La Cucina Toscana · The Tuscan Table

Tuscan Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Recipes from the hill towns of Tuscany, cooked the way the region has always cooked: olive oil pressed from the fruit, sweet butter, a spoonful of lard when the dish asks for it. Never a drop of seed oil.

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Olive Oil· Sweet Butter· Never Seed Oils
Nests of fresh handmade pasta with vine tomatoes and basil on a wooden board
🫒 Pasta Fresca
Rolled by hand, every morning
L'olio prima di tutto

Olive Oil First

Nearly every savory dish here begins with extra virgin olive oil, the fat that has anchored the Tuscan pantry for centuries.

La cucina povera

Waste Nothing

Tuscan cooking was born frugal. Yesterday's bread, a handful of beans, and a good pot become tomorrow's most loved dishes.

Mai olio di semi

Never Vegetable Oil

If a fat was not in a Tuscan farmhouse a hundred years ago, it is not in our kitchen. No seed oils, no shortcuts.

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Le Ricette

The Tuscan Table, Dish by Dish

Six dishes we return to all year long, each one cooked with the honest fats of the region and nothing else.

Meat Thick sliced grilled steak resting on a wooden board
Ricetta I

Bistecca alla Fiorentina

45 min·4 servings·Medium

A thick porterhouse seared over glowing embers and seasoned with almost nothing at all. Florence at its most confident: salt, smoke, good beef, and a thread of olive oil.

Ingredients

  • 1 porterhouse steak, cut about 3 fingers thick (roughly 2.5 lb)
  • Coarse sea salt
  • Freshly cracked black pepper
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
  • 1 sprig fresh rosemary
  • 2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
  • 1 tbsp butter, for basting if cooking indoors
  • A handful of arugula, to serve
  • Flaky salt, to finish
  • 1 lemon, halved, for the table

Instructions

  1. Take the steak out of the refrigerator a full hour before cooking so it comes to room temperature.
  2. Prepare a bed of very hot coals, or heat a heavy cast iron pan indoors until it just begins to smoke.
  3. Stand the steak upright on its bone for 5 minutes so the heat travels toward the center.
  4. Lay it flat and sear 5 minutes per side without moving it, adding the rosemary, garlic, and butter to the pan if cooking indoors and basting once.
  5. Rest the meat under loose foil for 10 minutes, then carve the two muscles off the bone and slice thickly.
  6. Season with flaky salt, cracked pepper, and a thin stream of olive oil, and serve over the arugula with lemon on the side.
Seafood Mixed seafood stew in tomato broth with toasted bread
Ricetta II

Cacciucco alla Livornese

1 hr 30 min·6 servings·Medium

Livorno's harbor stew: several kinds of seafood simmered in tomato, red wine, and a whisper of chili, then ladled over garlic rubbed bread until it drinks up the broth.

Ingredients

  • 2 lb mixed firm white fish, cut into large chunks
  • 10 oz squid, cut into rings
  • 10 oz mussels, scrubbed and debearded
  • 8 oz shrimp, shell on
  • ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, sliced, plus 1 whole clove for the bread
  • 1 small dried chili, crumbled
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 1 can (14 oz) crushed tomatoes
  • 6 fresh sage leaves
  • 6 thick slices country bread, toasted

Instructions

  1. Warm the olive oil in a wide heavy pot and let the sliced garlic, chili, and sage soften gently without coloring.
  2. Add the squid and cook over medium heat until it releases its liquid and turns tender, about 15 minutes.
  3. Pour in the red wine and let it bubble down by half.
  4. Stir in the tomatoes with a cup of water, season with salt, and simmer 30 minutes until deep and glossy.
  5. Nestle in the white fish and cook 10 minutes, then add the mussels and shrimp and cover until the shells open.
  6. Rub the toasted bread with the whole garlic clove and set a slice in each bowl.
  7. Ladle the stew over the bread, finish with a thread of olive oil, and bring to the table hot.
Vegetable Rustic pot of beans stewing slowly in tomato sauce
Ricetta III

Fagioli all'Uccelletto

45 min·4 servings·Easy

Creamy cannellini beans stewed low and slow with tomato, garlic, and sage in plenty of olive oil. The side dish every Florentine trattoria keeps warm on the back burner.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups cooked cannellini beans (or 1¼ cups dried, soaked overnight and simmered until tender)
  • â…“ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
  • 4 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
  • 8 fresh sage leaves
  • 1¼ cups peeled whole tomatoes, crushed by hand
  • A small pinch of dried chili, optional
  • Fine sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • ½ cup bean cooking liquid or water
  • Grilled bread, to serve

Instructions

  1. Warm the olive oil in a wide pan with the garlic and sage until the leaves crackle and the kitchen smells of both.
  2. Add the tomatoes and the chili if using, and simmer 10 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly.
  3. Tip in the beans with the reserved cooking liquid and season with salt and pepper.
  4. Cook gently for 20 minutes, shaking the pan now and then rather than stirring, so the beans stay whole.
  5. Rest 5 minutes off the heat, then finish with a generous pour of raw olive oil and serve with grilled bread.
Soup Bowl of thick tomato soup finished with herbs and olive oil
Ricetta IV

Pappa al Pomodoro

50 min·4 servings·Easy

A thick soup of ripe tomatoes and yesterday's bread, silky with olive oil and sweet with basil. Proof that Tuscan thrift can taste like luxury.

Ingredients

  • 10 oz stale country bread, torn into pieces
  • 2 lb ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or canned whole peeled)
  • ½ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
  • 3 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1 small handful fresh basil leaves
  • 2 cups vegetable broth or water
  • Fine sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • A pinch of sugar, only if the tomatoes need it
  • Grated aged pecorino, optional, to serve

Instructions

  1. Warm the olive oil in a heavy pot and let the garlic turn fragrant and pale gold.
  2. Add the tomatoes, season with salt, and simmer 15 minutes until they collapse into a loose sauce.
  3. Stir in the torn bread and the broth, pushing the bread under the liquid.
  4. Cook gently for 15 minutes, stirring often, until the bread dissolves into a thick, almost spoonable porridge.
  5. Tear in the basil, taste for salt, and add the pinch of sugar only if needed.
  6. Rest 10 minutes, then serve warm rather than hot, each bowl finished with black pepper and a spiral of olive oil.
Bread Slices of olive topped flatbread on a terracotta plate
Ricetta V

Schiacciata all'Olio

2 hr 30 min·8 pieces·Medium

Tuscany's everyday flatbread, dimpled by hand and baked until the top glistens with olive oil and crunchy salt. Eaten warm, split for sandwiches, or torn straight from the pan.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups bread flour
  • 1½ cups warm water
  • 2¼ tsp instant yeast (1 packet)
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 2 tsp fine sea salt
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil for the dough
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil for the pan and topping
  • Coarse sea salt, for the top
  • 1 sprig rosemary, leaves picked, optional

Instructions

  1. Stir the flour, yeast, honey, and fine salt together, then add the water and dough oil and mix into a soft, sticky dough.
  2. Knead 8 minutes until smooth, then cover and let rise in a warm spot for about 1 hour, until doubled.
  3. Oil a rimmed baking sheet generously and stretch the dough across it with your fingertips.
  4. Cover and rise again for 30 minutes, then dimple the whole surface deeply with your fingers.
  5. Drizzle the remaining oil into the dimples and scatter the coarse salt and rosemary over the top.
  6. Bake at 430°F (220°C) for 20 to 25 minutes until deep golden, and cool 10 minutes before cutting.
Dessert Almond biscotti beside a cup of espresso
Ricetta VI

Cantuccini di Prato

1 hr 15 min·30 biscuits·Easy

Twice baked almond biscuits from the town of Prato, firm enough to dunk into espresso or sweet wine and just sweet enough to end any meal well.

Ingredients

  • 2¾ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 eggs, plus 1 yolk for brushing
  • 1½ cups whole almonds, skins on
  • 4 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • Finely grated zest of 1 orange
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • A pinch of fine sea salt

Instructions

  1. Toast the almonds in a dry pan until fragrant and let them cool completely.
  2. Whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale, then stir in the melted butter, vanilla, and orange zest.
  3. Fold in the flour, baking powder, and salt, then work in the almonds to form a soft dough.
  4. Shape into two flattened logs on a lined tray and brush with the beaten yolk.
  5. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 25 minutes until golden and just firm, then cool 10 minutes.
  6. Slice the logs on the diagonal into fingers about ¾ inch wide.
  7. Lay the slices flat and bake 8 more minutes per side until dry and crisp. Store in a tin for up to two weeks.
Rolling hills of the Val d'Orcia with cypress trees and a farmhouse
Val d'Orcia · Toscana
“A tavola non si invecchia.”

At the table, no one grows old. An old Tuscan saying, and the closest thing this kitchen has to a philosophy.

Olives ripening on a silvery olive branch
La Nostra Cucina

The Kitchen Behind Brevaris Cucina

Brevaris Cucina is a small kitchen devoted to the cooking of Tuscany: the peposo left overnight in a low oven, the beans nudged along the back of the stove, the bread that is never wasted because there is always a soup waiting for it.

We keep one old rule above all the others. The fats in our pots are the fats of the Tuscan farmhouse: olive oil pressed from the fruit, butter, and now and then a spoonful of lard. Vegetable oil has never had a place at this table, and it never will.

Buon appetito, e buona salute.

✨ Wellness

Make Nexburn Part of Your Daily Table

The Tuscan table is proof that simple habits, repeated daily, add up. Nexburn fits that rhythm: natural support for your metabolism in a single morning dropper, backed by a 60 day money back guarantee.

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