Amici Miei/ Francesca Leone and family
It takes a village. The Leone-D'Ercole family are farmers in Certaldo and I buy from their stand. I have learned so much. It's like cooking with Mamma. We all need an Italian mamma.
We bought our house to restore in 1992, but due to red tape, we did not finish it and moved to Certaldo until 2002. Certaldo is a beautiful little town on the train route from Florence to Siena. I can see San Gimignano from my bathroom window in the distance.
Market day is Wednesday for the large market that runs for several blocks near the COOP grocery store. On Saturday, there is a smaller market with local farmers and a few other stands.
The Saturday market used to be in the main piazza in the lower part of town. The original town is a walled medieval village on the hillside, which you can reach by taking the funicular up.
In Italian, an ortolano is the person with the shop that sells you vegetables. They don’t always grow them. This was my first farm-to-table vegetable supplier at the Saturday market, Benedetto Leone. He lived in the old village and raised his fruits and vegetables outside the city walls.
After a few years, Benedetto’s daughter, Francesca, took over the stand.
She and her husband Mauro D’Ercole has a large farm outside of town. They grow fruits and vegetables, as well as chickpeas, lentils, olive oil, and produce wine, jams, and sauces made by Francesca. Her daughter Erica also helped at the market.
Whenever I shop at Francesa’s stand, she always gives her fabulous recipes to clients. In Italy, you are faithful to the stands you shop with. They become family and take care of you. Often, you get little gifts of food in your bags. If I want some wild boar, Francesca’s husband is part of the wild boar hunters association, and they always have some in their freezer.
I saw Erica grow up, and when I opened my cooking school in Colle Val D’Elsa, I asked Erica to work with me. She started in 2010 and still helps me when I cater dinners or do a class at a villa.
When I shopped at the Certaldo market, Francesca provided most of my best new recipes. She sells only from her farm, so what you see is what you get. Today, I saw the first figs!
We picked up a whole tray of them when she gave me a recipe for Fichi Sciroppati—figs in syrup. There are several food laws in Italy regarding how and what to eat.
Salami and Figs
Pecorino cheese and pears
Prosciutto and Melon
Never put parmesan cheese on spicy pasta sauce or when you have a fish sauce.
So I held back on some of the figs to celebrate the first figs of the season, right off her trees this morning. You get to make a wish when you eat the fruit for the first time in a season!
Below is the recipe for my paid subscribers. If you love to cook, subscribers can access all the archives, including my guides to the Markets of Italy and my ebook, Secrets From My Tuscan Kitchen.