Florence Frequently Asked Questions

Hello lovely people of Reddit!

For the past few years of my Reddit life, I have seen that many questions regarding aspects of Florence get repeated periodically in this sub (and in a couple others), so I’ve decided to try and make a series of FFAQs [Florence Frequently Asked Questions] posts, hoping to help anyone who might be searching for useful information on our beautiful city. This post is about food, hopefully if it is appreciated I will be doing more in the near future.

I hope you will find it useful! (If you do and would like to offer me a coffee, you can do so here)

If you are interested, here are the other posts of the series:

- FLORENCE PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Here are posts of my other series, IFAQ (Italy Frequently Asked Questions):

- ITALIAN MOTORWAYS

You have just spent the day trekking around the city (I bet you haven’t walked this much in a long time!), admiring the beauty of Florence and immersing yourself in the magical vibe and incredible atmosphere of the city, and now you are hungry and can’t wait to sit down (or stand up) and enjoy some delicious local food..

But wait! What is the local food that is served in Florence? Where can you go to find it? And how is it eaten?

These are the questions that I will be trying to answer in this post.

HOW
The classic Italian (and thus also Florentine) menu is usually divided in:

• Antipasto: (literally “before the meal”) it’s what in English is usually called a starter. Usually a small plate, not too complicated, eatable in a few bites, and that the restaurant can get ready quickly and give you will they prepare the main dishes. You can sometimes accompany it with a glass of white wine (usually Prosecco)
• Primo: (literally “the first”) it’s the main course. In Florence (and in all of Italy) it’s nearly always a pasta dish. Sometimes listed as primo you can also find a risotto or a soup.
  
• Secondo: (literally “the second”) it’s the second course, served on a flat plate, usually consisting in cooked meat or fish (or vegetarian/vegan alternatives if the restaurant has them).
  
• Contorno: (literally “outline”/“contour”) it’s a side dish. It’s usually cooked vegetables/legumes/potatoes. Sometimes it will be served on the same plate as the Secondo, but most of the time it will come on a small side plate.
  
• Dolce: (literally “sweet”/“cake”) it’s dessert. Many restaurants will have it listed on a separate menu which you will have to ask the waiter to bring you.
  
• Caffè e Amaro: coffee and bitter.
  Both are usually served only at the end of the meal.
  

Other useful info:
- it is rare that people will go through a full course meal ordering all of what I’ve listed above. It is much more common to have an antipasto (sometimes shared) and a primo OR a secondo.
- when you want the bill (“il conto”) you will have to ask a waiter for it. Same goes for anything you may need during the meal. You will not be disturbed or pressured by waiters during your meal.
- it is not customary to tip unless you have had an exceptional service. You can do if you want, but don’t feel pressured into doing so.
- you will be paying a “coperto” fee, which covers the table service (plates, cutlery, bread etc). It’s usually a couple euros (2-4) per person. It is absolutely normal. - you can order a “vino della casa” in most restaurants, which will bring you a jug with some basic (but usually) good house wine without having to buy an expensive bottle.
- you won’t be served tap water (unless you ask for it directly). You will be given a 3€ glass water bottle.

WHERE

No, I won’t be telling you the names of specific restaurants: that would be impossible, since there are more than two thousand restaurants in the city (2233 according to tripadvisor at the time I’m writing this post), and there are continuously new openings (and closings).
Also, listing names would be wrong because for sure I would be biased by personal experiences and preferences, and I could easily be accused of having been bribed for free pubblicity, so no, I will not be naming specific restaurants.

What I will do, though, is give you a few tips for you to choose wisely.
First of all, you should know that there are various types of restaurants, and you can usually categorise them directly from the name:

• RISTORANTE: this is the basic type of restaurant. You will probably find a bit of everything, from starters to mains to second courses. It has a bit of a formal feel.

• TRATTORIA: this is what you need to look for for an authentic local food experience. A trattoria is usually a small welcoming and familiar restaurant, not at all formal, where you will experience the best traditional food, where every dish will probably have its own story. Often a trattoria is family run and during the meal you will be chatted to in a friendly manner by the waiters or owners. It’s all about conviviality and good food.

• OSTERIA: in the past it used to be a place that offerted hospitality, both regarding food, wine and also accomodation. In present times, it tends to be quite similar to a trattoria, with a slight sharper focus on the wine selection.

• PIZZERIA: not much explanation needed. If you go to a pizzeria you will be having pizza. Usually one per person (it’s rare that two people share a single pizza, unless they are sharing also another dish). Some pizzerie will offer also a limited selection of mains, but why would you want to have those if you chose a pizzeria?

• ENOTECA: once it was a place where you went to buy wine. Over time it started offering wine tastings, and now it also offers a limited selection of food. The focus is mainly on wine though.

• BAR: it has nothing to do with the English meaning. A bar in Italy (and Florence) is a multipurpose food and drinks place. A bar is where you can go for breakfast, a bar is where you stop for a coffee or a fruit juice, a bar is where you go to have a quick sandwich for lunch, a bar is where you go to eat a quick dish of pasta during your work lunch break, a bar is where you meet your friends to have an aperitivo, a bar is where pensioners meet and spend the day playing cards and drinking beer. The only thing you wouldn’t choose a bar for is a formal meal.

WHAT
Typical Florentine (and Tuscan) dishes originate from a poor, countryside style tradition, so they tend to focus more on quantity and substance instead of appearance and elegance. They rely on the quality of fresh, quality ingredients. Here is a list of some of the main Florentine dishes, with a quick explanation of each:

• RIBOLLITA: the name literally means “re-boiled, boiled again” and in fact that’s how it was born. In old times people used to make a big quantities of soup on Fridays, with all sorts of simple vegetables, which would then be boiled again, and again and again together with stale bread, and eaten during the following days of the week. Thanks to the use of bread, it has less the consistency of soup and more the sort of consistency of porridge. It’s main ingredients are cannellini beans, black Tuscan cabbage (cavolo nero), leftover bread and inexpensive vegetables (like carrots, celery, potato, onion, etc). Once served it is usually completed by adding some olive oil. It’s served hot, so it’s usually considered more of a winter dish, but I think it’s delicious all year round.

• PAPPA AL POMODORO: another Florentine recipe that “recycles” old stale bread to create a delicious plate. In English it could be described as “tomato mush”, it is a thick bread soup prepared with fresh tomatoes, obviously bread, olive oil, garlic, basil and sometimes other left over ingredients. Simple ingredients that create a delicious plate.

A small colorful note on bread: Bread in Florence, unlike bread in the rest of Italy, is made without salt (it’s, as we would say in Florence, “sciocco”). The reason for this, tradition says, is because during the 12th century Pisa blocked all salt exports towards Florence and/or started putting huge tariffs (does that remind you of anyone today?) on salt being exported to Florence, city with which Pisa has been at war with for many times and many years. Florentines, instead of paying the high prices for the tariffs, decided to make do without salt and created an equally good bread which still today is eaten in the city (and most of Tuscany). Nowadays if you want a more salty type of bread, you can have the delicious Schiacciata all’Olio (similar to the more famous genovese Focaccia, but slightly crunchier).

• PAPPARDELLE AL CINGHIALE: this is not a specifically Florentine recipe, since it originates from the southern part of Tuscany (Maremma), but has become widely eaten also in Florence. Pappardelle are a type of fresh long egg pasta, quite similar to tagliatelle but a bit wider. They go well with meat sauces, from game to duck to rabbit. Pappardelle al cinghiale are pappardelle with wild boar sauce. The sauce is made by marinating big chunks of wild boar for 24 hours, then cooking them in Chianti wine, sage, rosemary, juniper berries, onion, carrot and peeled tomatoes to create the sauce.

• PAPPARDELLE AL RAGÚ DI LEPRE: same pasta as described above, this time with hare sauce.

• PAPPARDELLE SULLA NANA (PAPPARDELLE ALL’ANATRA): same pasta as described above, this time with duck sauce.

• PANZANELLA: you will only find this dish during spring/summer season, since it’s mainly served cold. It is, yet again, another plate that originates from creative ways to use up old/stale bread together with cheap ingredients. It is in fact a chopped salad of soaked stale bread, onions, tomatoes, cucumber, olive oil, salt, pepper and vinegar. This is the basic version, but sometimes you can find local variations which will add one or two extra ingredients, like for example on the coast (and on Elba island) they also add tuna and anchovies. It’s easy to make and a very refreshing lunch during hot summer days. (It’s not something you would tipically have for dinner).

• BISTECCA ALLA FIORENTINA: Not much needs to be added. It’s the world famous Florentine T-Bone steak. Just remember that the traditional degree of doneness is “rare”, or as we say in Florence “al sangue” (literally “bloody”). If you ask for anything from medium to well cooked you will receive glaring stares by anyone who hears you and you will be making enemies. It is considered nearly offensive to overcook such a delicacy.

• ZUPPA TOSCANA: a more traditional soup (as in more “liquid”) that uses some of the usual cheap, fresh, quality ingredients as seen before for Ribollita. It usually includes: Kale (black cabbage), potatoes, peeled tomatoes, carrots, celery, garlic, onion, beans (borlotti or cannellini) and can SOMETIMES have guanciale/pancetta [so for vegetarians, always ask to be sure that it doesn’t].

• CARABACCIA: another soup! This time made entirely of onions. Yes, exactly, onion soup, often served with some toasted bread and a few slices of hard cheese (pecorino toscano). This has quite a lot of history since it dates back to the 16th century. It is said that Leonardo da Vinci used to love it, thanks to its great sweet&sour taste and its vegetarian nature. It is also said that it was the Medici family (Caterina de Medici) who loved it and exported it to France with her when she became part of the French royal family. So the world famous French “soupe aux oignons” actually originated in Florence! The more you know.

• TRIPPA ALLA FIORENTINA: Florentine style tripe. Pre-cooked strips of tripe, simmered in a tomato sauce, enriched with a soffritto di verdure (vegetable mix), and served in a bowl topped with grated parmigiano reggiano. Simple, yet tasty.

• (PANINO CON IL) LAMPREDOTTO: Florence’s signature street food. Be warned, you have to be brave to try it, but once you do you will either love it or hate it. It’s basically the fourth stomach of a cow, cooked like tripe and served in a sandwich, usually topped with a delicious green sauce (salsa verde). It’s really popular as a quick sandwich meal to have on the go, so much that scattered around the city you can find special food vans called “lampredottai” who just serve this.
  It’s not the type of food that you will find in restaurants. Also you won’t find Lampredotto anywhere outside of Tuscany, and probably nowhere outside Florence too.

• FAGIOLI ALL’UCCELLETTO: Stewed beans in a tasty tomato sauce. Again, simple ingredients (cannellini beans, tomatoes, olive oil, sage, salt and pepper). The name literally means “little bird beans” and apparently comes from the fact that the ingredients used to cook the beans with are the same ones that were used when cooking roast birds. Traditionally it’s a vegetarian/Vegan dish, but since they are VERY OFTEN eaten combined with sausage, it is not unusual, in some menus, to find them served already with chopped bits of sausage mixed in. If you are vegan/vegetarian, do be sure to ask the waiter if they contain sausage (salsiccia).

• CROSTINI DI FEGATINI (CROSTINI TOSCANI): only served as an antipasto (starter) in restaurants, trattorie and sometimes in pizzerie. A “crostino” is an oven toasted slice of bread, crunchy, which is topped with sauces, vegetables, or cheese.
  Crostini ai fegatini are crostini with a black or brown sauce called “fegatini” made with chicken liver combined with simple vegetables.

• ZUCCOTTO: a semi frozen dessert, made with alchermes, cake and ice cream. The name (literally translating to “little pumpkin”) comes from the container that it is baked in, which vaguely resembles a small pumpkin. Some say that the shape takes inspiration from the Dome of the Duomo, others say that it comes from the shape of a cardinal’s hat (zucchetto). The traditional recipe has evolved a lot during the centuries, and today’s version is usually made with an external layer of sponge cake, dipped in alchermes, and a filling of ricotta cheese, candied orange and chocolate. Some places may vary the ingredients slightly.

• CANTUCCI E VIN SANTO: buiscuits and wine. Nothing complicated. That said, it’s a great way to finish a meal. You are given a small glass of “holy wine” (a sweet tasting, white grape, amber coloured wine) on a plate with 5-6 “cantucci (or cantuccini”, traditional dry and crunchy, twice baked, almond hard biscuits, that you are supposed to eat after dipping them into the wine. (Classic cantucci have almonds in them, but you can commonly find -maybe not in restaurants but in shops- alternative versions with chocolate chips or with apricot jam bits).

—————————————— This is the end of my list. I am aware that it cannot surely be complete and I’m quite sure that someone will probably point out other typical dishes that I have missed out.. which I will be absolutely happy to add! So yes, please add any reccomendations or signal any possible mistakes if you find any, all constructive criticism is highly appreciated.

A final note:
This post focuses on Florentine (and Tuscan) dishes, which you will find served in most restaurants in the city and region. Does this mean that menus will not have anything else? Absolutely not! You will without doubt find many other great dishes, that come from other regions local cuisine and that have become so popular to become nearly a “commodity” (think of pizza: it once was exclusive to Naples, and now you can find pizzerie all over Italy and the world).

So yes, you are absolutely welcome to have linguine al pesto, to have tonnarelli cacio e pepe, to have baccalà mantecato, to have melanzane alla parmigiana, etc.. and I’m sure they will be good. Just keep in mind that, while probably good everywhere, statistically these plates will be much better/excellent if eaten in the region in which they originate.

What else to say? Ah yes, BUON APPETITO!

(Speaking of food, if you would like to offer me a coffee, you can do so here, and I will be extremely grateful! If you don’t, no worries. Cheers!)