Tuscan cooking is built on a "cucina povera" tradition — literally "poor kitchen" — using inexpensive, local ingredients well rather than expensive ones extravagantly. That history explains a lot about what's actually on a Florence menu: bread-based soups, simple grilled meat, beans, and olive oil doing most of the heavy lifting.
Dishes to look for
- Bistecca alla fiorentina — a thick-cut, bone-in T-bone steak from Chianina cattle, grilled rare over an open flame and typically served for two to share, priced by weight. The signature Florentine dish, and worth seeking out at a restaurant known for it rather than assuming any steak on a menu is the real thing.
- Ribollita — a hearty bread-and-vegetable soup, thickened with leftover bread and built around cavolo nero (Tuscan kale) and beans — genuine peasant cooking, and a winter menu staple.
- Pappa al pomodoro — a simpler bread-and-tomato soup, usually served warm or at room temperature, another cucina povera classic.
- Pici — thick, hand-rolled pasta, often served cacio e pepe style or with a rich meat ragù, more commonly Sienese but widely available in Florence too.
- Lampredotto — Florence's classic street food: the fourth stomach of a cow, slow-cooked and served in a bread roll from a dedicated street cart (trippaio) — a genuinely local specialty, not a tourist gimmick, though it's not for everyone.
- Crostini di fegatini — chicken liver pâté on toasted bread, a common starter across Florentine trattorias.
Wine to go with it
Chianti Classico (marked with the black rooster seal) is the natural pairing for most Tuscan meat dishes, produced in the hills between Florence and Siena — see our Chianti day trip guide. House wine (vino della casa) at a genuine trattoria is often a perfectly good, inexpensive local pour rather than something to avoid.
How a Tuscan meal is structured
A full traditional meal runs antipasto (starter, often crostini or cured meats), primo (pasta or soup), secondo (the main, often meat or fish, ordered with a separate contorno/side), and dolce (dessert) — but no one expects visitors to order every course. Two courses plus a shared dessert is entirely normal.