Clanis is the river that gives its name to the beautiful Val di Chiana, one of the iconic places in southern Tuscany, in an area that includes the area of Arezzo, Siena and Perugia.
Together with the Val d'Orcia, here are among the most beautiful landscapes of Tuscany with wonderful towns such as Cortona and Pienza, the ideal city of the Renaissance.
The Val di Chiana had its maximum splendor during the Etruscan period when the Clanis river was navigable and was used for travel and trade.
For food lovers, here we find the famous Chianina, one of the finest meats, but also simple and tasty dishes such as 'pici all'aglione'. Aglione is a great garlic that grows in this area but has nothing in common with the well-known garlic.
It is a variant of leek and, after a period of oblivion in the 1990s, it came back into vogue and in 2017 it had its own disciplinary. One of the characteristics is its delicacy and sweetness and the traditional recipe is the pici all'aglione.
Pici are a homemade pasta made with water and flour and they are similar to large spaghetti. The etymology of the word ‘pici’ derives from "appiciare" that is to pull by hand and lengthen old age
Recipe of Pici all'aglione for 4 people
350 gr of pici, 6 large sauce tomatoes, 5 garlic cloves, a chilli pepper, a tablespoon of white vinegar, half a tablespoon of sugar, oil EVO and salt.
We put the tomatoes in boiling water for two or three minutes to be able to peel them more easily. In the meantime, we put some oil and the finely chopped garlic in a pan and cook over low heat: it must absolutely not take on color but must melt and become almost a cream.
Add a little chilli (if you like) and when the garlic has melted, add the peeled tomatoes that we have cut into cubes. We cook for 20/30 minutes and then add a tablespoon of vinegar and a half of sugar and continue to cook over low heat, possibly adding salt.
Let's boil the pici and toss them in a pan: a simple but very tasty dish.
In the glass you can try a recent DOC Val d'Orcia or a Shiraz which in the Cortona area gives excellent results.
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