What to Eat in Florence: 14 Traditional Dishes Not to Miss

If you’re used to eating Italian food in the US, you might be surprised to learn that some of the most famous dishes aren’t widely eaten in Italy. (Forget about spaghetti and meatballs and chicken parm—you won’t find them here.) 

Instead, Italy is full of local specialties that differ from region to region and even from city to city within the same region. Tuscan food has roots in the cucina povera (i.e., poor cuisine) tradition, so the region’s culinary specialties are humble dishes made using the ingredients available in the countryside, such as peas and fava beans in the spring; tomatoes and zucchini in the summer; artichokes, squash, kale, and chestnuts in the autumn and winter;  and olives that get harvested in the fall and preserved or pressed into olive oil that gets used year-round. 

The result is a gastronomic tradition that’s been based on local, seasonal agriculture since long before farm-to-table was a buzzword. Read on for some of the most beloved dishes to look for on your next trip to Florence.

Panzanella

This Tuscan bread salad is one of the most iconic summer dishes you can try. There are a few different theories about the origins of panzanella, but all that’s known for sure is that it was cited in 16th-century literature. In Italian, it’s known as un piatto di ricupero, meaning it’s a way for people to use day-old ingredients that would otherwise get wasted. In this case, the recipe calls for stale bread, which gets soaked in water, torn into pieces, and tossed together with tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, olive oil, vinegar, basil, and salt to become a light, fresh bread-based salad with a combination of textures thanks to the soft bread and crunchy vegetables. Every family has its own variation, with some leaving out the onions or adding capers. In the summer, it’s on the menu at Il Ristoro dei Perditempo, a casual little restaurant with views of Ponte Vecchio.

Pappa al Pomodoro

Another piatto di ricupero, this recipe is also a way for Tuscan cooks to use up old bread. In this case, it gets turned into a sort of thick soup flavored with tomatoes, basil, garlic, and olive oil. It was likely created by farmers in the Tuscan countryside and was cited in a 1907 children’s book called The Diary of Hurricane Johnny. To make it, you immerse pieces of bread in tomato sauce, breaking them up with a wooden spoon and cooking them over a low flame so the bread comes apart completely and melds with the sauce. Pappa literally translates to baby food, but Tuscans of all ages love this nostalgic comfort food that you can find on menus at trattorias and osterias around the city, including Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco, cited as one of Stanley Tucci’s favorite restaurants on Searching for Italy.

Ribollita

This hearty vegetable soup is just what you want to eat on a cold winter day, even if it’s available on menus year-round. It combines seasonal staples like white beans, kale, and swiss chard with carrots, celery, onion, rosemary, laurel, and—you guessed it—stale bread torn into little pieces that meld with the rest of the ingredients to form a soup. Trattoria Cammillo—a family-run trattoria that’s open since 1945—makes one of the best in town.

Pici

This typical Tuscan pasta is like long, thick spaghetti made with just flour, water, and a little bit of olive oil (no eggs because eggs were only available to the wealthiest citizens). Some sources trace this recipe back to the ancient Etruscans, the pre-Roman civilization that inhabited Tuscany and gave the region its name. The dough is traditionally stretched by hand, so it tends to come out in rustic, uneven strands. It’s served with a variety of sauces, but one of the most common ways you’ll see it is pici all’aglione, a garlicky tomato sauce made with the giant garlic cloves found in the countryside around Siena. Trattoria Sergio Gozzi, a spartan restaurant serving homestyle cuisine, makes wonderful pici. 

Gnudi 

If you like gnocchi, you should definitely try gnudi. Larger and lighter than gnocchi, these soft, pillowy dumplings are made with ricotta and spinach instead of potatoes. The name means naked because they’re essentially the filling from spinach and ricotta ravioli but without the pasta. The recipe has been around since at least the 16th century and likely originated in the farmlands of the Tuscan countryside. They’re either served in tomato sauce or a simple butter and sage sauce. Regina Bistecca, near the Duomo, makes a delicious version of them.

Ragu di cinghiale

Ragu is a meat and tomato sauce that one typically thinks of in terms of Bolognese, but in Tuscany, it’s most commonly made with wild boar (they roam free in the countryside) that’s been slow-cooked with red wine until it’s super tender. Hunted for centuries, wild boar has a bit of a gamey flavor but is appreciated because it’s a leaner meat than pork. It’s often served with pappardelle, i.e., wide, flat strands of egg-based pasta common in Tuscany. This is one of the signature dishes at Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco.

Bistecca alla Fiorentina

Probably the most iconic Tuscan dish, bistecca all Fiorentina is a T-bone steak made of premium Chianina beef, which comes from massive white cows that have been bred in the Val di Chiana south of Florence for two millennia. The meat is aged, cut into huge steaks, cooked on a wooden grill, and served rare. It’s often priced by the weight, so don’t be fooled by menus that list prices like €8 or €9—that’s the price per hectogram (100 grams, roughly 3.5 ounces). A single portion is generally 600-800 grams, so two people can expect to pay €100-150. Side dishes like roasted potatoes or vegetables are ordered separately. The place to go is Regina Bistecca.

Truffles

The forests of Tuscany are natural breeding grounds for these prized tubers, which you’ll find on restaurant menus around Florence and Tuscany. White truffles (more famous in Piedmont but also available in Tuscany) have a short season in the winter, but black truffles can be foraged year-round. Because their flavor is so delicate, they were traditionally served atop simple, plain-seeming dishes like tagliatelle with butter sauce or eggs instead of tomato sauce, which would overwhelm their flavor, but nowadays, many chefs at upscale restaurants like Borgo San Jacopo at the Hotel Lungarno Irene at the Hotel Savoy grate some truffle onto their refined dishes like tortellini with parmigiano reggiano, beets, honey, and black truffle or turbot with escarole, pear, endive, and black truffle.

Lampredotto 

Not for the faint of heart, lampredotto is a street food sandwich made with a cow’s fourth stomach that’s been slowly cooked for a long time in a tomato-based broth. It’s usually served on a thick, crusty roll with salsa verde and maybe some spicy green or red sauce (or both). The combination of the salty, chewy meat, crusty bread, and spicy sauce creates a unique blend of flavors and textures. The recipe dates back hundreds of years to the time when poor people routinely used off-cuts because they were cheaper than other cuts of meat. You’ll find it at sandwich shops, market stalls, and street carts like ‘L Trippaio di San Frediano and Nerbone inside the Mercato Centrale.

Crostini 

Similar to bruschetta, crostini are slices of toasted bread topped with various things, usually eaten as an appetizer. The main difference between the two is that bruschetta is made with thick slices of bread, while crostini are typically thin slices. A favorite variation in Florence is crostini with chicken liver paté, popular because the strong flavor pairs well with Tuscany’s typical saltless bread, but you can also find vegetarian crostini topped with beans, tomatoes, or other vegetables. Order them at Alla Vecchia Bettola, a rustic trattoria in Oltrarno.

Pecorino 

Pecorino is a sheep’s milk cheese produced in various regions of Italy, but it differs from place to place. (Pecorino romano, for example, is hard and very salty.) In Tuscany, the most renowned version is pecorino di Pienza from the little city in the Val d’Orcia. Some say that the pecorino from Pienza tastes better because of the grasses and herbs like clover, wild fennel, and wormwood that the sheep graze on. You can find it fresh or aged, sometimes wrapped in laurel leaves. It often appears on cheese boards as an appetizer or baked into a delicious melted mass (look for pecorino al forno on the menu) and served with bread.

Schiacciata 

Traditional Tuscan bread is baked without salt, but not this focaccia-like flatbread that’s thinner than the pillowy focaccia from Liguria but still rather soft and chewy. It can be found at bakeries like Forno Becagli. Schiaccia Passera—a hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop near Palazzo Pitti—uses it to make a variety of panini filled with pecorino, salami, and other ingredients. In the fall, just after the grapes have been harvested, bakeries make schiacciata all’uva, a version of the bread studded with grapes. 

Budino di riso

Every Italian region has its emblematic pastry, and in Tuscany, you have to try a budino di riso, a sweet born in the early 1900s in Tuscany (sources disagree about whether they originated in Florence or Siena). These little oval pastries are made with rice and pastry cream flavored with orange and vanilla and baked into a shortcrust pastry. They are eaten for breakfast, so you can expect to find them at bakeries or bars like Caffè Gilli, the historic café on Piazza della Repubblica.

Cantucci

What Americans typically call biscotti are called cantucci in Tuscany. These rustic, crunchy cookies studded with almonds are served at the end of a meal. They’re not very sweet, so Tuscans like to dunk them in Vin Santo, a local sweet wine. Try them at Osteria delle Belle Donne, where Stanley Tucci ate them on Searching for Italy.

Learn more about Italy: 

• The Travel Guide to Tuscany
• The Roman Pastry That Leads to Marriage
• The Ancient Italian City Where You Can Sleep in a Cave