Italian Foods Forever

[james]

Re: Italian Foods Forever

Paul,
Esattamente. Lei e giusto. I'm thinking of signing up for French lessons. It make trips a lot more fun when you can talk with folks.
James

[Hendo]

Re: Italian Foods Forever

James,

Not being a multi-lingual person in any sense of the word, and having only schoolboy French to fall back on (now largely forgotten), is it simply that the spelling of Toscana (the noun - Tuscany in English) stays as Toscana for feminine nouns and becomes Toscano for masculine nouns when used as an adjective, as in this instance of il pane (masculine noun)? So Tuscan bread = pane Toscano.

I must book into Italian classes!

Cheers, Paul.

[james]

Re: Italian Foods Forever

Ah hah. It is Pane Toscano. I looked at it in the supermarket yesterday -- it makes sense; I've been spelling it wrong all along. Ooops. At our local Coop, a very nice modern supermarket that I think is good, a majority of the bread is Pane Toscano in one form or another (filleto di Toscano, Pane della Nonna, cotta a legna, etc.), along with a Pugliese made from grano duro, and a very light Ciabatta. There are handful of wood oven breads, and the on-site bakery makes a nice schiacciata and schiacciata farcite that is sliced in half and stuffed with prosciutto, cheese, etc.

Nice to get the bottom of something.
James

[james]

Re: Italian Foods Forever

Thanks for the lead on the video. That was good.

Still -- I would only recommend Pane Toscana for bruschette. For dinner, it's a pretty tasteless loaf, and the lack of salt keeps the crumb from developing properly, to where it's dense, and almost dry and crumbly. If there are any Florentines (Fiorentini) out there, please forgive me.

The vowel at the end of an adjective typically corresponds with the noun (male or female), giving you Forno Bravo or Pizzeria Brava. I'll check a few bakeries and the supermarket, and look that one up. It's il Pane (irregular male). Pizzeria Biano is "Bianco" because of the family name, whereas a white pizza could be pizza bianca.

James

[Versachi]

Pane Toscano?

I might have found what you guys are looking for. I see James spelling is Toscana and the site I found spells it Toscano.

Mestolando - Recipes - Making 'Pane Toscano' bread at home

This website has the recipe and a video making Pane Toscano from start to finish by a bread baker in Florence with 14 years experience. Its about a 5 minute video.

Cheers, Versachi

[CanuckJim]

Re: Italian Foods Forever

Tim,

Yep, I've known about The Artisan web site for some time. It's worthwhile, surely, but a bit on the preachy and condescending side. Bread isn't voodoo, it's chemistry and practice. I wouldn't have thought to go there for Pane Toscano, but I will now. Thanks for the tip.

Jim

[klaatu]

Re: Italian Foods Forever

.

Very nice. Thanks. I'm always up for another site full of good
looking recipes.

[CanuckJim]

All,

In my search for Pane Toscana recipes, I went here: Italian Food Forever - Italian Recipes! Didn't help, and I can't recall if I've mentioned this site before or not, but it's really worthwhile. Lots and lots of stuff and many, many recipes.

Jim