Roast Turkey, Tuscan Style

Until one visits Italy, one doesn't usually associate turkey with our tables. But turkey, tacchino, is a popular dish in Italy and in Tuscany. Cutlets from the breast are a common preparation, but today we concentrate on whole, roasted turkey, a beautiful centerpiece or any holiday buffet or dinner. This really couldn't be easier, and it can be stretched to fit any crowd. Here we give the ingredients needed for a 10 pound turkey, but it can easily be doubled.

We do suggest that you cook two ten pound turkeys if you are planning for a large crowd, as anything over that size tends to be tough and old. Not only that, but the high-heat roasting method will not work on a larger bird.

Ingredients for the rub:

• 3 stalks fresh rosemary, chopped
  
  
• 3 medium cloves garlic, finely chopped
  
  
• 1/4 cup coarse salt
  
  
• The zest of one lemon
  
  
• Freshly ground pepper

Ingredients for roasting the turkey:

• 1 ten pound turkey
  
  
• 1 large onion, quartered
  
  
• 2 or 3 carrots, roughly chopped
  
  
• 2 or 3 stalks celery, roughly chopped
  
  
• 1 bunch fresh rosemary
  
  
• 1 lemon, quartered

Tuscan Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Clean and dry the turkey well, and rub it generously all over with olive oil. Then massage the turkey, inside and out, but concentrating on the outside, with the rub. Press it into the skin so that it will stick. Place the onion, carrot, celery, rosemary and lemon into the turkey cavity.

Place this all in a shallow roasting pan (I like to use one with a turkey rack) and drizzle the bird well with more olive oil. Place the pan, uncovered, in a 425 degree preheated oven. You want the turkey to be nicely browned but not dry. Cook until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees when placed into the thickest part of the turkey. This should take two to two and a half hours.

Let the turkey rest for at least 15 minutes before carving and serving.

Pumpkin Risotto

This is a favorite dish, and again, perfect for winter. It is hearty, and can feed quite a few folks at a buffet or sit-down dinner. It also looks gorgeous when presented with our other dishes.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces to one pound of small sugar pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and chopped
  
  
• 1 medium onion, chopped
  
  
• 1 Tablespoon fresh butter
  
  
• 1/4 cup Tuscan Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  
  
• 3 cups Arborio Rice
  
  
• 6 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock, at a simmer

Melt the butter and olive oil in a large non-stick sauce pan. Sauté the pumpkin pieces and the onion until the pumpkin is soft. Add the rice and lightly toast it in the olive oil, butter and vegetable mixture. This should be done on low heat for two or three minutes.

Add two cups of the broth, and bring to a low boil, stirring frequently. When this liquid is absorbed, add two more cups. Add additional broth after this is absorbed, as needed. The rice should be al dente and creamy, and the process should take about 20 minutes.

At the end, I like to add another tablespoon of butter and up to half a cup of grated, aged Pecorino. Delicious.

Olive al Forno

These baked olives round out your buffet beautifully. They are very different and very easy to make.

• 4 dozen large green olives pickled in brine
  
  
• 12 thin slices of pancetta, cut in half inch strips
  
  
• Extra Virgin Tuscan Olive Oil

You can pit these olives with an olive pitter, or gently crack them with a mallet and remove the pits. Toss the pitted olives, the pancetta and a tablespoon or two of the olive oil together. If you like, you can add a few cloves of garlic.

Place in an olive oil brushed oven proof dish, and bake at 375 until the fat on the pancetta melts and runs. Serve hot using a slotted spoon.

As was the case with many of Italy's older high-fashion companies, the House of Gucci began as a family owned leather goods and saddler shops, serving Florence's riders and horse owners.

Guccio Gucci, the son of a Florentine craftsman, was born in 1881. When he was still a very young man, Guccio moved to Paris, and then settled in London, where he rapidly rose to the position of Maitre d'hôtel in the swank Savoy Hotel. According to Guccio himself, it was in London and Paris that he "gained an appreciation of cosmopolitan culture, sophistication, and aesthetics."

Gucci eventually returned to Firenze, and opened his first leather boutique in 1921. This first Gucci shop was begun with just 30.000 Lira,
but by hiring the finest available craftsman, Guccio Gucci quickly gained a reputation for providing quality goods. These hand-crafted leather goods and accessories for horseback riders proved popular with a very sophisticated clientele and the Gucci business began to grow.

In fact, business was so good that Gucci opened a Roma boutique in 1938. Guccio himself was designing most of the company's popular accessory pieces, and when he introduced the bamboo-handled handbag, still popular today, in 1947, his fame spread. He was no longer beloved by just the horsy set: all the fashionable world was now clamoring for his handbags. In the 1950s, Guccio Gucci developed the company's famed webbed fabric, derived from a saddle part, and the Gucci moccasin with the metal bit. The metal bit, or snaffle-bit, is, of course, yet another continuing hallmark of the Gucci brand.

Gucci married Alda Calvelli and they had six children, but only their four sons, Vasco, Aldo, Ugo and Rodolfo grew to play significant roles in the Gucci company leadership. The family worked closely together and their empire of shops expanded with new stores in Florence, Rome and Milan.

Guccio Gucci passed away in 1953, and his son Aldo took the helm of the company, bringing them to international prominence. Stores were opened in London and Paris, and much to Guccio Gucci's chagrin, shortly before his death his sons Aldo and Rodolfo insisted on opening an overseas store in New York. It was the ascendance of the wishes of Aldo and Rodolfo, rather than the death of Guccio, that actually marked the beginning
of the next era for the company.

New shops were soon opened in Palm Beach, Beverly Hills and Tokyo, and along with the purses and moccasins, Gucci's famed ties, scarves, and belt buckles were introduced. Among the jet set of the day, these items were fashion essentials. Yet along with their success, the Gucci brothers experienced a great deal of family strife. They were nearly as
famous for their ferocious arguments as for their lovely accessories. The family became notorious for in-fighting.

As the world shrank, and media and travel grew, status brands took off and Gucci, along with another Florentine company, Pucci (see our last newsletter) became the best known status symbols of their day. The Gucci company continued to expand and a huge modern factory was opened in Florence's suburbs. However, as the company grew, so did the arguments and finally, in 1989, Maurizio Gucci, son of Rodolfo, took over as
president of the company.

Interestingly, it was at this point that the Gucci brand decided to reevaluate their mass market direction, and return to the tradition of beautiful hand-crafted merchandise for only the most discriminating clientele. They cut their lines and scaled back their production, concentrating on their most popular items: the bamboo-handled purse, luggage, shoes, and the famous Flora scarf, originally created for the movie star
Grace Kelly, who became Princess Grace of Monaco. A bag designed for and named after Jackie Kennedy was also among these best sellers. At this time, the Gucci family decided to also cut their distributors, and Gucci products are now sold in only 180 boutiques around the world.

After Rodolfo Gucci died in 1983, there were many shakeups among the family members, but Maurizio maintained control and began to seek company leaders from outside his family. Calvin Klein and Geoffrey Beene were already designing for Gucci when Tom Ford was hired, and shot the company's fashion brands to new heights.

Tom Ford had worked with and was a great admire of the fashion designer Ralph Lauren. According to Ford, Lauren was "the only designer to really create an entire world. You know exactly what his people look like, what their houses look like, what kind of cars they drive." This was the philosophy that Tom Ford brought to Gucci. He wanted Gucci to be a lifestyle as well as a fashion company. Ford's designs for the Gucci label were a huge hit. Stars such as Madonna, Gwenyth Paltrow and others were wearing his clothes, making Gucci a top brand. Ford himself became a celebrity during the late 1990s. Somehow, the market was again flooded with Gucci items, and the scaled back selectivity the company had as its goal was now a thing of the past.

A period of instability followed Ford's stardom, but now the brand seems to be back on track, and, more significantly, the Gucci Group is one of the most powerful entities in the fashion business. They now own not only all of Gucci and Yves St Laurent, but significant proportions of Sergio Rossi, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney. The also own the Fendi luggage brand and several popular high-end
perfume and jewelry brands.

The Gucci company was named European Company of the Year in 1998 by the European Business Press Federation for its financial performance, strategic planning and management quality. And it all started at a rather small little leather boutique in Florence.

Today, you can visit the Gucci store on the via Tornabuoni, Florence's most swank shopping street.

Gucci
Via Tornabuoni 73/r
50100 Florence
Tel: +39-055-759221
Fax: +39-55-7592305
Web: http://www.gucci.com