This classic pasta recipe is simple to make and uses fresh ingredients. It will quickly become your family's favourite pasta recipe!
I sometimes wonder if I was adopted. My love of pasta is not normal for a Canadian chick. Canadian chicks are supposed to dig things like poutine. I hate poutine. Yet I love pasta beyond measure. Cook me something with a noodle in it and it's a safe bet you've made me one happy chick. Â Which leads me to believe I'm adopted. I have daydreams about it. I mean I loved my folks, but I'm not going to lie, I think they may have paid handsomely to get me. I was meant to grow up on a farm in Tuscany, I'm sure of it.
So when I was contacted to review a copy of A Family Farm in Tuscany I jumped at the opportunity. I mean not only do I get to take a peek at a cool cookbook but you just never know when my real family might stumble upon me. I mean it happens every day right. If nothing else I was going to get a glimpse into the life that might have been. Before my folks paid handsomely for me.
A Family Farm in Tuscany was written by Sarah Fioroni. Sarah is a chef who manages her family's organic farm near San Gimignano. Three generations of Fioroni's work on the farm, and their love of food and each other shines through in every single page of this cookbook. It's a remarkable book that not only shares over 50 Tuscan recipes, but it takes us through life on the farm month by month. Sarah tells us tales of things that go on behind the scenes at the farm in a way that pulls you into her world like one of the family. She sets the scene like most people set the table, and then serves up recipes that are interwoven into the book and their lives. She tells us about Umberto who milks the cows and Fabio who is a hard-working man who loves women. You feel welcomed into Sarah's world and you do, in fact, feel like an adopted member of the family by the time you finish the book.
The recipes are outstanding. What I noticed immediately is the simplicity of most of them. Fresh food that is top quality so the flavour shines through. Simple ingredients you can find locally so you don't have to go hunting down some oddball ingredient most of us can never find where we live. Sarah cooks like we do. It's one of the many reasons I love this book.
I tried multiple recipes from the book. For me, I feel that in order to give a good review its necessary to try as many recipes as possible. Every single recipe impressed me. The Saffron Lasagna is remarkable and for me, truly unique. Sarah's Apple Cake is delicious and perfect for fall. Her Jam Tart is pure heaven. The Pasta with Leeks and Sausage is to die for, I was so blown away by this one. I adore leeks and this was a great way to utilize them. I decided to post her Poggio Alloro Beef Ragu Sauce since it was my favourite. A good ragu sauce is worth it's weight in gold if you ask me. This one fits the bill and then some. It's simple, it's packed with flavour and the use of oil olive in the beginning makes all the difference. I tend to use butter to caramelize my veggies but Sarah uses olive oil. You can taste the difference immediately. It has such a rustic, deep flavour. I hope you all try it and love it as much as I do. I'll be making this sauce over and over again.
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Poggio Alloro Beef Ragu Sauce {Ragu alla Poggio Alloro}
Ingredients
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 carrots diced
- 3 celery stalks diced
- 1 medium red onion diced
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 5 cups tomato sauce preferably with San Marzano tomatoes
- 2 ½ teaspoons salt
Instructions
- In a large 6 quart saucepan heat your olive oil over medium heat.
- Add your veggies and garlic. Cook until browned, about 15 or so minutes.
- Add the ground beef and continue cooking until it is lightly browned. Break it up as much as possible.
- Stir in tomato sauce and cook for another 25 to 30 minutes. Stir occasionally to keep it from sticking.
- Remove and use as desired.
- Serve with a big old I love my Tuscan family smile!
Notes
This ragu is simple and delicious. It's a new fave and being entered into the Bee recipe rotation on a regular basis. I made minor changes but only due to not wanting to use a store-bought tomato sauce for this. I'm not opposed to store-bought tomato sauce but since this was a recipe where I imagined myself living on their farm in Tuscany with the family I felt making my own was suitable for this occasion.
Now for the nitty-gritty. Us bloggers are required to tell you when we receive compensation for any review of a product. Which I think is an awesome rule. I wish radio stations had the same rule. I always wonder if the D.J. really does like his alarm system and if he paid for that alarm system out of his paycheck or if it was provided to him by the company. I hear about this alarm system constantly and it weighs heavy on my mind whether he actually uses their service or not. So for me full disclosure is not only cool but necessary for my reader's sanity. I mean if I stay up nights worrying about whether my fave D.J. is being robbed cuz he really doesn't have an alarm system in his house then I would think my readers would worry about me and whether I actually use the cookbooks and products I talk about. Trust me folks, if you think I could sleep at night if I wasn't being honest when I already stay up at night worrying about whether my D.J. is being honest then you got another thing coming. The cookbook company sent me a copy of the book to review. For free. So basically they paid me in recipes. And a book. See where I'm going with this. I was compensated for my review but that does not alter my opinion, yadda yadda yadda.
Now if you're a regular reader you know I'm a straight shooter. I could not tell a lie if my life depended on it. I could not tell a lie if your life depending on it. It's not how I roll. So here's the straight up, for real, dish on the cookbook. I loved the book because it's beautiful, it tells an amazing story about amazing people, it shares recipes that real people can make easily, and the photos were remarkable. Now you want the dirt on what I didn't like right? Ya, I knew there were some of you trouble makers out there. Here's the dish. I wish the book was hard cover since I tend to favour hard covers. It's a small detail but you want honesty right. The only other thing that I noticed was that not every recipe had a photo of the finished recipe with it. For some people this is no big whoop de do. For me I like when each recipe has a finished product photo. It's just my preference. Saying that though I also know that it's costly for cookbook companies to do full colour photos of each finished recipe. The cost of the cookbooks can be significantly higher if every recipe has that. In this case the book more than makes up for it with photos of the land, the people, the farm, the animals and life in Tuscany. There are oodles of photos, all of them gorgeous and full colour. There are lots of pages in the book where you get 6 to 12 photos of life on the farm, or food in various stages of cooking. So my complaint is not lack of photos, but lack of finished recipe photos. Not everyone feels this way. Some people don't mind just recipes without a photo.
The bottom line is I would totally buy this book at the store if I happened upon it.
So what is it you love most about Tuscan food? For me it's the simplicity of the recipes paired with the freshness of the seasonal produce used. There is also a sense of a rich family history intertwined with the recipes. A family history where a poor Canuck chick never got her chance to live on a farm in Tuscany because she was adopted and her family paid handsomely for her.
You can purchase Sarah's book on Amazon: A Family Farm in Tuscany: Recipes and Stories from Fattoria Poggio Alloro  by Shearer Publishing. Also make sure you scoot on by their website for more information on Sarah and her lovely family, you can find them at Fattoria Poggio Alloro.
Make sure you hop on by Cooking with Chopin, Living with Elmo to see more recipes and posts about A Family Farm in Tuscany- World Tour Blog Hop. A big thanks to Ginny and Sarah for this wonderful opportunity. I'm so honoured to have been a part of the tour.
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Any revenue helps to maintain my business. Thank you to anyone who helps to support the blog.
Toodles! xx
Alice @ Hip Foodie Mom
What I love most about Tuscan food? That you can make something so delicious and flavorful with only a few ingredients. . . based on the dishes above, this cookbook looks fabulous!!
Kim Bee
Thanks Alice. This really is a cool cookbook. I'm making a roast from it this week too. She really makes Tuscan food accessible and not intimidating at all.
April
Other than a tuscan grilled roast prepared by a nephew-in-law I have never tried any dishes from tuscany but would love to do so. They appeal to me in that they are what some would call rustic but I believe is more basic to the ingredients without a lot of froo-froo.
Kim Bee
April that's a great way to explain. Rustic really is what the recipes are. I loved that I never felt that panic thing that happens with some cookbooks where you worry you won't be able to make it or find ingredients.
Choc Chip Uru
This incredible Tuscan dish has me craving something Italian fierce! I simply adore it 🙂
A winning cookbook no doubt!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Kim Bee
Thanks Uru. It was a wonderful pasta. The sauce is so delicious. I don't normally go for seconds with pasta but did with this one.
Jessica K.
What I love about Tuscan cooking is how when you use the best and freshest ingredients and herbs...even the simplest recipe can be a masterpiece!!
Kim Bee
Absolutely Jessica. Good luck. It's an amazing cookbook.
suzanne Perazzini
That recipe is exactly how my husband cooks ragu and it is really good. I love the earthiness of Tuscan cooking - their food always feel close to the land.
Kim Bee
Your husband is obviously an awesome cook. It's such a great sauce.
Good luck Suzanne. I love your answer.
Katherine Martinelli
I could not agree with you more about this cookbook, and this recipe! I made this ragu to go in the saffron lasagna and kept sneaking spoonfuls of it, it was so good. Gorgeous photos - love the one with the steam coming off the top!
Kim Bee
Thanks so much Katherine. I loved your lasagna. It's such a great recipe. I made it too since I had some good saffron by chance. It's a wonderful dish.
Renee
I would love to visit Tuscany and taste all the wonderful food and wine. Until then I can only try cooking Tuscan dishes at home and this looks like a great book to start with.
Kim Bee
Me too. I would love to visit.
Good luck Renee. You would love this book.
Jen @ Juanita's Cocina
I love the simplicity and huge, rustic flavors in tuscan cooking. Plus, I would eat pasta every day if I could.
Kim Bee
Me too Jen. And sometimes do. It's sad really. I love it way too much.
elizabeth
Ever since i saw the movie,"Under The Tuscan Sun" I've wanted to move there and never return! All that olive oil and fresh herbs! I would love this cookbook!
Kim Bee
Me too Elizabeth. Love that movie. I can't imagine a more peaceful life than living somewhere like that spending days cooking and playing in the garden. It would be bliss.
Good luck. Hope you win. It's a cool cookbook.
Erin @ Dinners, Dishes and Desserts
Great minds think alike - this is what I posted about too! What a great review!
Kim Bee
We are like one mind some times. We seem to have similar tastes, it always makes me smile. I just loved the book. So many wonderful recipes, so little time.
Kayle (The Cooking Actress)
This pasta looks delicious! And my favorite thing about Tuscan food is the same as yours 🙂 I'm super in love with the fact that I'm Italian, and I love the food. My mom is Irish but always adored Italian food, so I'm 99% sure that's why she ended up marrying my (Italian) dad ((sure that didn't work out, but she got 20 years of yummy food. Can't blame her for not wanting to put up with the people who cooked it, lol))
😛
Kim Bee
My family is Irish and French Canadian. I don't really care for the cooking of either culture to be honest. I was just totally born in the wrong place. Or stolen and sent away from my home country, something. I love Italian cuisine big time. And you had me laughing out loud with the last comment.
Jan R
I LOVE all pasta...would love this book...PLEASE!
Kim Bee
Thanks for stopping in. Good luck.
Tracy
I love it because it is so delicious!!!!
Kim Bee
I completely agree.
Good luck.
kitchenriffs
I've never had poutine and don't really want to (it doesn't sound that interesting to me) but I love the name for some reason. Anyway, nice pasta! I've heard about this book, and it does sound interesting. The best thing about Italian cooking for me is it's always about quality ingredients, usually prepared simply. Simple I can handle! Good post - thanks.
Kim Bee
It's really freaking gross, no lie. Disgusting.
Thanks so much. I wish the photos were better, but I was so hungry.
Love simple recipes. The busier I get the more simple I cook.
Jane Bonacci, The Heritage Cook
I love a great ragu and you're right, simplicity is the answer! I had so many recipes I wanted to make and this is at the top of my list. Beautiful photos Kim!!
Kim Bee
It sure is Jane. Thanks so much. xx
Leslie Ross
I'm with you - totally simple ingredients that somehow make an utterly delicious dish. Sooo good!
Kim Bee
It's the best way to cook an amazing meal. I like simple. Simple works in my life right now.
Kesha
I like the fact that Tuscan food uses mostly natural ingredients and is simple, yet full of flavor! I especially love Bruschetta!
Kim Bee
Exactly, they really live off the land.
Ramona
Gorgeous pasta!! I bet that cookbook is just amazing. 🙂
Kim Bee
It really is.
Kesha
I tweeted this giveaway! https://twitter.com/keshakeke/status/265095626251968512
Kim Bee
Thanks.
Matt Horbund - mmWine
We are huge Italian food lovers, especially pasta dishes! We'll give this a try. And, of course, pair with wine on my site!
Kim Bee
You read my mind.
Kim Bee
Hi Matt. You were the winner of the cookbook. Can you get in touch with me at cravingsofalunatic@gmail.com with your address so I can forward it to the right people. Look forward to hearing from you. Kim
Samantha Remington
I really like the focus on whole foods and flavoring with herbs and spices.
Kim Bee
Me too Samantha. I totally agree.