I've been trying to get my notes onto the computer every night, but haven't taken much time to really refine anything. Here are a few that have made it into the digital realm so far.

Some recipes
Sformato
Basically, this is vegetable custard
Rapini/broccoli rabe, sautéed
Fresh ricotta
Whole eggs
Egg whites
Parmesan

Puree rapini, parmesan, and eggs. Puree or fold ricotta in and season to taste. Pancake like consistency. Cook in ramekins (sformatino) in water bath or in steam oven

Pate de Tuscano
Everyday item in Tuscany, a chicken liver pate
2 # chicken livers, excess fat removed and soaked 30 minutes in cold water
Mirepoix made with red onion (buttato)
Olive oil
A couple whole cloves garlic
Vin Santo – Tuscan dessert wine similar to sherry
Anchovies paste
Capers
Bay leaf
Sage
Juniper
Butter
s/p
sauté buttato and garlic in a lot of oil (more of a confit) until browned, add livers. Confit 30 – 40 minutes. Add 1-2 tbs anchovie paste and equal amount of capers, some bay, juniper and sage. Deglaze with a little vin santo. Drink a little vin santo. Cook another 15-20 minutes to infuse flavor. Mix in cold butter and season to taste. Grind though meat grinder. Reheat with a little chicken stock and serve on crustini
Budino de Ricotta

Puree fresh ricotta (sheep’s milk in Tuscany), with 15% (of ricotta’s weight) egg whites, ½ & 1/2, and sugar – you could also fold in egg whites at peaks.
In a sauté pan gently heat pine nuts with sugar, quite a bit of it. Do not melt sugar or caramelize, just let it start to melt while stirring it will coat the nuts, but have a sandy consistency. This is called “Pinole sabiati” sandy pine nuts. Stop them cooking before they take much color or the sugar darkens.
Place a small handful of pinholes sabiati in greased ramekins and top with budino. Bake at 90 Celsius/195 Fahrenheit until barely cooked through.
Carpaccio di Diano (die-no)
Diano was described to me as “like deer”, smaller than an elk, bigger than a deer
This is interesting. There is no searing involved and I like. Make a mix of coarse salt (they have a really coarse salt that’s used a lot, not quite rock salt. Think what you’d serve oysters on), black peppercorns, juniper, crushed bay leaf (anything really, fennel seed, coriander, mustard). Make like 4 # of this mix. Take the venison (or whatever) we used whole diano rib roasts, about the size we get from prairie harvest ect… and completely bury it in the mix and put heavy weight (2 big tins of olive oil) on top. Cure in this manner for 3-4 hours. Rinse and dry well. Slice and serve how you wish. The cure can be saved (make sure meat was good and dry before putting in cure).
Farinata de cavello nero
Cavello nero is what we call black cabbage, looks a lot like a dark braising green (which you could probably sub)
Blanch for about 20 minutes or so and drain. In a saucepot, basically make a soup with buttato (mirepoix w red onion), white beans, chicken stock and cavello nero. Once flavor is good, and cavello nero is breaking apart, add cornmeal. Basically you are making black cabbage and bean polenta. Cook as you would polenta. Can be served creamy or sliced and fried. We use as an amuse (not allowed to use that word though) creamy or fried with fresh fennel sausage and shaved aged pecorino/olive oil.
Il gratinato di baccala e patate con pesto capperi
Cod mousse with gratineed potatoes and caper pesto
Apparently baccala really is salt cod, and the dish a way to serve the preserved fish. We use fresh cod. This is really delicious.
Poach cod in an aromatic but rather neutral court bouillon, not much acid. In Robot Coupe, puree well with s/p and freshly dried parsley (dries won’t turn whole thing green I guess). Once it’s pureed well, add good extra virgin until it is of a mousse consistency. Bake quenelles’ until hot throughout.
Blanch and peal russet potatoes. Slice ¼ inch and top with blended oil and breadcrumbs and s/p. bake until golden
Serve baccala with potatoes and a pesto of capers, good olive oil and parsley. Makes a nice first course (Il principio)
Observations so far on pasta in general
Notes on pasta: Do not blanch and shock, esp. don’t shock. It washes away starch. Dishes such as carbonora do not have cream/milk but pasta’s starch. On this same note, do not oil water or pasta because nothing will stick to the pasta. Finish with oil if necessary. Also, to develop starch in finished dish, giving luxurious feel, pull while very el dente and finish in pan, adding stock or pasta water (both) to finish/reduce. This will keep a lot of starch in the dish, giving it a very creamy feel. Buy very good dried pasta – artisanal.