As much as I love artichoke, I've never had it raw before. So when this little shop (Via San Gallo 112, 472-475) was offering it on their antipasti menu, I sprung for it just to see what it was like. It turned out to be very thinly shredded, a bit firm, and "greeny" in a Thai papaya salad kind of way. But of course it was seasoned in the usual Italian fashion with nothing but olive oil, salt, and a few shavings of cheese on top, making it delicious.
We grabbed a few other items tonight, including ribollita, a Florentine adaptation of minestrone but mixed together with bread and beans to form a thick mushy paste-like thing rather than soup. I loved how rich it was, especially when assisted by a few bits of fatty bacon inside. I also got something called a franchesina, which was described as a beef stew. If I understood it correctly, this was an old Tuscan dish that basically cooks leftover beef with a bit of tomato and onion. It pretty much tasted like that too.
And with a reference point now available in our heads from last night, we ordered the wild boar pappardelle just to see if it were any different here. They used less tomatoes, thus avoiding the Bolognese sauce comparison. But boar meat just wasn't as exciting as I had imagined it to be. Well, that's just what I get for letting it get carried away in my head; the dish on its own was still fine otherwise.
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