BR - Tuscany and Florence

I have some catching up to do with the belly report.  So we left off with the fantastic cooking class, that was our lunch - the risotto and gnocchi.  After that we had some down time, so we took a walk through the vineyards and into the neighboring town.  We sampled a couple sangiovese right off the vine - delish and probably a couple weeks from harvest (these next couple weeks are crucial for this years harvest.  The grapes are basically left to grow for much of the summer with basic care but as September/October come then the harvest is monitored closely and once they sugar and acidity are at the desired or close to desired levels, they will start cutting, much still done by hand).  

We had the wine tasting at Mangiacane that afternoon - we sampled the Villa's own Chianti Classico and the Chianti Riserva.  Both were decent but not great (the '05 Riserva was rated 87 by Wine Spectator and Paolo, the wine director was a bitter about that to say the least!).  We took Paolo's recommendation and headed to Osteria di Passiganao:

http://www.osteriadipassignano.com/index.php?osteria_di_passignano_eng

We started with the Parmigiana & Parmigiana starter - 1) Crunchy Eggplant and Buccia di Rospo foam 2) Zucchini with Squash flower salad.  It was very interesting and super good.  Parmigiana done 2 ways that I have never seen anything close to (I will include pics).  We also ordered the cheese plate, a mix of 3 cow, 3 sheep, and 3 goat.  The plate was arranged from the youngest to the very aged.  There was one the server warned us about that said 'it brought tears to his eyes because it was that good'.  He was right on point, wow it was good, no tears but incredible!  

The First Course was split the 'Green Cannelloni filled with ricotta and aromatic herbs on bread with tomato cream'  - it was phenomenal, really different and innovative.  They basically used the cannelloni as a pasta.  For the main we picked the 'Beef Filet Wrapped in Cheek Bacon and Bay Leaf'.  It was also great, what a meal!  We paired all of this with the 'Badia di Passignano' Chianti Riserva.  After dinner I was like a kid in a candy store at their wine shop (bought a Tignanello, Brunello, another Chianti Riserva, and some olive oil).  Looking back this was the best meal we ate, everything was just great.

We started our last day in Tuscany with the regular hotel breakfast then headed out to San Gimignano and Siena.  The last stop was Badia a Coltibuono, a huge winery in Gaiole Chianti.  We got a great tour of the winery including seeing the family's private collection (bottles from every year since 1939!).  We ended the tour with a tasting of 3 wines, 2 honey, and 3 olive oils.  Our favorite wine was the 'Cultus Boni' Chianti Classico, the oils and honey were very tasty. 

After the tasting we headed over to their restaurant, a short walk from the tasting room.  

We started with the 'Tomato, Mozzarella, and crispy bread with caper sauce' very nice, different, we liked it.  Then we shared the 'Porcini veloute' basically a Porcini mushroom soup and the 'Ricotta cheese dumplings chestnut and chestnut sauce'.  The soup was a good choice because it was rainy and cold that night.  The gnocchi dumplings were so good, amazing.  Ricotta stuffed gnocchi?!?  How the hell did they do that?.  We finished with the 'Beef shank braised in sangiovese grapes with mashed potatoes'  another good choice with the weather.  It was very tender slow cooked meat, very flavorful.  A great dinner for the last dinner in Tuscany, so sad:(

On to Firenze!  Overall the food in Florence was good but not comparable to Tuscany and much more expensive.  Tuscany was very reasonable (keep in mind we are used to NYC prices!).  Dinner the first night was at Aqua al 2, a touristy trattoria but fun.  We got the pasta sampler, cheese plate and then the 'blueberry filet'.  The Blueberry steak was nice, the sauce was sweet from the blueberries but also spicy from the peppercorns.  It was different and we liked it.  The highlight of dinner was the '05 Tignanello - umm umm good!  The night cap was probably one too many Morretti pints at a small bar by the hotel.

On our last day we built up an appetite sight seeing and hit 'Osteria de Benci' for lunch.  We started with the cannellini and garlic bruschetta then ordered 2 pastas (Dina had the signature spaghetti carbonera and I opted for the fusilli pasta with pancetta,  hot red peppers, and lots of garlic!  Both were better than expected.  

For dinner we headed to Borgo San Jacopo, a great hotel restaurant on the edge of the Arno river.  We started with the stuffed Zucchini flowers, excellent just not enough of them!  Then we split the 'Raviolo of fresh pasta filled with smoked scamorza cheese in a tomato, eggplant,  and marjoram sauce'. Molto buono!  (Again not enough of it).  The main was the 'Veal rolls romana style with potato cake, ham and sage sauce'.  Excellent!  The wine choice could have been the nicest of the trip, a 2003 Brunello 'Il Colle' (from a small producer).  The wine was earthy and smooth,  much smoother then the Chianti's we have been drinking.  

That's it!  Now its back to the gym to try and work off all of the carbs.  Pics will be posted shortly....