
Tuscan food is known for its robust flavours and simple, high-quality ingredients – it is the exalted peasant food of Italy. One of Tuscany’s most exemplary dishes is rebollita, a hearty soup/stew featuring black kale, cannellini beans, fresh vegetables and quality olive oil.
Wes’ dinner will feature a huge, soul-warming bowl of this beautiful dish, made with local veggies and finished with a special estate extra-virgin olive oil, imported by a friend from Chieti province in the Abruzzo region of Italy. The ribollita will be served with a Ontario ramp (wild leek) and pecorino crostini.
$11
Add artisanal proscuitto from Niagara to your crostini +$2
(Veg’n-friendly & gluten free (not the crostini, obvs.))
Wes Allen hosts popup brunch and southern barbecue events in his backyard and has been a vendor at the Toronto Underground Market selling home made spice blends.
SPECIAL BONUS – Luca Lucarini will be joining us with samples and bottles of his family’s Italian estate-grown virgin olive oil, “Terra dell’abbazia”. He describes it as follows:
“…It’s from the Chieti province in the Abruzzo region of Italy. The olives grow on land that has been in my family since WW2. They’re pressed by a local olio culturalist for us – we split the resulting oil, he sells some of it in shops and we keep the better part for ourselves. It’s pressed using very modern technology – basically it’s pressed in a vacuum sealed press that eliminates all oxidization, which is the enemy of the oil. It’s certainly a product from which you can trace the origins, and its absolutely 100 percent extra virgin without adulteration or processing.
The varieties of olive used are called Leccino and Gentile di Chieti. Leccino is grown commonly throughout Southern Italy. GDC is particular to our region (Chieti) – Leccino provides the emerald green, piquant quality in the oil, and GDC is more mellow, (hence the name, which literally translates as ‘the gentle one of Chieti’). I would describe the general character of the oil as relatively aggressive, with some peppery, herbacious qualities – it’s quite grassy. Definitely an oil that’s suited to Mediterranean cooking – it matches with pulses, fish, tomatoes, and leafy greens best…”