Historical Foods

Although the three regions of Tuscany, Umbria and Le Marche have their own very individual recipes, ingredients, culinary traditions and habits, they do share one common factor: all have a set of recipes that were historically created for the wealthy, and another set eaten by the poor. Only the nobility or the clergy would have been able to afford expensive ingredients such as salt, sugar, fine flour or spices from faraway lands, exotic fruit and vegetables, the best cuts of meat, and the most valuable fish or shellfish. The poorer people, mainly peasant farmers or simple craftsmen, would have lived off a completely different fare, eating a basic and more repetitive diet. Both types of recipes survive today.