A Cooking School near Lucca: this is my bet!

Certainly, I have not chosen the most suitable period  (covid, criticisms). Anyway, the enthusiasm I have in running Cooking Classes in Tuscany for foreigners in Italy continues to give me the “power”.

In addition to my job as an Itinerant Chef, I needed a permanent place, a brick’n mortar place.

And this is how Dolce Vita B&B and Cooking was born. Because of the lockdown, I exploited the spaces by building a real video studio and photographic set; I got busy with Facebook FREE live streamings and in this school, I also run online cooking classes.

I am facing the construction of an original recipe in all its expressions: writing (SEE THE RECIPE BELOW), video (RIGHT DOWN HERE), photography, and socials.

So in this post, you have all these possibilities.

Among the requested recipes could not miss the “pignoli cookies”.

PIGNOLI COOKIES THE FREE FACEBOOK LIVE STREAMING

I replicated these typically Tuscan biscuits directly from my grandmother’s recipe.

They’re so expensive in the United States (they told me you pay about 40 dollars per kg!). But hey can also be very affordable according to my recipe; you don’t even need to buy almond paste, you can make it without problems and very quickly.

You absolutely have to try this recipe that is not only easy and fast but I assure you it is really delicious and that is why it is still a great success among my customers and students in Tuscany.

If you try it let me know.

If you don’t want to use cupcake liners you can try making these as regular cookies.

Just make the ball a little bigger than I did and you will see that you will have excellent regular biscuits.

Buon appetito to everyone and see you for the next recipe!

PIGNOLI COOKIES RECIPE

BY ERIKA ELIA (WWW.COOKINGCLASSESINTUSCANY.NET)

INGREDIENTS:

3,6 oz (100 gr) confectioner’s sugar 

1 tsp honey

3,6 oz (100 gr) peeled almonds

3,6 oz (100gr) pine nuts

1 egg white

TOOLS: mini cupcake liners https://amzn.to/3g8YkDb​ mini muffin tin (optional) https://amzn.to/3gbNaO3

METHOD:

1. For the ALMOND PASTE: blend the almonds in the blender; you’ll get a fine flour.

2. Mix the icing sugar with honey, almond flour, and egg white. As you get a dough, give it the shape of a ball and cover it with plastic wrap. You can put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours or until the next day.

3. Preheat the oven at 360 °F (180 °C)

4. Remove the dough from the fridge. Take 1 teaspoon of dough at a time and make a ball rolling the dough by hands.

5. Pass the balls in the pine nuts, pressing them well with your hands to make them well combined.

6. Arrange the pignoli cookies on a baking sheet OR a Muffin tray, inside small cupcake liners.

7. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, until they are lightly browned.

8. Let them cool completely.

L'articolo Cooking School near Lucca: Pignoli Cookies and homemade almond paste proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

The Cooking Class in Lucca was the penultimate of the season. The last one was in fact directly at our Cooking School in Lucca countryside: Dolce Vita b&b and cooking.

They called me in the Lucca countryside for a cooking class, they were from Sweden and they liked to prepare a dish based on mackerel that it also had Mediterranean perfumes.

Well, what is better than presenting this dish to them? It includes and exalts both their desires.

Why the mackerel?

You won’t believe it but mackerel is a truly delicious fish!

Everyone knows how healthy this fish is, everyone knows that it is rich in omega-3 but few know that it really tastes tasty especially if cooked in the best way.

Mackerel is a fish first of all that it is not endangered. In fact, it is a blue fish belonging to poor cuisine and just for these reasons, it is worth buying and cooking it.

Just think that Slow Food (good, fair, clean food Association) says that eating endangered fish is like committing a crime.

So just to clear up our conscience we know that by eating mackerel we can also contribute to the improvement and protection of the environment.

Mackerel is a fish with a very strong flavor because it contains a lot of fats even if these fats are positive fats. 

Tips from the cooking class in Lucca

Therefore, for those like me who cook by profession and run cooking classes by profession, it is absolutely necessary to find a new way to cook mackerel. Sometimes there’s, in fact, an excess of strong flavor. This is what I tried to make for my cooking class in Lucca.

Well, the absolutely best way that I have experimented is exactly what we’re going to make now. 2 simples steps that you have not to forget: 

1. marinate at least 1-hour
2. cook in the pan (the whole mackerel, or mackerel fillet…but don’t use the oven)

Using oranges really turned out to be the most successful way. In fact oranges, thanks to their acidity and their scent really give the mackerel meat an exceptional flavor, difficult to explain.

Then with my customers from the cooking class in Lucca, we marinated the mackerel and followed all the right steps to have a perfect one.

Well, I must say that it was truly a great success. None of them thought they would taste such a fish in this form!

So I immediately included this great recipe in the menu of our private dinners as well.

You must absolutely try this dish because it will surprise you with the flavor that comes out.

What we learned from the cooking class in Lucca

Another very positive side of cooking this fish in this way is that the meat of mackerel is not absolutely stringy hard as sometimes happens when you cook it too much. In fact, thanks to the marinade and cooking in the pan, instead of the oven, it retains its softness and juiciness.

I forgot to tell you that mackerel with orange is really enhanced in terms of flavor if it is accompanied by a fresh salad with fennel, sweet chili, and citrus.

In short, in this way, it will be like bringing a slice of Italy to your tables.

Therefore Buon Appetito and enjoy this great recipe!

L'articolo Cooking Class in Lucca and a great recipe: mackerel with Orange! proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Spring is in the air, daisies (margherite in Italian) are blooming and I woke up full of optimism.

At this very hour, a friend of mine (last Summer student in a party cooking class in Tuscany) is posting a video on Facebook where it’s snowing heavily far away from Italy.  So cold over there in West Babylon, New York. I don’t know where you live but here in Pisa (Tuscany, Italy) the weather is warm and beach resorts are already open. Can’t believe that someone is swimming in the sea of Marina di Pisa!

I live in the Tuscan countryside, where cherry and plum blossoms greet you along the dirt roads. Fields seem to invite you to lie down and God only knows how much I like it!

So Spring is in the air and every time it happens I realize that a new job season is starting for our group of Cuoche in Vacanza (Cooks for your Holiday in Tuscany).

We run Cooking Classes and Private Dinners in Tuscany; we go directly to our customer’s homes. In fact, they’re mostly tourists and travelers and we women who cook are very busy from Spring to Winter starting.

Anyway, there’s also a Brick N’ Mortar place: DOLCE VITA IN TUSCANY Cooking School and B&B, in the Lucca Countryside.

While planning our new job season during Winter, I often think of new dishes and recipes to offer to our guests the next Summer. Our must is to prepare a full Menu Meal, that’s why both kinds of dishes (those ones for cooking classes and dinners) have to be easy and fast. That’s why as I feel that Spring is in the air I finally write the last version of Cooking Classes and Private Dinners Menus and send them to all my Tuscan partners (resorts, villas, castles, and B&B) interested to introduce my company to their guests.

How do we like to end a meal? Of course dolcemente (sweetly) with desserts that are in equal part easy, yummy, and quick.

Last year our customers’ favorite desserts were those ones in a glass. The winner was: mascarpone and amaretti crumble in a glass,

similar to our customers’ absolute favorite: the real TIRAMISU.

This time I’m posting (video and recipe below) another fresh dessert in a glass: a creamy yogurt, heavy cream, and berries with cookie crumbles.

Sometimes I can’t believe that something so simple could be so delicious as well. As I often say to my students from Cooking Classes in Tuscany there are 3 rules to follow in cooking, especially in making desserts:

1. having basic techniques
2. using right amounts of ingredients
3. respect the right steps

Well, to make this dessert you just need to know a few basic techniques:

1. well whip fresh cream (cold bowl)
2. dissolve gelatine in a hot liquid (a wooden spoon is better)
3. combine gelatine with whipped cream and yogurt (folding technique)
4. cook (shortly) fruit with sugar till translucent.

Are you ready?

You know, today is a wonderful day here in Tuscany…how’s the weather in your area? What best occasion than preparing a dessert to (or with) someone that you love?

Spring is in the air like never before and I can’t wait to insert this creamy dessert in our Cooking Classes in Tuscany Menu.

A special assistant beside me this time, my daughter Ginevra. She’s passionate about cooking but she is very busy with school and “adolescent” interests. Anyway, it just takes 30 minutes!

So this time she was sacrificed to my wish and was very helpful in preparing this dessert (you see her hands in the video).

What we’ll wow you in this dessert is the fluffy consistency added to the yogurt aftertaste. Everything dissolves in your mouth leaving the flavor of berries.

I think to have found the right proportion between yogurt, honey, and fresh cream…anyway I don’t like “too sweet desserts”. Please taste the yogurt and honey moisture to check if it’s enough sweet for you.

Have you your own fast and yummy dessert in a glass recipe?

What’s your favorite one?

Please, leave a comment. I approached this kind of dessert for 2 years and I’m looking forward to new recipes and pictures to share with you.

L'articolo Spring is in the air. Let’s whip up a fresh yogurt and berries in a glass, recipe and video. proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Saturday dinner in Tuscany, not so nice weather and my wish to meet my friends here at my home. No restaurant please, I do’ like walking in the rain after dinner. Maybe I don’t like just walking once finished a good meal with a strong coffee and a small glass of limoncello.

So last weekend I strongly preferred to stay here, cozy and relaxed…together with my friends.

During Winter I can spend time staying with family and friends, testing and writing recipes on this blog, renewing all the menus for the next job Season. In Spring and Summer, I’m fully busy with my company: Cuoche in Vacanza (Cooks on Holiday).

In few words, I always cook experimental menus and new dishes for my family and friends during Winter and Private dinners and Cooking Classes in Tuscany for the rest of the year.

Saturday dinner, if not at the restaurant, here in Tuscany has to be special.

I immediately thought to “Filetto al Pepe Verde”, Italian for Fillet with green pepper sauce. Our customers on holiday here in Tuscany love it so much and our Students in cookery lessons have the same opinion.

But this time I tried to make it different; no beef fillet in the fridge, but a tender pork fillet from Cesare, a special butcher who never disappoints me.

Well, it came out a dish for special occasions;

perfect for a Saturday dinner without going to the restaurant or any other dinner you’d like to be remembered.

It’s incredibly easy, with few ingredients and few steps.

The procedure is the same as Beef fillet with green pepper sauce; you can use this recipe for both these dishes.

I just recommend you the quality of ingredients:

good fresh cream, good brandy, good green pepper in brine, and first of all a very good cut of pork fillet.

Did you already know this Italian recipe?

Is it important Saturday Dinner in your country?

What’s your best way to cook fillet, in your country? Please leave a comment and tell me where you come from…I’m looking for recipes from abroad to post here on the blog.

L'articolo Saturday dinner, your turn: Pork Fillet with green peppercorn sauce. Recipe and video proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Last Summer, running some Cooking Classes in Tuscany with some students from U.S.A., I thought the first time to this dessert.

cooking class in Tuscany: how making a chic and fast dessert

In fact, while tasting some “savoiardi” (Italian for ladyfingers), someone told me about his love for Amaretti cookies and Amaretto di Saronno liqueur. Since that moment I decided to create a dessert in a glass with a layer of amaretti crumbles.

I made it the first time for Christmas lunch at my home. My mum and brother live in Grosseto, South of Tuscany, and here in Pisa I have my father and my stepmother; it’s so difficult to be all together and when there’s a special occasion I always take the advantage to invite everyone at my home. So I prepared the Mascarpone Cream with Amaretti Crumbles and dark chocolate flakes for 8 people in total and this is the same dose in the below recipe.

It’s an easy and fast recipe at all, but definitely gorgeous and you can imagine how tasteful and luxurious. In a few words, this is a dessert that will wow your friends or everyone who’ll taste it. Because of its elegant and beautiful aspect, I recommend to make it on a special occasion.

Because of its easiness and speed, I’ll definitely add this to the Private Cooking Classes in Tuscany Menu, our students can make it with no problem even if at their Holiday Homes.
Nowadays the most successful dessert in cooking classes is the Tiramisu and I’m so happy when my students post some pictures on Facebook or Instagram about some recipes that they made during their Summer cooking classes in Tuscany, when everything is easier: it’s a way to remind the cheerfulness and spirit of some memories in Tuscany. It’s a way to keep in touch and I think is the best way to use Social Networks as well.

Margot, a friend from Nederlands, posted her Tiramisu pictures right some days ago, and some guys from the USA made the same with their Italian Menu Soirée; click Here to see our Facebook Album with some pictures and dishes from our students once at home.

As I told you this dessert is very similar to Tiramisu (the cream is the same!) and it’s a very quick one.

I love spoon-desserts and the same is for our customers and students; click on the name of the following desserts which you can make in our cooking school in Tuscany: Bavarese, Zuppa Inglese, Zuccotto Toscano, Sicilian Cassata

I’m often looking for easy and fast recipes since they’ve to be suitable both for Private Dinners in Tuscany and Private Cookery Courses. In fact, as Private Chef than as Cooking Classes coach, in our itinerant restaurant and cooking school, we prepare everything from scratch, and on the spot…that’s no possible when the meal is complex and requires long preparation.

As my granny often said: A homemade meal, prepared from scratch, even if simple it tastes delicious and is inevitably made with love!

Especially in Tuscany, a tourist often goes home after visiting our sites, regretting not having been able to truly savor the taste of their favorite Tuscan dish; this is impossible after a fully hands-on Cooking Class and bringing at home the recipes from this Italian cookery class.

The goal of my job as Cooking Coach and Personal Chef is in fact to offer:

• the chance to learn to cook and to be able to enjoy  it whenever you want

• a cooking class authentic experience; only fresh and seasonal ingredients, local produce

Just some tips to follow:

1. It’s necessary to have some glasses or glass bowls where to put it. You’ve to see the layers, that’s why is so nice. Since I had porcelain cups and just a few glasses for dessert, I used the glass container from Ikea candles and it turned out very well because it’s better to have something larger on the top.
2. Soak very slowly Amaretti crumbles with the Coffee and Amaretto di Saronno moisture, pouring this one from the top a bit at a time, waiting that amaretti crumbles have absorbed all the liquid. This is a very important step, otherwise, you could risk obtaining a too wet layer of cookies and they’d lose their crispness.
3. Apart from making a cream with the right texture, that’s the most important thing, the chocolate will be the touch giving a particular added value to your dessert. Buy a very good quality one, it represents the starting and ending note of flavor while tasting the dessert. I bought a semisweet one with coffee powder inside, the flavor is fantastic and it recalls the coffee that you can taste at the last layer of the dessert.
4. Buy Amaretti di Saronno cookies; click HERE to buy on Amazon
5. Buy the original Amaretto di Saronno liqueur 

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L'articolo cooking classes in tuscany and private chef at your holiday home: mascarpone cream and amaretti crumbles in a glass, quick, easy and chic dessert proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

If someone told me that I’d run so many cooking classes this year, probably I’d have not believed him. In fact cooking and all the world around this word is “fashion”, is something increasing the interest from most people; anyway the reality has surpassed the fantasy and Yes: this Spring-Summer has been a great job season for a lot of reasons.

1. First of all, I had beside me a top-level assistant: Paola. We’re completely in tune and this is very important for a Personal Chef and Cooking Coach as well.

2. While running cooking classes, I met new customers from all over the world and no one was unsatisfied…this is my greatest wish in my job. One of the things that I like most while cooking is listening to the various “yum…yummy…mmmmmhhh….ooohhh” and all the sounds of wellbeing that comes from the mouth of which tastes a dish made by us.

3. Tuscany has been one of the most visited places this year. This is fantastic, but obvious as well. I see Tuscany as one of the best places in the world: landscapes, sea, mountains, food, and people; everything is here, everything is enjoyable. Furthermore: delicious food and great possibility to take cooking classes from really great chefs!

I updated the cooking classes and private dinner menus in the course of work, after talking with some students or customers and listening to their cookery wishes and personal tastes. I always appreciate, each year more, working in Summer, when the smell of Nature comes in your car while driving and when the colors of Tuscany are magic. On Summer eating outdoors with your family and friends it’s enough to be happy and appreciate life more and more.

Well, learning by doing, I decided to insert many new recipes in Cuoche in Vacanza Menus, both cookery lessons in Tuscany and cooking at home; one of these ideas come from a nice Norwegian guy: Olav.

We cooked for his family and friends for a while and he suggested me try to offer “Saltimbocca alla Romana” as the main course because people from North Europe love so much this dish. I did immediately what he said and in fact, it’s a very successful one, really appreciated by a lot of people around the world.

The Saltimbocca alla Romana is one of the flagships of the Roman cuisine, anyway, the origins of this tasty dish are uncertain and someone says they come from Brescia (North Italy).
The great Italian gastronomy writer Pellegrino Artusi (I consider him the father of Italian and Tuscan gastronomy) at the end of the 800, described this dish that he tasted in the historic “trattoria” in Rome “Le Venete”. Now in Rome, this restaurant doesn’t exist anymore, but you can taste this special dish everywhere if in a typical location.

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L'articolo tuscany: cooking classes and private dinners at your holiday home; unforgettable job season and a new recipe: Saltimbocca alla Romana! proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Amazing Tagliata!

A beloved dish among my customers when they opt for a private chef experience or a private cooking class on their home vacation.

I’d like to tell you today about one of the most requested main courses that you can find in our Menus for Private Dinners: Tagliata (the Italian word for sliced steak).

The last time that I prepared it was for a large family group, near Terricciola, a nice village here in Tuscany. Our customers chose the Menu, we did the shopping, and went directly to their holiday homes to cook for them. The self-catering villa was perfect, with a large and well-equipped kitchen (anyway we can bring many tools and we need just a sink, a fridge, a stove and of course a table).

When we arrived, from the dirt road, we saw our guests while having a dip in the beautiful swimming pool; there was an atmosphere full of joy and laughs and indeed we were about to meet special people with whom we became friends and we’re still keeping in touch.

These guests came from Oslo and they loved the amazing Tagliata and our way of preparing it.

tagliata, tuscany cooking vacation

After many years (exactly 15) of working for tourists coming from all over the world, I can say that everyone likes it, whether English or American, Norwegian or Australian.

This Amazing Tagliata features succulent slices of grilled beef, seasoned to perfection, delivering an explosion of taste in every bite.

private dinners, cooking at home, chef in Tuscany

Some suggestions to taste an amazing Tagliata to its best:

First of all the meat cut:

I strongly suggest using sirloin (or entrecote), in my opinion, it’s suitable for Tagliata for 3 reasons:

1. It’s without bone (you’re not going to prepare a Fiorentina Steak)
2. It has a thickness of about 2 inches (4 or 5 cm) and with medium fire cooking, this allows the meat to maintain its liquids and to be pink and very soft inside
3. the sirloin (unlike the fillet) is covered with a layer of fat that melts into the meat  and make it juicy, tender, and tasteful

Another suggestion for cooking: it’s very important to maintain a medium heat (no sudden changes in heat)

Beef Tagliata is surely good if wood-fired grilled, but it’s difficult not to have some sudden changes in heat with fire. If you’ll follow my suggestions and steps, you’ll obtain a delicious dish just with a plate for grilling, your stove, and your wish to delight the palate of your family and friends.

During Summer, with my team of CuocheinVacanza, here in Tuscany (Central Italy), we prepare many kinds of Tagliata for our guests. We go directly to their holiday homes and we cook the Menu that they chose for their Private Lunch or Dinner.

tagliata, chef at home, private dinners, Tuscany

You can accompany Beef Tagliata in many typically Tuscan ways:

• with Porcini mushrooms
• with Artichokes
• with Rosemary
• with Aubergines
• with Rucola, Parmesan, and a Balsamic Vinegar Reduction…that’s what we’re going to do now

private dinners, Norwegian tourists, private chefs, Tuscany, holiday

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L'articolo Tuscany Cooking Vacation with an amazing Tagliata (Italian for sliced steak) as main course proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Here’s the dessert added just this year to our cooking classes. It is a typical Italian one, belonging to Tuscan tradition. It ‘very simple to make and quick too: no more than 30 minutes … I timed the time because of the courses … 

However, since this dish was a not “passed down” one, I have resorted to Artusi, the father of Italian and Tuscan cuisine in general … the one who in a way has inspired my blog. And so, without thinking much, I picked up the book, “La Scienza in cucina e l’Arte di mangiar bene” (the Science in the Kitchen and the Art of eating well) and I looked for “Zuppa Inglese” or “Trifle”recipe.

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L'articolo #Private Dinners and Cooking Classes: Zuppa Inglese, Trifle, a new Dessert directly to your holiday home in Tuscany proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

This was really a challenge: to be able to prepare the real Sicilian Cassata that is very good and in a short time! 

That’s why since I went to Sicily last Summer … things have changed …

A friend of ours indicated us a dairy (near Fontane Bianche) where to enjoy delicious granita and almond milk, two typical refreshing and tasteful solutions to hot Sicilian Summer: Casa della Granita Siciliana (some pictures here).

 I had no time to set my eyes a single second on that dessert, that the shop owner and his wife, had already prepared a saucer with a tiny portion of Cassata, to taste it. I could not refuse … it seems that the Sicilians be offended if you do not accept their generosity : D 

As regards the almond paste (marzipan) well, that is always sweet sweet sweet. 

And so, after the successful recipe about the terrific Sicilian Cannoli (my students from USA really love them), I post on my blog with great joy how to prepare this Sicilian dessert  in a short time … and I assure you that the result will be super! 

• you can prepare the sponge cake before and freeze it; or you can buy already prepared sponge cake
• syrup to wet the sponge cake is delicious with a little ‘of limoncello
• I used half the dose of sugar with the ricotta cheese
• if you do not like candied “allfruit”, replacing it with candied orange peel (in my opinion there is no comparison, are much more good)
• Instead of hurling the dark chocolate, buy the chocolate chips
• you can color the almond paste before and leave it in the fridge (it lasts few months)
• here in Italy you can buy almond paste (marzipan) from Sicily, or in supermarkets you find marzipan Paneangeli; to you who are abroad can order online the almond paste
  Niederegger 
• for coloring marzipan always use gel colorings, they’re the best and have a higher yield; I use a few drops of bright green to get the classic light green typical of Cassata
• Sicily is famous for cakes and desserts,  in the book Sweet Sicily: Sugar and Spice, and All Things Nice you find how to prepare a lots

 Then I thought how nice it would be to add this dessert in our Cuoche in Vacanza cooking classes in Tuscany and private dinners too and then I thought about using single portion molds, as you can see from the photos. 

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L'articolo #New York, London, Oslo and Sidney: all my students ask for #Sicilian Cassata Recipe. Here is. Are you ready for a new Cooking Class? proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.