Top 5 Foods in Florence

There’s a whole lot more to Florence than great art, and the proof is in its food. Florence is the biggest city in Tuscany, making it the place to try all the region’s flavours, which are hands down some of the best in Italy.

Tuscan dishes are subtle and comforting, and they seem best eaten in the cooler months though are tasty when it’s warm too. So if you’re headed to Florence and want to really taste the city, you should try these five dishes that define it and the surrounding region.

Top 5 Foods in Florence

5. Tripe: Even if you’re not a big offal fan, and especially if you haven’t tried a bite of tripe, Florence is where you should give it a shot. Eat it like the Florentines: out of doors and between two pieces of bread for your midday sustenance (the best place to do this is a stand called Nerone in the Central Market).

You can often find trippa alla Fiorentina in restaurants, where it is most often stewed in a savoury tomato-based sauce that’s great for dipping in big slices of Tuscan (saltless) bread. Also on Florence’s offal menu is lampredotto, or cow stomach. Find it outside at the steaming street stands and eat it like a sandwich.

4. Ribollita: The Tuscans are crazy about their bread soups. And the soup that best defines Florence is ribollita (with pappa al pomodoro close behind). Like tripe, the recipe for ribollita varies in specific amounts of ingredients, but always revolves around those readily available, making it a dish of the poveri, or poor.

In ribollita there will always be bread, cavolo nero (or black kale), and cannelini beans (another Tuscan specialty), then there will be other things added or taken away, like tomatoes, depending on the cook. Ribollita is a wonderful, healthy and hearty dish that will reenergise you for another round of paintings in the Uffizi.

3. Cantucci e vinsanto: The most common dessert after a large meal in Florence is a plate of cantucci accompanied by small glasses of vinsanto, or holy wine. Cantucci are hard sweet biscuits with almonds (very similar to what Americans call biscotti) that are dipped into the sweet and strong vinsanto that is richly coloured like honey. It is my favourite way to end a meal when in Florence.

2. Tagliere: Translated literally, tagliere means cutting board and that’s because when you order this dish a cutting board arrives at your table. But this is Italy, so it’s not empty.

The cutting board comes loaded with cured meats and cheeses. The farms around Florence provide the cheese (most often sheep cheeses of varying ages) and meats fresh—especially good are the Tuscan cured salamis and thin slices of lardo di colonnata, or cured fatback.

If you’re lucky, your tagliere will have some crostini on top too. Crostini are like bruschette, and they come topped with tomatoes or the true Florentine specialty fegato or liver pate, which I don’t eat anywhere else but in Tuscany.

1. Bistecca Fiorentina: For food in Florence, the bistecca Fiorentina is the king of the list. Taken from cows called Maremma, named after the Tuscan region directly to the south of Florence, this t-bone steak is always enormous, soft and delicious.

Unless you have a hearty appetite, I recommend splitting the dish. Another thing to remember about the bistecca Fiorentina is that it is traditionally, and therefore best, served al sangue, or bloody. Even if you don’t normally order your steaks this way, try it this once, and you won’t be disappointed.

Buon appetito!

Author’s Bio: Amber Paulen is one of the writers for Eating Italy Food Tours. Growing up on a farm in the U.S. put Amber in direct contact with the wonderful world of fresh food. Luckily she moved to Italy where it hasn’t been difficult to indulge in fresh vegetables.