A hand sets a jar of tomato sauce down on an embroidered cloth; beside it more jars of preserves and a basket of ripe tomatoes.

Food and wine

Preserves and Prepared Foods

The preserve is the answer that Italian country culture gave to seasonality. When the tomatoes all ripen in August, when the olives all fall in November, when the mushrooms come up only in autumn, a way has to be found to bring them to the table in March, in July, in December as well. Preserving at home — the work of generations of women in the kitchen, following the calendar of the vegetable gardens — has become in Tuscany a recognised food art, and today it lives in artisan workshops that have turned domestic know-how into fine production.

A terraced kitchen garden with staked tomatoes runs beside a stone farmhouse, closed by a low drystone wall with hills opening beyond.

Where

Where it is practised in Tuscany

The geographies of the craft are distributed by agricultural vocation. The Maremma (Grosseto) is a land of tomato preserves — passata, sauces, peeled tomatoes — and of ready sughi based on meat (wild boar, fallow deer) and on fish (bonito, tuna). The Lunigiana (Massa-Carrara) has traditions of chestnut preserves (marroni in syrup, marrons glacés), of mushrooms in oil and of soft fruit. The Garfagnana (Lucca) produces mostarde, fruit in spirit and preserves of farro and local pulses. The Casentino and the Mugello have traditions of jams made from native fruit — russet apples, plums, wild pears — and of preserved mushrooms. The hills of Pisa and Firenze produce olives in brine, vegetables in oil and pâtés of olives and artichokes. The islands of the Tuscan archipelago (Elba, Giglio, Capraia) have traditions of fish preserves — mackerel, anchovies and sardines in oil or under salt.

A hammered copper pan, a wooden ladle, a metal funnel, empty glass jars with gold lids, coarse salt and a knife on the chopping board.

How

The techniques of the craft

The techniques of the craft are many. Preserving in oil requires precise preparation of the vegetable (blanching in vinegar, complete drying, covering with good oil); the risk of botulism is real, and certified producers follow strict protocols. Preserving in vinegar exploits acidity to inhibit bacterial growth. Jam and confiture use sugar as a preservative (a concentration above 50% halts microbial growth) and are distinguished by their fruit content. Mostarda is a sweet and pungent preparation of fruit, sugar and mustard — a tradition from Cremona, but with Tuscan variants. Preserving in spirit covers fruit in fine alcohol. Tomato passata requires blanching, peeling, passing through the food mill, cooking and keeping in sterilised jars. Modern techniques include controlled pasteurisation, vacuum sterilisation and technological packaging that maintains quality and safety.

In a farmhouse kitchen a man works herbs at the table; shelves of preserves fill the wall, with jars of sauce and baskets of tomatoes in front.

Now

The craft today

Doing it today means standing in a niche market, but a lively one. Industrial preserves have wiped out most of the basic segment, but there is a qualified market — fine delicatessens, direct sales at the producer's premises, the export of typical products, e-commerce for specialities — that pays a fair price for the real thing. The best producers work in small batches, use raw material grown in-house or certified as local, and tell seasonality as a value. The challenge is health regulation (periodic analyses, compliance with HACCP protocols, precise labelling) that imposes investment on small producers too.

The producers of this craft

Sapori della Rocca Sapori della RoccaCampi Bisenzio, Firenze