Chef Andrea Madonia works quietly under a stainless steel kitchen hood inside Brassica Osteria Contemporanea, a 15-seat restaurant in the small town of San Miniato, Italy, located about 30 miles east of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The pint-sized restaurant he owns with his best friend — who is doubling as our server — has been rearranged to fit our group of 11. The long table where we sit, pressed up against the doors normally used as an entrance, soon fills with plates of locally-sourced artichokes, which lay beneath a heap of their Jerusalem sibling — sunchokes — fried into airy chips.