Introduction
Tuscans are a race of very proud people who claim to have taught the Romans everything they needed to know to build the greatest empire on earth. The Tuscans also claim that every other province of Italy assimilated the accents and habits of their neighbors - the Genovese from the French, the Venetians from the Austrians, the people of the Adriatic from the Greeks - but not the Tuscans. They were there before anyone else, having settled in northern Italy in 900 B.C. They have even gone so far as to state that the Garden of Eden was located in Tuscany, that Mary, after her son's death, settled in Tuscany, and that the son of a friend of hers from Tuscany became the second pope, Linus, in 67 A.D.
The city of Lucca (where Linus was from), is one of the most beautiful cities of Tuscany and was, at one time, the capital of Italy. Its citizens still have a special kind of pride. The city is surrounded by walls topped by a shadded avenue and whether they come from "inside the walls or outside the walls" they still say they are "Lucchesi."
The Tuscans had many sons with a claim to fame, among them Amerigo Vespucci, for whom America was named, and Giovanni da Verrazano, for whom New York's famous bridge was named. Both were Florentines. Other famous Tuscans include: Filippo Mazzei, a friend of Thomas Jefferson, who helped write the U.S. Constitution; Giacomo Puccini, who was born in Lucca and lived most of his life at Torre Del Lago (Viareggio), where he wrote his first opera, Manon Lescaut; Piero della Francesca (modern name Peter Franceschi), world-famous artist; and Salvatore Ferragamo, who set up his shoemaking shop on Via Tornabuoni in Florence.
Tuscan cooking is the forerunner of France's haute cusine. When Caterina dei Medicin (wife of Henry II) left Livorno (Leghorn) for Marseilles in 1533 and becams queen of France, she brought thirty-five cooks with her, and they in turn taught the French the art of gastronomy. From that point on, the food of the royal house of France lost its plainness and became more of a noble cusine.
Judge for yourself, for no cookbook author can really lay claim to the invention of a recipe, but rather only to being the collector of these recipes. The recipes in this book are an accumulation from family and friends.
As far as Tuscans are concerned, the Lord's promise of plenty in Deuteronomy could very well have been written for us: "He will give the rain for your land in its season ... that you may gather in your grain, your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your cattle."
In retrospect, for the purpose at hand, that of compiling a cookbook, I had three lucky breaks. First, I was a Depression baby of an Italian family. This meant that even though funds may have been low, Italian families wanted their children to eat well. The Tuscan staples of beans, polenta, and rice, simply combined, came to good stead.
Second, my father at one time or another either owned his own restaurant or worked for some famous restaurants of the time. His restaurant, the Universe, was located on Broadway Street in San Francisco between Kearny and Montgomery Streets. He subsequently worked for The Backyard, which was owned by Bob Scalabrino; Larry's, which was owned by Larry Salarpi; and Alfred's, 886 Broadway, which had a variety of owners. My father held various positions in these establishments. I remember one of his favorite sayings, "Everybody's a chef, but nobody knows how to cook." Those were the days when aspiring cooks were trained under the master chefs and were not products of culinary academies.
Third, after I was married, being an only daughter and only child, I was expected to have the "family" every Sunday for lunch or dinner. Usually, there was my husband Aldo, myself, our sons Peter and Joseph (and later our son Frank), my mother and father, my grandmother, my paternal uncle Silvio Giovannini, who worked at the Fior D'Italia Restaurant, and my maternal uncle Claude Franceschi, who worked at the Shadows and later owned his own restaurant, the Barbary, on Pacific Street. With every subsequent year, my weight would increase, the conclusion being that anyone who is overweight loves to eat and loves to cook. Over the years, I was asked for recipes and finally decided to put them all together for the benefit of those who asked for them, and for the enjoyment of you who have purchased this book.
