Grosseto

Grosseto is the largest province in Tuscany and one of the most thinly populated in Italy. Four thousand five hundred square kilometres of Maremma — a word that says everything and nothing. Maremma is a landscape, a culture, a history of land reclamation, of malaria, of butteri (the mounted herdsmen of these plains), of waters that took centuries of work to be tamed.

The territory stretches from Monte Amiata in the north (shared with Siena) down to the border with Lazio in the south, from the Tyrrhenian coast with the Argentario, the Isola del Giglio and Giannutri to the inland hills of the Albegna and the Fiora. It is a wide geography, thinly inhabited, with historic villages (Pitigliano, Sorano, Sovana, Massa Marittima, Capalbio) that hold on to distinct medieval identities, and with farming areas of great productivity.

The Maremma was a malarial region until the 1930s. The comprehensive reclamation carried out under Mussolini — one of the last historic reclamations of the Italian plains — turned marshland into quality farmland, redrawing whole municipalities and creating new towns. A recent history, but an important one for understanding the identity of Grosseto.

Today the Maremma lives on agriculture, livestock, wine, tourism, fishing, and on a slight but recognisable manufacturing base. Rural leathercraft, leather, the working of local raw materials (cork, iron, wicker), the boatyards of the Argentario. The province has kept a rural dimension that has been lost elsewhere, and this is today one of its most recognisable traits.

The Grosseto archipelago (Giglio, Giannutri, the smaller islands) is part of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park. Sea, cliffs, a preserved Mediterranean flora, an artisanal fishery still active. An identity separate from that of the mainland, but interwoven with it.

The cooking of the Maremma is one of the most recognisable and least domesticated in Tuscany. Robust, built on meat and game, with very few concessions to refinement.

Wild boar. The Maremma is wild boar country: stewed, alla cacciatora, in salmì, on pappardelle, in cured meats. A meat that is the basis of a thousand regional preparations.

Maremmana beef. The Maremmana breed of cattle, with its long lyre-shaped horns, is one of the oldest in Italy. Raised free, it gives prized cuts for tagliate, braises and peposo. Free-range husbandry and transhumance (today partly revived) are an integral part of the local identity.

The wine of the Maremma. Morellino di Scansano DOCG (pure Sangiovese or in a blend), Bianco di Pitigliano DOC, Montecucco DOCG on the Amiata side, Bolgheri (already in the province of Livorno) at the far north. The Maremma too has come fully onto the international wine map.

Acquacotta maremmana. A soup of stale bread, onion, tomato, mushrooms or wild herbs, and egg. The buttero's dish, poor and sustaining, today given its due again.

Buglione. A stew of mutton or castrated ram, long-cooked in red wine and spices. Cooking from a very old pastoral tradition.

Tortello maremmano. Pasta filled with ricotta and spinach or chard, dressed with a meat ragù or with mushrooms. A dish of the peasant tradition.

Caciottina and pecorino of the Maremma. Local dairies make sheep's cheeses from the Massese and Sardinian breeds, from fresh to long-matured, with vegetal, grassy flavours.

The fish of the Argentario and the archipelago. Humble fish given new value (bonito, amberjack, conger, oily fish), the simple preparations of local fishermen, preserved tuna and sardines.

The honey and the oils of the Maremma. Local beekeepers produce chestnut, strawberry-tree, rosemary and heather honeys. The Toscana IGP extra virgin olive oil of the Maremma is intense in character, with a medium fruitiness.

The sweets. Sfratto di Pitigliano (a very old Jewish sweet, puff pastry filled with walnuts, honey and spices), sweet ricotta tortelli, ciaffagnoni (fritters), Maremma hazelnut cake.