Faith Willinger

Fabio Picchi, owner and chef of the restaurant Cibrèo in Florence, cooks like a Florentine granny with a spicy palate. He takes full advantage of seasonal abundance from the Sant' Ambrogio market next to his restaurant. Fabio's recipes are wonderful but imprecise, quantities are vague, and I've got to pay strict attention so he doesn't skip an ingredient or a step. His refreshing summery tomato aspic is simple and uses traditional ingredients in a novel way, creating a spicy tomato sauce with a wiggle, barely jelled, more fun than a formal aspic. Bright red, speckled with herbs, zapped with chili and garlic, Fabio's appetizer is a far cry from the ladies-lunch image of conventional, transparent consommé aspics. Even my gelatin-hating husband and son love this dish. Double the extra virgin for more authentic Tuscan flavor.

I love many versions of baked stuffed tomatoes, but the simple recipe of Torquato Innocenti, who sells tomatoes in Florence's Piazza Santo Spirito market, is my favorite. Nothing more than garlic, basil or parsley, and "good oil" fills the tomatoes.

Fabio Picchi, owner and chef of the restaurant Cibrèo in Florence, takes full advantage of seasonal abundance from the Sant'Ambrogio market next door. He delights in using traditional ingredients in novel ways, as his refreshing tomato aspic illustrates. It's a spicy tomato sauce with a wiggle (barely set), which is bright red, speckled with herbs, zapped with chilies and garlic, and much more fun than the conventional ladies-lunch aspic. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional unattended time.

Almost all tomato-sauce recipes call for at least 30 minutes of cooking, but you can make this tomato sauce in less than 10 minutes by using a large skillet instead of the conventional saucepan. The tomatoes cook faster on the larger surface of the skillet and taste fresher than sauces subjected to 45 minutes of heat. Pasta is added to the sauce in the skillet to finish cooking both pasta and sauce together. This basic tomato sauce can easily be prepared while waiting for the pasta water to come to a boil. Ripe seasonal tomatoes, preferably plum or sauce tomatoes, which have a lower water content, should be used when available, but first-rate canned tomato pulp is a fine choice for the rest of the year. Those who wish to peel fresh tomatoes should, though it's not necessary.

"No one wants to eat this kind of food in a restaurant," Franco Ricatti, owner of the Ristorante Bacco in Barletta, Puglia, told me, "but we make it all the time at home." As he described the following, one-pot preparation of pasta boiled with diced zucchini and potatoes, dressed with olive oil and grated Parmesan, I begged him to make it for me. Franco breaks the spaghetti into 2-inch pieces, but I don't bother. And he doesn't use any herbs — unusual behavior in Italy — but I like to add a little basil or parsley. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

(Grain and Tomato Salad) One summer my husband, Massimo, and I vacationed with our son, Max, near Lucca, about an hour from Florence. There we discovered a local specialty, farro, an ancient grain (emmer, often called spelt, in English) similar to barley, traditionally used in bean soup there. We bought lots of it, and Massimo then made a salad based on panzanella but substituting the boiled farro, for soaked and squeezed bread — a terrific idea that has become a warm-weather favorite.