Acqua e Farina Recipes & Notes — Italian Living

Thinking about Italy means thinking about Tuscany. The sinuous rows of cypresses, medieval towns clinging fast to the summits of gentle hills, endless vistas of cultivated fields. IS THE MOST ICONIC LANDSCAPE IN THE WORLD.  In June the grass undulating in the warm late-spring wind like acres of emerald silk and in summer the hills are burnished gold, pollen in the air casting the late-afternoon sun in an iridescent haze. But in autumn and winter Tuscany undergoes an identity shift. The color palette shifts to bright green, cafes are filled with locals instead of turists, cypress trees creaked, ripe persimmons swayed soundlessly from bare branches and ...

The most beautiful Christmas is the one handed down. The alarm clock early in the morning, the house still immersed in the sleep of the holidays and my mother busy in the kitchen between her pots and her dishes, as always perfect with her hair styled and her bracelet that rattles with every turn of ladle. Breakfast made only with her before the others wake up, the coffeemaker mumbles slowly, the slow fire, the enveloping and warm scent. The window fogged by steam, the crackling fireplace, dishes and crystal glasses that are broken only by breathing. The atmosphere is joyful:...