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Ciao amici
Tuscany is beautiful this May - the red poppies and flowering acacia trees are all in full bloom! People ask 'what's the best time to visit Tuscany?' Anytime of the year there is beauty (and great things to  eat!)! Right now the rolling hills are green with wheat and yellow with the flowering crops. Poppies are everywhere this year!
We hope you are enjoying the spring season!
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Fresh Caprino and Pecorino
This week I went over to see Maria's beautiful goat cheese farm, Santa Margherita, to see if they had started making cheese again after the winter.
 | | Maria's happy goat |
While industrially produced cheese is made all year long without any attention paid to natural cycles or the seasons, the artisanal sheep and goat cheeses (pecorino and caprino, respectively) made in the countryside of Tuscany respect nature's laws in regards to milking the animals.That means that in the fall they wean the adults off of milking and introduce a billy goat to impregnate all the females; there's an old Tuscan saying "I'm busier than a billy goat in September!" Then in the spring when the babies are born we have spring lamb and kid for Easter and they start milking the mammas again to make cheese.
 | | Fresh goat cheese |
Fresh pecorino is delightful with fresh spring fava beans, and fresh raw-milk caprino is wonderful with roasted peppers or with a salad. Right now Maria has a fresh and creamy cheese coated with charcoal, which is great for your digestion, and in a few weeks my favorite aged goat cheeses will be ready: with poppy seeds or dried fennel seeds. Delicious!
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Fiore di Zucca con Carpino e Menta
(zucchini flowers w/ goat cheese & mint)
Ingredients:
- zucchini blossoms, 2-3 per person
- goat cheese
- mint leaves, chopped
- cherry tomatoes, quartered
- olive oil
- salt
Preparation:
Clean blossoms by removing the stamen inside and the long spikes at the base of the flower. Mix softened goat cheese with mint leaves and a little salt and carefully stuff the blossoms, being careful not to tear the leaves. Place them in an oiled baking dish large enough to accommodate all of them in one layer, top with tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. Bake for 10 min at 375F until the cheese is warmed through. Serve as an antipasto or side dish. Buon appetito!
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