Francesca and I headed to the market again this morning. We went to the more local, less tourist market, Sant’Ambrogio. It is the opposite direction from the center of town.

We started at the vegetable stands. There are many vegetables I have never seen before and I think Francesca was determined that I try them all! She bought chicory, rapa, tuscan kale, beet greens, and a strange green I had never seen called Agreti, monk’s beard or garden cress.

We went into the main market area and bought some already cooked cannelini beans. Francesca asked me if there was anything else I wanted to try or cook for myself, at least that is what I thought she said. I told her I wanted chicken. She suggested chicken cacciatore, and I said, yes. So we went to the poultry market where they have chickens that have ‘walked around.’ In other words, free range or non-caged chickens.

The chickens are still whole with their viscera and all. The butcher cleans them, then chopped it all up into smaller pieces. I am assuming because she told him for cacciatore.

Some of the pre-made meat dishes available.

And more meats

Francesca had planned to take a bus back to her apartment since it was a couple of miles away at this point but none of the vegetable stands at that market had fresh thyme. She wanted it for the ribollita we were to make. So we hoofed it back and went to a market closer to her apartment.

They had thyme and she also bought some asparagus and was shocked when it was 10€! I would have been too and would have told her not to get it, but she didn’t tell me until afterwards. The big bunch of thyme was only 1€!

We got to the apartment and unloaded all our purchases, then started washing vegetables, over and over to get them clean. I spent most of my time, prepping the vegetables.

She started with the ribollita, sautéing carrots, onions, garlic, celery in olive oil. Then she added the tuscan kale and the beet greens.

She pureed half of the cannellini beans and added those along with some water and a stock cube. And lots of thyme. This cooked for quite a while.

The beginnings of ribollita

Ribollita, which is known as Tuscan bread soup, actually means to boil twice. She said it is typically done the day before serving. It was nothing like the ribollita I had bought earlier in the week. No tomatoes, for one thing, and a lot more vegetables. (I found out later that what I had eaten for lunch earlier was not ribollita but another kind of bread soup, Pappa alla Pomodoro.)

After the vegetables were well cooked she added the rest of the beans, whole, then layered the soup and slices of bread in another pot. That was cooked again and put in the oven to stay warm.

Layering the ribollita

The finished ribollita, drizzled with olive oil

The next thing she made was the osso buco. The veal she had bought was not the whole shank, but a cross section that was about 1″ thick. She again started with the same mix of onion, carrots, celery, garlic and sauteed it. The veal was floured then added to the pan and a small amount of crushed tomatoes.

It was finished with a mixture of anchovies, parsley, and lemon zest. A couple of interesting factoids I learned was that in Florence, at least, they use anchovies for the saltiness since they used to not be able to get salt. And that the term salary comes from the soldiers of ancient days being paid in salt since it was a rare. Who knew?

She also made Risotto Milanese. Starting with sauteeing a chopped onion, toasting the rice, adding white wine, saffron and then gradually adding stock and stirring for about 20 minutes until the rice was cooked. Pecorino Romano cheese was added at the end.

Osso Buco and Risotto Milanese.

The rapa (it is like rapini or broccoli with tiny ‘flowers’ of broccoli and lots of leaves) was prepared by removing the leaves and separating the flowers. The flowers were boiled and then chopped up.

She then cooked some orecchiette (little ears pasta) and added it and olive oil, garlic and I am not sure what else to the rapa. (She is going to send me the recipes via email.) It was really a good pasta dish!

Orecchiette with Rapa

The chicory was a real chore to prep. First you removed all the big leaves and got down to the core of the plant. It is in sections that you break off and then cut into fourths. These were put in cold water for a while, then drained. They were the salad. Served cold with a dressing of anchovies, garlic, a small hot pepper that were smashed in a mortar and pestle then olive oil was added. Slightly bitter taste but with the dressing it was amazing.

Chicory plant

Chicory ‘core’ sections

Chicory Salad

The agreti was the strangest looking vegetable. When I first saw it I almost thought it looked like some sort of water plant. When she looked up the English for it, garden cress, I realized it probably was grown in a wet environment. Francesca cleaned the roots from it then I washed it multiple times. It was simply boiled then dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. Not a lot of flavor either raw or cooked but interesting just the same.

The garden cress boiling. Didn’t get a picture of the finished product.

Last, Francesca started making chicken cacciatore with half the chicken. This was where we had had a slight communication issue at the market. I thought she was getting the chicken for me to make at my apartment later. Nope. She made the cacciatore and sent the other half of the raw chicken home with me.

She fixed it with sautéed onions and garlic, then browned the chicken, added crushed tomatoes and white wine. This was cooked until the chicken was done, which didn’t take long since it was chopped into small pieces. A handful of black olives were added at the end. As with every other thing she made, it was excellent.

Chicken Cacciatore

We finished off with leftover tiramisu, which was actually better the second day. She had asked me if I wanted to make an olive oil cake that day, but I said, no.

So much food again! She had bought some foil containers for me to bring leftovers home in since I wouldn’t be seeing her to return plastic ones. It was a long walk back feeling so full and having already walked several miles earlier.

I did come across something that is just so typical of the sort of thing you see all over town. A corner with a random (non-working) fountain and a carved bust in a niche up above.

Corner fountain and bust.

Once again I had a great day and learned so much from Francesca. She is an interesting person and good teacher.

Friday is my Food Lovers Walking Tour! Ought to be interesting. I am a little worried that we might go to the same markets, etc. But, I shall see.