fettunta

This Tuscan form of bruschetta at its most basic: grilled bread and olive oil, often eaten in November to test the quality of new oil, when it is at its most pungent. But even then most people rub it with garlic first, and add salt and pepper.

Fettunta is also used a traditional winter dish called zuppa lombarda. The Lombard connection is quite obscure: Giovanni Righi Parenti in La Cucina Toscana claims it earned its name by being the favourite soup of one Bernardino Zenderini of Brescia, who came to drain the marshes of Viareggio in 1740 with a band of Lombards. Some Tuscans simply call it zuppa bastarda.

To make zuppa lombarda (or bastarda) place the fettunta in a soup bowl and covered it with cannellini beans stewed with sautéed onion, and season with oil, wine vinegar, salt and pepper.