 The city of Florence is a veritable treasure trove. It is awash with historic and artistic gems. While your mind takes wing on the wondrous examples of painting, sculpture and architecture, the body can be equally satiated with gastronomic delights.
Florence abounds in eating places that cater specially for tourists, but real, down-to-earth Italian cooking is not that plentifully available to the casual visitor. The initiated, of course, know exactly where to go. For those seeking traditional Italian food, prepared in the time-honored way, using quality ingredients which are fresh and locally available, the Ristaurante Da Delfina is a ‘must visit’.
Da Delfina lies outside the medieval walled village of Artimino, and can be reached easily from either Florence or Signa. It’s a short 15 minutes by train from Florence, and is located on the Via della Chiesa.
Florentines put Da Delfina among the ‘endangered’ list of authentic Italian restaurants, and they’re right to do so. The establishment uses newly gathered local ingredients, cooked in traditional style, to serve up nourishing, mouth-watering food. The nonagenarian Delfina, from whom the restaurant takes its name, can herself be seen shelling beans or coming back from the woods with a basketful of wild mushrooms, nettles or herbs to be used for the day’s cooking. The pasta is home-made, the superb sausages used are a local speciality and the meat and fish are home-cured and grilled over the giant wood fireplace in the kitchen.
Delfina’s son Carlo Cioni, aided by his wife, Franca, and their son, Marco, shoulder most of the duties of running the restaurant. The service is excellent.
The restaurant nestles among the Tuscan hills, and in warm weather, lunch can be eaten on the open terrace, with panoramic views of the countryside all around. Seated under the arbour on the terrace, you can feast your eyes on the misty green of the hills, covered with grapevines and dotted with olive and cypress trees. Confronted by so much scenic beauty, a first-time guest may be excused for wondering if things could get any better, but they can and do, when the food arrives!
The list of appetizers is a formidable one. A hot favorite is the fresh fennel salami. Moist and sweet and oozing with the flavor of fennel, it is a treat for the palate. Also available is the aged version, dried in Da Delfina’s own cellars. Mild pecorino sheep’s milk cheese teams up with tender fava beans to make another delectable dish, while tongue in sweet sauce and zucchini salad with pine nuts are other options.
The menu is choc-full of traditional dishes. The ribollita is a bread soup that is so typically Italian, enriching, nourishing, comforting, everything a soup should be. The deliciously fresh and succulent Risotto with Garden Vegetables finds a perfect complement in the verdant scenery around.
The pasticcio, a rich concoction with nettles or ortica, pasta, herbs and béchamel sauce, the pappardelle al pomodoro, farro soup, profume of artichokes and bacon and taglierini with wild asparagus (when in season) are other choices for the primi or first course.
For the second course, secondi, the frito misto, roast goat and lamb cutlets are among the most popular options, with wild game roasted with herbs being an added alternative in winter. An all-time, all-weather favourite is the dish of delicious pork cubes, suffused with the flavour of fennel, cooked on the spit over the wood fire in the Da Delfina kitchen. Replete guests term it “out of this world!
The wine list is long and satisfying. It includes the highly-rated 1998 vintage Tuscan Carmignano from the House of Ambra, a distinctive red wine made with Chianti grapes tempered with a dash of Cabernet, and the Chianti Classico from Castello di Fonterutoli, of the 1997 vintage.
The experience of eating out at Da Delfina is fully satisfying and quite easy on the purse as well.
In winter, one can eat indoors, where bricks contribute to the general ambience of warmth and comfort.
Da Delfina is closed from Sunday evening through Monday, and for two weeks in August. It would be wise to make reservations.
Da DELFINA
Loc: Artimino 59015
Via della Chiesa, 1
Tel: 055/8718074
Fax: 055/8718175 |
