In Florence on 7th September the streets are lined with people in procession, heading towards Santissima Annunziata with paper lanterns. Summer is breathing its last breaths, and in the pale Tuscan moonlight this yearly pilgrimage is completed with great festivity. Mummers and minstrels line the piazzas and vendors peddle victuals aplenty. Children run through the streets chasing the paper lanterns that glow in myriad colours suspended in the air. There is a surprising hush, as they await Benediction with humble awe...
I hope I'm painting a nice picture for you. Why is all this going on? It's going on because it's the Vigil of Our Lady's Birthday. On the following day people go to the Duomo - dedicated to Our Lady of the Flower - and there is a big market and people eat and drink and generally have a jolly time. I've never actually been, so this description could be entirely wrong, but I've read about it several times and always thought it sounded as if it was my sort of gig. I suspect, given the nature of its festivals and the time of year, that it's something of a harvest feast. The good food is in, the sun is beginning to ebb away. Time to party and for man to make his own light to serve him through the winter months to come.
Time also to give thanks to the great Queen of the harvest, who at Assumption heralded its good fruits, and who now begins to draw it to a close. Naturally, my imaginings go towards what the Florentines might be eating at this time of year. I've alighted on that great Tuscan salad, the Panzanella, made with stale bread and overripe tomatoes... as I'm sure a lot of both are knocking about at this time of year and need using up.
Panzanella is very simple, tomatoes, stale bread, onion, some herbs, oil, vinegar... let it be with its thoughts for a bit and then enjoy. I tend to be rather English about it and add all sorts of things that would doubtless upset traditionalists (Florentines)... things like yellow tomatoes, a few sun-dried tomatoes, maybe even an olive or two. Anything you fancy.
Salt the tomatoes a little - really only a little, I've known people to over salt with disastrous consequences - to get the juices flowing. Put the tomatoes in a big bowl with chunks of stale Italian bread, torn up basil, finely sliced red onion, and the other good things. Leave it to sit for at least half an hour at room temperature, and every now and then stir it up to be sure the juices go into the bread. Do this gently, so the bread at least stays in chunks. Mix it all up again just before serving and dish out. If you're me, or a kindred spirit of mine, garnish it with a hard-boiled quail's egg. Because everyone loves quail's eggs...