The Fattoria Montecchio is offering a series of three dinner / conferences about the eating habits of the Etruscans. Following the great success of the conference of the same title as the book “From terra(cotta) to wine” (to buy it write to: info@lepaginedelvino.it), during which we focused on the eating habits of the Etruscans and Romans. Luca Bertini, chef and cultural expert and also founder of the Magna Etruria initiative, has decided to take participants along a fascinating journey back in time to the dishes of ancient Tuscany. He will explain how we were able to discover what the Etruscans ate thanks to archeological finds with funeral artefacts and remnants which have been analysed, and from writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
The three appointments are: 8th June, 29th June and 20th July
The first appointment will be exclusively about Magna Etruria and the other two will be personalised versions by chef Luca Bertini, with whose collaboration the Fattoria Montecchio is writing a new and important page of its history, one which stems from the Etruscan civilisation. As you probably know, the Fattoria Montecchio has, thanks to its own terracotta furnace, rediscovered (and put into practice) the way Etruscans vinified wine in terracotta amphorae.
Tuscan cooking inherited much of its tradition from the Etruscan civilisation, and this is exactly why the Magna Etruria initiative was born. The first hints of what was to be came from the Etruscan archeological site in Fiesole, (just outside Florence) when they found traces of what they ate. Its official birth took place at the Expo of 2015 thanks to the collaboration of the Comune di Fiesole, Vettrina Toscana (a promotional project of the Tuscany Region) and, of course, Luca Bertini, its creator.
Luca Bertini has been interested in historical gastronomy for many years and, being a typical Florentine, he was curious about the origins of the many dishes that make up Tuscan cooking. He has followed up on every trace found from the past, studying and classifying the results of his research.
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During the dinner, Luca explains to the diners how the dish being eaten evolved, making references to historical events and the growing influence of the ancient Romans. Thus the banquet becomes a symposium, just as it often did in ancient times.
Luca explains that every meal started with hard boiled eggs: firstly for their nutritional value, which is complete, and secondly for their symbolic value – the birth of life. Among the symbolic foods were the crostini with chicken livers (toasted tartines with a chicken liver paté) which are still a pillar of typical Tuscan food. Few people realise that they originated in Etruscan times when the haruspex sacrificed chickens to the gods before important banquets.
Other dishes on the menu are spelt soup, pork with prunes, chick peas and onions, as well as cheeses, salamis, green and black olives, dried figs with honey, almonds and hazelnuts. All of this superbly accompanied by the wines of Fattoria Montecchio.
For information and reservations please contact: arianna@fattoriamontecchio.it, phone number 348 4003148