Pici is the name of the local, incredibly delicious pasta of the area around Montalcino. In the town itself, according to Isabella Dusi, it is called "pinci" and served often and proudly. I have really never seen this dish outside of the towns where Sienese cuisine is the major influence, so if you long to try it, I hereby give you the method and ask that you roll up your sleeves. Pici is nearly always served with a meat based sauce that include tomatoes. Any good quality sauce, and almost any meat, will do. It is the flavor and the texture of this hearty pasta that counts. Enjoy!

Ingredients

There are really only three ingredients involved in making Pici. They are flour, salt and water.

2 cups semolina flour (available online and in specialty stores)

2 cups all-purpose flour

Large pinch salt

1 cup tepid water (if more is necessary, add by the tablespoon)

In a large mixing bowl mix both flours and the salt together. Making a well in the center of the flour, add the water slowly, stirring with your hands until a dough is formed. More or less water may needed; this depends on the humidity levels in your kitchen.

Turning the dough onto a large floured work surface, knead until it is elastic and smooth. This should take up to 10 minutes. Cover the dough with the original mixing bowl and let it rest for about 10 minutes more.

Now comes the fun part: forming this uniquely shaped pasta. Start by rolling all the dough into long rod shapes that are a little less than 1/2 inch thick. Now you can cut these rods into shorter lengths of 4 inches or longer. I find the 4 inch length best for me, because I am unpracticed at the art of making pici, and longer lengths can become unwieldy.

Place each 4 inch rod between your two hands and roll until you have a very long squiggly length of dough. Place these on a wide tray or cookie sheet that has been dusted with semolina flour, and cover as you go along. I use a dish towel that I've dusted very lightly with more flour to cover the formed pici.

You can cook the pici immediately, or freeze them up to several months. Cook in boiling water as you would any fresh pasta, remembering they will be done quickly as they rise to the top of the pot.

Serve these, as I said, with any good meat sauce. A sauce of crumbled sausage, tomato, garlic and onion is a fine choice.

* A note on our recipes. I try all the recipes here in our kitchen, and many are family favorites. I am thrilled if someone says they made one and liked it, and I would love to hear your feedback on any of our recipes. Send letters and requests to Tuscanlifeedit@verizon.net

There is something strangely compelling about Dusi's book. I say "strangely" because it is not the sort of book that I normally embrace, but I found myself reading to the end of this one, and for the most part, highly enjoying the experience.

Let me begin by saying that most of the books that come across my desk for review are written by non-native Italians, who, due to the success of Frances Mayes' Under The Tuscan Sun, have rushed to write about their experiences in Tuscany. It is with a great amount of pleasure that I get to read and review a book such as Patrizia Chen's Rosemary and Bitter Oranges; that is, a book about life in Tuscany written by a Tuscan.

I find that too many of the expatriate books about Tuscany take a rather condescending view of Tuscans and Italians in general, and that many of these books see the inhabitants the authors intermingle with as types: cute, wily, charming, mysterious, Italian by the outsider's definition. I will tell you that Vanilla Beans and Brodo does sometimes fall short in these areas. Dusi generalizes about Italians much too much, but there is something endearing about this book that is different than others of the same type. Perhaps it is because her tone is more naive that condescending, that allows her book to remain likable when others fall short of that goal.

And it is a genuinely likable book. Dusi's affection for the inhabitants of Montalcino informs every page of her hefty tome. She seems to love the streets, the buildings, the surroundings, and most of all, the history of Montalcino as much as she appears to love its people. Why most of all history?

It is because Dusi's book is much more than a story of moving to Tuscany. It is, as she herself states, not her story, but the story of Montalcino as it unfolds itself to her over the years. She didn't write her book after a few years in Tuscany, but only after coming to know and love the town, and more importantly, to learn a very great deal about the history of said town. Dusi's views on her neighbors are largely informed by what she knows of their shared history. Her take on their characters seems to be as much about what she has learned of their shared historic past as it is about the way they present themselves to her.

Large, and I do mean large, sections of the book are devoted the history of the town, especially its battles during Montalcino's unfortunate 16th century. Other parts are devoted to the Brunello di Montalcino and it is really here that Dusi's writing is at its best. She gives an accurate and exciting account, spread throughout the entire book, of what it means to have Brunello in Montalcino, and I found this account fascinating.

Hunting, historic tournaments and eating play almost as large a part in Vanilla Beans and Brodo as do battles, sieges and wine. Dusi is a rather good story teller and she excels when dealing with subjects that are within her personal realm of knowledge. The book fell a little flat for me when Dusi used the rather false-sounding construction of an older native Montalcinese telling the town's history to a couple of American tourists. This retelling of the story of Montalcino may have actually happened the way Dusi wrote it, but it doesn't come across as nearly as genuinely as does the greater part of Vanilla Beans and Brodo. However, this was a fault I could overlook, and did.

History was necessary, in her view, to accurately convey what she had learned about Montalcino and the Montalcinese, and I will forgive any slight failings in style because this is, for the most part, a lovely book about a very lovely town. I highly recommend it to readers who have been to Montalcino, and to anyone looking for a little travel inspiration.

Brunello di Montalcino is considered to be Tuscany's very finest red wine. It holds the prestigious DOCG designation and is sought by buyers from around the world. Yet it is a relatively new wine. In 1865, the Biondi-Santi family won a citation for a wine called "Brunello" and this rather unheralded event began to sets the wheels of change in motion for Montalcino and the surrounding hills that lead up to the town.

Sitting as it does atop a high hill, Montalcino almost appears as an island of refuge to those who ascend to her from the valley roads below. The town sits far from any major modern highways, and its purity of air, its woods and fields and streams, all add to the sense of a quiet oasis.

The people of Montalcino were always wood choppers and poor peasant farm laborers. They were the contadini and woodcutters that Dusi speaks of so often in her book. But they were also fierce warriors and defenders of their turf, especially during the years of the 16th century when they were so severely oppressed and besieged. They were hunters, and farmers and craftsmen, and they all fell on hard times when the industrial revolution finally came to Italy and changed her social order forever. For a large part of the 20th century, Montalcino was a dying village.

For many reasons, but foremost among them the development of Brunello, that is all changed once again. According to the Consorzio del Brunello, the wine of Montalcino was already "widely appreciated in past centuries, the oenological production had, even here, remained faithful to the canons of proven reliability of Tuscan tradition. It was only toward the end of last century that the first experiments where begun in order to improve and exalt the characteristics of a raw material and an environment no doubt quite special."

Through time and effort, and the failure of other crops to sustain the economy of the area, focus was put on the Brunello, and through the later 19th and most of the 20th century, growers around Montalcino developed the wine we know today. Remember though, that Brunello was unknown outside of its immediate surroundings until the 1960s.

Brunello Di Montalcino is a brilliant wine of a glittering garnet color, with "an intense, persistent, full and ethereal bouquet." The bouquet carries the scents of the local woods, the fruit trees and a light hint of vanilla. Its taste "has an elegant and harmonic body with strength and breeding. It is dry, with a pronounced aromatic persistence. Because of its characteristics, Brunello di Montalcino can withstand lengthy aging improving with time."

Depending on the vintage, Brunello can improve in the bottle from 10 to 30 years. There are certain vintages that will improve over an even longer period of time. Of course, proper storage and cellaring are essential in aging Brunello di Montalcino.

Because of its harmonious and elegant nature, Brunello is suitable for serving with a variety of complex dishes. Red meat and game are perfect accompaniments, as are those dishes and others prepared with mushrooms and truffles. Aged cheeses such as Parmesan and wonderful aged Tuscan Pecorino are excellent with Brunello di Montalcino.

The Consorzio recommends that the wine "should be served in crystal glasses, balloon shaped, in order to capture the compound and harmonious bouquet. The wine should be served to a temperature of about 18-20 degrees Centigrade."

The manufacture of Brunello di Montalcino is very strictly controlled (see the DOCG rating) and because of this, the market is not flooded with bottles. Brunello is a precious wine that can only been grown and made on certain slopes in and around Montalcino. The demand exceeds the production, and Brunello is quite expensive.

According to the Consorzio, "Brunello di Montalcino is not simply an Italian phenomenon: it is world-wide. There is no country where quality wines are consumed in which this wine cannot be found.
It must also be said that Brunello di Montalcino is the figurehead that, penetrating all the world's markets, has contributed so much to the elevation of the image of Italian wine in general. It must also be emphasized that abroad, its harmonious and aristocratic flavour has conquered not only the palates of those who have traditionally appreciated Italian wines but also those that where not in the least habituated to the country's products."

Brunello di Montalcino is produced exclusively from Sangiovese grapes, which are called Brunello in Montalcino. There are very set limits on yields per hectare, periods of aging and also product characteristics. A commission must approve the wine before it can be sold.

But all these facts don't convey the wonderful taste of the Brunello di Montalcino, or the renewed spirit of life and prosperity that the wine has brought to the town. One go there and drink the wine to know how great they both are.

(all quotes are from the Consorzio Brunello di Montalcino)