Ever since Frances Mayes’s book “Under the Tuscan Sun” was published, Tuscany and all things Tuscan have been a sort of runaway phenomenon. Tuscany is a place that looms larger in the public imagination than in life, with an enviable lifestyle cachet that conjures up images of romantic villas, noble cypress trees, and undulating vineyards flush with grapes. As a marketing phenomenon, it’s impossible to enumerate all the home furnishings that have adopted Tuscan in their name.
Now there’s a new cookbook out, the second one from Debi Mazar and Gabriele Corcos, titled “Super Tuscan.”
Wine aficionados will know that Super Tuscan is the name of immensely popular wines produced in Tuscany that do not necessarily use indigenous grape varietals.
The label “Super Tuscan” fits here nicely with the authors, who co-host the Cooking Channel’s “Extra Virgin.” Mazar, who grew up in New York, is an actor (“Entourage,” “Younger”), while Corcos grew up on a farm in Fiesole, in the hills overlooking Florence. These days, they make their home in the neighborhood of Windsor Terrace, in Brooklyn.
It turns out that, for Mazar and Corcos, being Tuscan really is a state of mind—and that no matter where they are, they cook and eat in a Tuscan way: seasonally, healthfully, and very conscious of where the ingredients come from. Whether they are having a picnic under a tree in Italy or in Prospect Park, they are making the same meals and dining together as a family.
