Alastair Sawday, of Sawday’s guides, picks 15 places to stay where the food is as wonderful as the surroundings

• • Share 140
  • reddit this
• Comments (12)

• Alastair Sawday
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 9 March 2012 22.45 GMT
• Article history

Expect delightful farmhouse food at Casa Bellavista in Tuscany. Photograph: Ariano Guastaldi

Try talking to a group of Italian foodies about French food, and you quickly unearth enough tension to create an international incident. There is little love lost, which is strange and sad, for each country has vast culinary strengths, enough for the rest of us to stand in awe.

I am one of the lucky ones who has been to Terra Madre (terramadre.org), the giant Italian Slow Food festival in Turin, and can vouch for the astonishing vitality in the world of artisanal food. The Slow Food movement began in Italy and has been responsible for rescuing threatened foods – such as Ligurian honey and Dominici apples – and beaten the drum for local and small-scale production.

Slow Food apart, why is Italian food so special? I am no expert, but perhaps part of the secret is a genius for simplicity – for which French food is not known. A glass of friuli and a plate of pasta, in the right setting, can make the heart race. I have eaten such meals a hundred times in the courtyards, kitchens and gardens of Italian B&Bs and small hotels, and have rarely been disappointed. Or is it also Italy’s genius for adding vitality to everyday experiences? A pasta that comes with both pesto and panache, as well as the inevitable pepper, has added appeal.

Pasta is rarely expensive – a brilliant device for feeding the poor at low cost, it is now good enough for the rich too. Cheeses, salamis, meats, olives – they can be expensive, I know, especially in the hands of experts. But used sparingly, with salads, fresh fruits and good wine, they add joy to a good Italian meal.

---

B&Bs AND HOTELS

 Casa Bellavista, Cortona, Tuscany

If you’ve ever wondered what a tomato really tastes like, this is the place to find out. Grown in the garden, together with figs, the tomatoes are just one unforgettable feature of the four-course meals served by arrangement to lucky guests. Pretty, airy bedrooms are furnished with family antiques and interesting textiles – two share a balcony with views on to the garden. Simonetta’s kitchen has a huge marble table top for kneading bread, and she cooks delightful farmhouse food. Breakfasts are lavish, cookery lessons a treat (
•

FARAONA FARCITA CON LE MELE

(Guinea Hen with Apples)

 Ingredients:

 1 guinea hen (boned)

• 200 gr. dried prunes
• 100 gr. minced hazelnuts
• 5 sage leaves
• 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 apples
• 1 orange
• 1 rosemary sprig  
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper

Directions:

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

 Cut the apples and prunes into thin slices and place them into a bowl.  Zest the orange and mince the zest, adding it to the bowl. Add finely chopped rosemary, thyme, sage, hazelnuts, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and the juice from the orange.  Mix well. 

 Stuff the guinea hen with this paste.  Roll it up lengthwise and tie it. 

 Bake for about 40 minutes. 

 After removing from the oven, let it cool a little.  Slice and serve.

THE RIBOLLITA

Ingredients:

             250 gr. dried white cannellini beans (soaked in cold water for at least 12 hours)

• 250 gr. cabbage
• 250 gr. Swiss chard leaves
• 250 gr. black cabbage
• 150 gr. sliced bread
• 100 ml. extra virgin olive oil
• 5 sage leaves
• 4 tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 leek
• 1 potato
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery stalk
• salt and pepper

 Directions:

 Wash and drain the beans and place them in a large saucepan with plenty of cold water, sage leaves and two garlic cloves. Bring them to a boil, adding 2 tablespoons of salt and 1 tablespoon of pepper.  Cook over low heat for about 1 hour until soft.

 Chop the leek and onion and sauté slightly with extra virgin olive oil.  Chop the leafy vegetables roughly and add them to the pan with the leek and onion.

 Chop the potato, carrot, tomatoes and celery, adding them to the other vegetables. Drain some beans and add them to the pan, cooking all together until the liquid begins to dry up. Then add the water from the cooked beans, salt and pepper to taste, and cook slowly for 2 hours. Now stir in the rest of the cooked beans.

 Toast the sliced bread and place it in soup bowls.  Pour soup over the bread and add extra virgin olive oil and pepper.

 Serve hot with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and freshly ground pepper to taste.