4 siena recipes

Traditional Panforte di Siena with toasted almonds, hazelnuts, candied orange peel, citron, cocoa, and honey syrup cooked to soft ball stage. A dense Italian Christmas confection.

In central Italy, from Umbria to Marches, the Easter Pie is more of a bread than a pie and is known as "torta di pasqua" or "pizza di pasqua.

Tiramisu ("pick me up") is a modern version of a dessert first created in Siena, where it was called zuppa del Duca (the Duke's soup!). From there it migrated to Florence, where it became very popular in the nine- teenth century among the many English people who came to live in the city at that time. And so it was called zuppa inglese--English soup. Only recently, the same dessert with some variation--chiefly the substitution of rich mascarpone cheese for the original custard--has come to be called tiramisu.

Have you ever seen a ling cod? They are almost primeval looking - huge, gaping mouths with very sharp teeth. As with any fish, the most important factor for how good it tastes is its freshness. I picked up this fillet at my local fish market where they told me that the ling cod had just come in that morning. With the lemon-garlic butter sauce it was divine.