I am a Tuscan born and bred country girl, from a family of people who love traditional food. Olive oil runs through my veins, and I love nothing more than pappa al pomodoro, our famed stale bread and tomato soup. I stock my pantry and my fridge with local beans, pecorino toscano, our typical unsalted bread, chestnut flour, and Tuscan kale in the winter.
At Christmastime, my family has always closed our festive meals with local sweet treats from Siena. When I was younger, we would buy them at the supermarket. Then, when my passion for good food grew and became contagious, my mum and I started baking everything from scratch: first ricciarelli, delicate almond paste cookies; then panforte, the Sienese nut and fruit spiced cake; and finally cavallucci, sturdy walnut Christmas cookies. We would line the ricciarelli up on our marble table and bake trays of cavallucci in our wood-burning oven, the spiced aromas of these medieval treats permeating the kitchen.
