Episode #242: Tastes of Tuscany in Fall

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Summary

In this episode, we dive into the vibrant Fall/Autumn traditions with food writer and cookbook author Giulia Scarpaleggia of Juls’ Kitchen, exploring everything from the art of making grape focaccia and chestnut delights to the significance of freshly pressed olive oil. Discover how to celebrate the harvest season like a local and get inspired to bring a taste of Tuscany into your own kitchen!

What you’ll learn in this episode

• The unique “fifth season” falls between Summer (after Ferragosto) and Fall and great season produce crosses over – like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and squashes
• Giulia is a huge fan of vegetables (spoiler alert this is what her next book will be based on) and enjoys making pizette using eggplant and butternut squash slices
• Visiting the countryside of Tuscany (and Italy in general) is fabulous in the Fall – with the color changes of the landscape and various harvests taking place, including the grape harvest for wine and the olive harvest for the oil
• Fettunta is a feast for family and friends to celebrate their freshly pressed olive oil
• Dishes using produce from the harvest and seasonal produce are key – like Schiacciata con l’uva (Grape Focaccia), squash frittata, apple olive oil cake, Pan co’ Santi (a dense bread made with olive oil) and a large variety of things made with chestnut flour and foraged mushrooms and truffles
• A traditional that Giulia carries on with her daughter, that her own nonna (grandma) did in the 30ths, is carving the squash to put candles in as lanterns for Tuscan All Hallows’ Eve – representative of Tuscany’s emphasis on tradition and the seasonal local produce
• Those on the Untold Italy Tuscany tour are lucky enough to cook with Giulia in the Fall (as well as Spring) but for everyone else her website Juls’ Kitchen, cookbooks and newsletter “Letters from Tuscany” offer lots of resources and recipes to discover the best of Tuscan food and cookery

Timeline Overview

• 00:30 Tuscany flows with a seasonal rhythm and between Summer and Fall, lies the unofficial 5th season
• 09:29 Fall brings wonderful vegetables to roast – including delicious eggplant-squash mini pizzas
• 13:36 After the olives are pressed for oil there is the fettunta celebratory dinner to taste the new oil (olio nuovo)
• 20:09 Foraging for mushrooms is both a skill and a thrill, as is the famous truffle hunt (even if historically the Tuscans used to feed their truffles to the pigs)
• 28:26 Chestnut flour is a staple – from crepes to cakes
• 33:09 As Giulias grandmother did back in the 30s, Giulia’s daughter Livia carves her squash for All Hallows’ Eve
• 35:38 The fresh, local food of Tuscany connects and works with nature’s rhythm – meaning delicious produce and dishes

About our guest – Giulia Scarpaleggia from Juls’ Kitchen

Giulia is a Tuscan-born and bred food writer, cookbook author, food photographer, and cooking class instructor.

She started from a deeply rooted passion for food and heritage which turned into her blog, Juls’ Kitchen, in 2009. She was later joined by web designer and photographer Tommaso, who is now her husband and they’ve been working together since 2015. They restored an old outbuilding to create the Juls’ Kitchen Studio, a space where they film video recipes and host authentic Tuscan cookery workshops, as well as offering short courses in food writing, photography and branding. She has had well-deserved, great success with her fabulous cookbook Cucina Povera: The Italian Way of Transforming Humble Ingredients into Unforgettable Meals.

They teach Tuscan cooking classes, now also virtually, and have a newsletter Letters from Tuscany and podcast in English called Cooking with an Italian Accent. They also consult and work for food brands and magazines to develop recipes and film video recipes and tutorials.

Giulia is very kindly offering Untold Italy listeners a 10% discount off annual subscriptions to Letters from Tuscany. It’s normally $US 45 for the year but it’s reduced to $40.50 for you. You can find all the details at https://untolditaly.com/recommends/julskitchen/.

Cook Books

Find Giulia’s other cookbooks here.

Follow Giulia here

• Website
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• YouTube

Italian places, foods and concepts mentioned

Places

• Colle val d’Elsa – town where Giulia lives, meaning ‘Hill of Elsa Valley’
• Volterra – walled mountaintop town dating from before the 8th century BC
• Mugello – an area found north of Florence. Settled by a Ligurian tribe known as the Magelli, hence the name
• Lunigiana/Garfagnana/Montagna Pistoiese/Mount Amiata – mountainous areas of Tuscany – North to South

Food / Drink

• schiacciata – comes from the Italian verb schiacciare and is the term commonly used for most focaccia in Tuscany
• schiacciata con l’uva – Tuscan Harvest Bread made with focaccia dough and small, sweet, black grapes from the grape harvest
• uva de tabla – non-wine grapes. That you would snack on or eat at the table
• uva fragola and uva concord – the 2 types of grape used for schiacciata di uva 
• fettunta – the bread is topped with the new olive oil as a celebration of the harvest
• pinzimonio – known as Tuscan Crudités. The veg of your choice is then dipped in the olive oil with seasoning
• porcini/ovoli – tyes of mushroom that are foraged for this time of year in Tuscany
• mentuccia romana – type of herb used in Tuscany
• Savini Tartufi – the Savini Family are a truffle-hunting family from Tuscany over several generations starting in the 1920s
• Marrone del Mugello IGP – famous chestnuts from Mugello
• caldarrosta – roasted chesnuts
• castagnaccio – a chestnut flour cake made with new olive oil, raisins, and pine nuts (is gluten-free and vegan)
• necci – chestnut pancakes
• morte secca – the carved squash tradition in Tuscany, for Haloween that Giulia’s grandmother did back in the 30s, as her daughter does today
• pan co’ santi – a sweet fruit bread made with ingredients including olive oil, pepper, rosemary, raisons, walnuts, sugar

Words / Concepts

• autunno – word for Autumn/Fall in Italian
• cucina povera – meaning poor cooking. Food from rural Italy and for the peasants, where there is no waste
• contorni – side dishes. On the menu where you’ll often find the vegetable choices
• frantoio – the olive pressers
• olio nuovo – the new olive oil
• l’albero del pane – nickname for the chestnut tree of bread tree, due to the flour being cheaper and more available than wheat during hard times

Related content on Untold Italy

Podcasts

• Ep 209 – Delicious winter dishes from Tuscany
• Ep 113 – Spring dishes from Tuscany

• Ep 213 – Wines of Southern Tuscany
• Ep 199 – Perfect Pienza – Hilltop town of dreams in Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia
• Ep 176 – A week in Tuscany with Untold Italy
• Ep 158 – Slow travel experiences in Tuscany
• Ep 139 – Secret towns under the Tuscan sun
• Ep 124 – Enchanting Arezzo – Tuscan town of your dreams
• Ep 089 – Harvest in Tuscany
• Ep 079 – Maremma – Exploring Tuscany’s Undiscovered Coast
• Ep 060 – Garfagnana – My Tuscany with Buzz Mccarthy
• Ep 057 – Tuscany’s Chianti region

Articles

• Tuscany Travel Guide
• Best towns in Tuscany,
• Tuscany itinerary ideas
• Where to stay inTuscany
• Best Agriturismo Tuscany
• Reasons to visit Southern Tuscany and the Val d’Orcia

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