In the countryside of Arezzo, in a small village, we find a restaurant with a family atmosphere, warmly conveyed by the décor and service. In addition to a skilled hand that brings out the best in regional ingredients (both seafood and meat).
Stia is a small Tuscan town, located within the Casentino Forest National Park; it can be reached from Florence after a long series of bends or more quickly from Arezzo. Pieraccioni shot one of his first hits here - Il Ciclone - and it is the place where Casentino cloth is produced, a traditional wool fabric used in high fashion.
The restaurant and the cuisine
But we are here for another reason. Its name is Ristorante Falterona, a charming restaurant run by a young couple—Leonardo Norcini in the kitchen and his wife Elena Amoruso in the dining room. They met while studying at hotel school.
Leonardo gained experience working with Paolo Teverini in Bagno di Romagna, then at the Osteria Le Logge in Siena, followed by two formative periods abroad, in Krakow and San Francisco. He then returned to his homeland—he is originally from Poppi, a few kilometers from Stia—and in 2016, he opened the restaurant with his wife. The couple personally oversaw the interior design, restoring pieces of furniture and even finding porcelain and tableware at vintage markets. Leonardo's cuisine is contemporary, without technical frills but full of flavor.
The cuisine focuses mainly on fish, when the sea allows it. The chef's day begins very early in the morning at the fish markets on the Tuscan coast to secure the best catch of the day. However, in the event of bad weather preventing the fishing boats from going out, even the dishes that do not include fish are more than satisfactory.
The dining room service led by Elena is courteous and competent, and the wine list features a careful selection of labels, from great classics to smaller local producers. There is both an à la carte menu and a tasting menu for €65, which includes dishes from the menu as well as off-menu dishes prepared according to daily availability. One of the restaurant's special features is Maxim's water, owned by the Pierre Cardin fashion house, which flows from a spring just three kilometers from the restaurant.
The dishes
The tasting menu I had the opportunity to try was particularly well balanced, as were the individual courses, which revealed a sensitive hand in the continuous search for well-defined flavors. As mentioned, if the sea is rough—as it was on this occasion—there is no catch of the day, so the focus shifts to land-based cuisine with a few elements from the sea, mostly “preserved,” always with an emphasis on local products. And so, after starting with chicken liver pâté, brioche bread, hazelnuts, catmint oil, and black cherry, two delicious appetizers arrived at the table, such as homemade grilled bao filled with Chianina tripe, black cabbage, and red shrimp from Elba, or lampredotto with fresh marinated anchovies.
This is followed by Tonno tonnato with veal reduction, tuna mousse, rice wafers, and caper flowers. In addition to the Passatelli with carpaccio of amberjack, with its savory yet delicate flavor, the hand-rolled tagliatelle with hare ragu stands out as a first course, lightened by the addition of beef and creamed savoy cabbage for a delicious yet balanced pasta dish. And above all, it is not heavy, as a game-only sauce could be.
The main course is a boneless quail stuffed with foie gras and served with a reduction, well prepared and, once again, characterized by a balance of flavors and aromas, with the meat complemented by the green elements of the dish—chicory and Roman cabbage. It is accompanied by a roasted potato and crispy pepper mousse. The pre-dessert and dessert are particularly well prepared, both from an aesthetic and gustatory point of view. We start with a blueberry sorbet with biscuit powder and buttermilk, and finish with a cheesecake with raspberries and raspberry sorbet.
Overall, the cuisine is simple but extremely well prepared, with a pleasant combination of ingredients and flavors, capable of adapting even when the main ingredient is not available. All this in a pleasant, family atmosphere with reliable and competent service.
Contacts
Ristorante Falterona
Address: Piazza Bernardo Tanucci, 9, 52017 Stia AR
Phone: 0575 504058
