15 Tuscan Dinner Recipes to Transport You to Italy

Many of the regional cuisines of Italy are known and loved outside of the country, with specific dishes like Lazian spaghetti alla carbonara, Emilia-Romagna’s lasagna Bolognese, Sicilian pasta alla Norma, and, more recently, Puglian spaghetti all’assassina becoming just as much a part of the American home cook’s canon as the Italian American favorites spaghetti and meataballs and baked ziti.

So if you’re a fan of Italian cuisine, you’ve probably also seen “Tuscan” attached to a variety of dishes, from Tuscan chicken to Tuscan bean soup, Tuscan bread salad to Tuscan steak. But what exactly makes a recipe Tuscan?

Tuscany is a region in central Italy (Florence is its capital) known for simplicity and seasonality in their cuisine. Many of the dishes stem from cucina povera (aka peasant cuisine), so you’ll see a lot of legumes, fresh seasonal vegetables (as vegetables are cheapest when in season), recipes that use stale bread as a core ingredient, and straightforward flavors as opposed to complex mixes of herbs and spices. When you think Tuscan food or see a recipe labeled “Tuscan” on a menu, you should think simple, seasonal, high quality ingredients that speak for themselves. Or, you can just turn to the recipes below, and let them do the thinking for you!