On my first trip to Italy, I had flown to Rome for several days of site seeing there, then taken the train up to Florence so soak up all that we could in their cultural capital, and then rented an Alfa Romeo and cruised down to our rented villa in the heart of Tuscany. Using the villa as our base of operations, I visited a different magical hill city every day during our stay. Rounding out our trip, we then drove to Assisi where we stayed at the beautiful, rustic hotel ‘Nun Assisi’ which is a converted Nunnery. Beneath the hotel they have the most amazing spa I have ever been to. It is carved out from what once was an ancient Roman limestone amphitheater discovered during the renovation. The entire place is filled with steam and soft, dim and dramatic lighting.
One of the real reasons we came to Assisi was for their amazing annual spring ‘Calendimaggio’ which is the biggest medieval festival in Assisi. The inhabitants of Assisi spend a year preparing for this festival. Residents from the upper ‘sopra’ and lower ‘sotto’ side of the city are dressed in authentic medieval costumes and of all ages and put on elaborate plays and skits. The two sides are judged, and one is awarded the winner each year and the competition is fun but fierce. The costuming and props are incredibly elaborate and bleacher seating is erected in the town square where all the events play out. People from all over Italy come to view this amazing spectacle.
In any case, when planning the trip I was told by a friend who had many summers in Italy that, when staying in Florence, I had to go to a restaurant called ‘Trattoria Sostanza’ and order what he said was the best chicken dish he had ever had, said it was talked about among world travelers, and said if I didn’t agree he would pay for our dinner. Well, I did go to Sostanza, which just also happens to be one of the oldest restaurants in the city, and I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right. We had the chicken and the other signature dish which was a loosely bound omelet filled with fresh artichoke bottoms, both of which were absolutely amazing. I mean, I’ve been cooking professionally for 45 years, and these two dishes were absolutely off the charts delicious.
Trattoria Sostanza is a totally unassuming little restaurant with community style seating and a small kitchen with a tiny woodburning grill known internationally for 3 dishes…Steak Florentine, Artichoke Pie, and Pollo al Burro or ‘Butter Chicken’ as it’s become known as by Americans who have enjoyed it. The amazing thing is that it is made using only four ingredients… butter, flour, lemon and chicken breasts. But it is the quality of the small chicken breasts and the high fat butter content of European butter that make this simple dish so damned good. They prepare and serve the dish in a small cast iron skillet and that’s the way I serve it at home. The hot skillet keeps the chicken warm and bathed in its simple, rustic, yet divine sauce! During our dinner I kept seeing one of their other signature dishes float through the dining room…their Tortino di Carciofi, referred to locally as ‘artichoke pie, which is really an omelet but was like no omelet I had ever seen. It was round in shape with the scalloped edges folded up around the center of artichokes and slightly under cooked eggs like a collar. I was so curious about this dish and the reaction that diners around us had to it that we ordered it as our dessert and, damned if it wasn’t almost as good as the Pollo al Burro!
After a few attempts, I was able to duplicate the butter chicken and so I am happy to share this with you all now. If you don’t have small iron skillets I would suggest using a large cast iron skillet and then serve the chicken in a small, low casserole style dish for each person with the butter-lemon sauce poured on top of each.
Valentine’s Day Feast – Let Us Handle the Cooking! 
