)

  • Yildiz100 on May 19, 2018

    Not crazy about the cooking technique here. Other recipes for this dish call for blanching the beans first but this recipe just has you cook them in the sauce. Took way longer than indicated, maybe an 45 minutes and they were still a bit crisp. Will not repeat.

• Tomato & bread soup (Pappa al pomodoro)

  • jzanger on September 05, 2018

    I made this with peeled and crushed garden tomatoes, following the recipe almost to a t. The flavor was delicious, but I did end up feeling like there may have been too much bread for the simmered tomatoes. I think several factors could be to blame, such as how much your tomatoes reduce on a medium setting for 20 min, what volume of bread the 350g translates to, etc. I think next time I would only use 2/3 of the bread to begin with, then add more toward the end if necessary. After I added about 1/2 c more vegetable stock the texture smoothed out and was lovely, but I would have preferred a better balance between tomato and bread in the end.

• Florentine-style crêpes (Crespelle alla Fiorentina)

  • Yildiz100 on August 03, 2016

    A big success! Even my 4 year liked them. A few tweaks: instead of her crepes, we used the recipe we always use (Swedish version in Bonniers). I ran out of milk so I only used 450 milliliters and decreased the flour slightly, and it was still a bit more béchamel than necessary. Next time I might try 400 ml. This had a high ricotta to spinach ratio. I think I could easily double the amount of spinach next time, though my daughter might not approve. Baking time was more like 25 minutes. I did the crepes in advance and next time will do even more prep in advance for an easy weeknight meal.

• Spinach and ricotta dumplings (Gnudi)

  • Yildiz100 on April 02, 2017

    These held together during cooking but fell apart on the fork. Kind of bland, and it seemed like too much spinach or like the spinach should have been pureed.

  • apattin on August 06, 2018

    Not a favorite. Too bland and needed to add lots of flour to shape them into balls. Used homemade tomato sauce instead of the sage butter. I noticed that other recipes call for semolina flour... will try them next. My supermarket ricotta cheese, even though I drained it as directed, produced no liquid. Maybe that was the issue.

• Pear & ricotta ravioloni (Ravioloni di pera e ricotta)

  • jlg84 on October 28, 2016

    Truly excellent!

• Leite's Culinaria

  Let the beautiful collection of images and recipes...take you on a photographic and culinary journey through the winding streets of this ancient city.

  Full review