I had not intended to come here. I only found the place while waiting for Da Il Latini to open for evening trade. But I certainly don’t regret my visit. As it was, it was a great introduction to Florentine cuisine.
The osteria is located on the ‘Street of Beautiful Women’ (strange how I gravitated here, isn’t it?). It has one cramped room, the bar piled high with marrows, magnums of Vino Nobile de Montepulciano, and an inflatable Spiderman sat in an ‘Emmanuelle’-style wicker chair. One wall was coated thickly with postcards that must have been there for 25 years. I guess that it could seat around 36 people at the adjacent tables at a real push. It is certainly not the place to come if you value your privacy or personal space.
In Florence you are used to menus in practically every language under the sun; Osteria delle Belle Donne has one menu, written in Italian on pink paper. A pair of poor Japanese students didn’t have a clue – they just pointed hopefully at pictures of meat in their guidebook. Fortunately I had an actual phrasebook in my pocket. As such I showed no fear in confidently ordering
Porchettino al’Olio al Fromaggio del Grutto.
If I have ever said that pork is my least favourite meat, then I hereby apologise. This was strips of suckling pig (I don’t know if the diminutive ‘porchettINO’ meant either little strips or little pig – i.e. piglet). But my God it was good – marbled with fat, crispy on the outside, but totally melt-in-the-mouth. I didn’t chew, just pressed with my tongue and sucked. It says something that just writing this I can remember the taste coming flooding back to me some five months later. It came with a collection of different mushrooms and artichoke hearts preserved in oil. I had never had artichoke before. Turns out I like it. I know, I’m surprised too! And mushrooms are always to my taste. The final bits of the plate were four firm, slightly rubbery bits of cave-aged cheese. In terms of taste the cheese didn’t really add anything other than a change in texture.
It was a good thing I had decided that I liked artichoke, as my main course was
lamb stuffed with artichoke, served with roast potatoes. Frankly, after that starter I was a little disappointed with the size of my main course. The three lamb chops were on the small size, bulked out with spuds. The lamb was tasty though, and the potatoes were freshly cooked and almost scaldingly hot. They were a touch more salty than I make them, but I decided that this was not necessarily a Bad Thing (over-salted food turned out to be something of a leitmotif for my dining experiences in Tuscany for some reason).
I finished off with a
panna cotta. This was not over-salted. I suppose I was expecting a wild-berry sauce (in March! What was I thinking?) and so I was a little put out by the chocolate sauce I got, which I’m sure would have been prefectly good if I hadn’t had odd expectations.
And so, the bill. €10.00 for the porchetta (an absolute bargain by the way!), €14.00 for the lamb, €4.00 for panna cotta (which is a pretty decent price), two bottles of beer (Nastro Azzurro) at around €3.00 each (again, a good price for a restaurant), €1.50 for being there (i.e. cover charge and bread – which incidentally wasn’t up to much), and 10% service charge. Personally I think it is cheeky charging cover AND service. In total is amounted to €40.30 (around £30). Which on the whole I have to say was an acceptable price for three courses and beer. I would certainly return, if only for the porchettino, which I think was the nicest single course I enjoyed in ten days in Tuscany. And also next time I’ll try to use the condiments. The balsamic vinegar on the table was practically maroon in colour, and it seemed to have nettles growing in it!