Regional recipe highlights from Tuscany

Renowned the world over for its culture and history, Tuscany is as much about the ancient olive groves, rustic farmhouses and lines of cypress trees in the early morning mist as it is about the beautiful paintings, exquisite sculptures, medieval towns and architectural masterpieces.

And nowhere is the essence of Tuscany better expressed than in its cuisine. Always an aspect of life in the region, today Tuscany’s cuisine elicits almost as much interest and praise as its artists and cultural heritage. Tuscany's reputation for quality, simplicity and flavours is recognised around the world, and over the centuries Tuscan dishes have remained faithful to their origins and the setting.

As this gallery of highlights shows, Tuscan cuisine is the legacy of two distinct traditions: those of the countryside and the city. Peasant cooking was born out of poverty and necessity, and is characterised by the resourcefulness of a culture that adapted and learned to make the most of what the land had to offer. From the city comes the cuisine of the nobility, with all the trappings of wealth and grandeur that one would expect from cities as splendid as Florence, Siena and Pisa.