Soups Archivi • Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany

Terricciola: 60th birthday party in tuscany. Jumbo crab (granseola) pot pie, pizza dough crust

Erika Elia — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 17:06:12 +0000

spider crab pot pie for a birthday private dinner in Tuscany

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When they called us, Cuoche in Vacanza, to cook for a 60th birthday Party in Tuscany, we were thrilled to satisfy our guests!

Our Private Services

They often request our cooking services for parties like bachelorette, weddings or birthdays; well a 60th birthday party in Tuscany seems to be very popular and requested from tourists coming here in Tuscany.

Many people, most of all from North Europe or the USA, love celebrating their family with an intimate party. And having fun at their holiday villa (not in a restaurant), it’s one of the best ideas.

So, as we’re talking about families, children can play without fear of being scolded and adults can drink without fear of being stopped by the police.

They decided on a fish-based 6 courses Tuscan menu: 3 starters, 1 typical first course, 1 main course, and 1 dessert.

spider crab pot pie for a 60th birthday in Tuscany

A 60th Birthday Party in Tuscany: 15 people from Norway (family and friends) ready to feast.

The private dinner was directly at their holiday home in the countryside near Terricciola. A beautiful villa (as many that you can find over there) surrounded by vineyards and olive trees.

We’re mad for fresh pasta, that’s exactly what we thought as the first course. But when I saw some beautiful spider crabs on the fisherman desk in Viareggio, I immediately realized that we had to prepare one of my fav soups: jumbo crab (granseola in Italian) pot pie covered with a pizza dough crust. It’s one of my battle horses and it was one of the dishes that I prepared for the exam as Professional Chef to the Chef Academy in Florence.

My friends love this soup so much and I prepared it for dinner on the last day of the year! If you’re a Facebook account, you can see some pictures HERE.

Moreover, it’s not possible to find fresh jumbo crabs every day and a 60th Birthday party in Tuscany it’s a special occasion!

This typical soup comes from the South of Tuscany, the land of Maremma (where I come from).

Not only with pizza dough.

My Granny cooked this typical dish not just like a pot pie, but just a soup, leaving some crispy bread apart, to deep in.

Well, added to this, many times she made this soup with canned crab and I’ve to say. It’s delicious and elegant, but you can eat this soup every day, not only for a 60th birthday party in Tuscany.

Anyway, a few years ago I knew a chef from San Francisco who tasted my dish and was delighted, and it was he who suggested me to put the soup in a baking cup and cover it with puff pastry.

I tried puff pastry but it was too “fat” in my opinion, so I tried the pizza dough (its fat comes just from some extra virgin olive oil) and it turned out amazing, right what I was looking for.

Canned crab it’s perfect!

This spider crab pot pie is not in our Cooking Classes Menu because of its different steps to respect; it’s any way in our Private Dinners in Tuscany Menu. But you know, fresh crab is expensive and usually, we prepare it just for special occasions: a wedding dinner, a bachelorette party… a birthday party in Tuscany, such as our 60th birthday party.

No problem if you have not fresh crab, you can use the canned one.

In fact, I can assure you that is a delicious dish as well. Just be sure that your bisque is very good, cause the taste of the dish depends in large part on this.

Here’s the recipe for this fantastic and tasteful dish, incredibly loved by children too (my daughters often ask for it).

Jambo Crab (granseola) poi pie, pizza dough crust

Recipe by Erika Elia (CuocheinVacanza.com)

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 10 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients

1L. bisque (fresh Prawns and fresh jumbo crab) OR Instantaneus bisque (in case of canned crab)
300 g (11 oz) chopped crab pulp
1 large potato
2 zucchini
1 clove of garlic
1 bunch of parsley
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large ripe tomato
500 gr (1 Lb.) pizza dough
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup dry white wine

Instructions

Peel the potatoes and tomatoes and cut into small dices.
Peel the zucchini, wash them and cut in julienne.
Finely chop the garlic with parsley, stripped of stems.
On the bottom of a saucepan pour oil and the vegetables, then
pour the white wine and let evaporate.
Dilute all with the prawns and crab bisque (or the instantaneus fish broth), add salt and bring
boil.
Cook for about 20 minutes.
Incorporate the pulp of crab into pieces and cook for another 10 minutes.
taste the soup and add salt if you like.
Pour the soup into 4 baking soup-casseroles.
Sprinkle with remaining parsley.
Roll out the pizza dough and cut out 4 circles with a diameter of about 1cm more
than the opening of cocotte.
Cut 4 long pasta strips long as the edge of the baking cup; this is for closing better the edges of the circles.
Coat each opening of the cocotte with a circle of dough, making it well adhere to the edges.
Put the strips of dough over the edges of this “pasta-lid” and close crossing the two ends.
Bake at 220°C (428°F) for about 15 minutes.

And you? I guess if there’s a similar pot pie in America, North Europe, or anywhere else in the world.

Please comment below, I’m so curious to know different “ways” to cook and to publish some new recipes from all over the world.

Salva

L'articolo Terricciola: 60th birthday party in tuscany. Jumbo crab (granseola) pot pie, pizza dough crust proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Camaiore private cooking class: Chickpeas Cacciucco and a lovely restaurant near the forest

Erika Elia — Sat, 08 Aug 2015 08:34:00 +0000

Around 2 days ago I went running a private cooking class near Camaiore (Lucca Province). The Holiday House was at 50 minutes from my home, and the way to go was unpaved and uphill, steep.

I drove for about 5 Km over a dirt road, large no more than 3 meters, with a precipice and no guard rail on the right side. Anyway, you know our motto: “We come to wherever you’re staying in Tuscany, to prepare the tasteful dishes with you”.

The family we met for the Private Cooking Class was from U.K. and they chose a completely veggie cookery course menu: The Tuscan Soups.

I already posted you the recipe about my favorite soup: Acquacotta, and I can’t stop to spread to my friends and readers one of my successful dishes: the Onion Soup.
Today is the time of Chickpeas Cacciucco, known here in Tuscany as “Cacciucco di terra” (Italian for no-fish Cacciucco). Real Cacciucco (you’ve just to use this name to have the dish) is, in fact, a fisherman soup made with all variety of “poor” fish that you can find in Tirreno Sea (the Tuscan sea). It was born in Livorno, a sea-town near Pisa, where you can taste the best fish of Tirreno sea.

Well, now we’re talking about a veggie dish belonging to the “poor-cooking”.

If you come to Tuscany and you’d like to taste one of the best Chickpeas Cacciucco I suggest 2 options:

1) You call us, CuocheinVacanza (Chefs on Vacation) and we’ll prepare it together, following the original recipe

2) Go near Camaiore, to Casoli or Candalla…there are some restaurants near the forest where you can find a good example of this old, poor soup. I love to have dinner there, with my husband or friends.

Anyway, if you stay at home, there’s a third option: I leave you the recipe below. Wishing I could please my Facebook friends @Rosalie, @Dolly and @Roberta.

Chickpeas Tuscan Cacciucco

Recipe by Erika Elia (CuocheinVacanza.it)

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 1 hour

Ingredients (4 people)

3 cups boiled and drained chickpeas
3 tbsp Extra virgin oil
3 cloves garlic
5 anchovy fillets
4 cups veggie broth (or water)
1 tbsp tomatoes paste
4 tbsp grated parmesan
8 oz, 250 gr chard leaves
4 slices bread croutons
to taste salt
to taste black pepper

Cooking Directions

Over medium heat, pour 3 tbsp extra virgin oil in a pot with 1 garlic clove cut in half; add the anchovy fillets. Wait until anchovy melt, stirring well with a wooden spoon.
Add drained chickpeas continuing stirring until they take all the flavors of the sauce with anchovy and garlic.
Add the chard leaves coarsely chopped
Cover all up with hot veggie broth (or hot water), previously mixed with 1 tbsp of tomato paste
Cover with the lid and cook for about 30 minutes
taste the salt…
Toast the bread croutons in the oven or in a pan (no adding oil)
Rope them with garlic (one side)
set them at the bottom of each serving bowl
pour on the top the chickpeas and the broth
sprinkle with a handful of grated parmesan
serve it immediately

Buon Appetito!!

Salva

L'articolo Camaiore private cooking class: Chickpeas Cacciucco and a lovely restaurant near the forest proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

“Acqua-Cotta”: the ultimate Cookery lesson about Tuscan Soups and my childhood memories

Erika Elia — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 16:00:00 +0000

How many memories bind me to this delicious soup.

I left my native land, Maremma, at age 18 to attend the University in Pisa; since then (apart from a break of four years in Milan), I moved permanently in the province of the “leaning tower”.

I return rarely in Grosseto, perhaps to greet my mother who still lives there, or to find a friend who, thanks to Facebook too, I could not lose.

Yet the Maremma and Grosseto are in my heart, both solar and strong like my grandmother Amossina; she often narrated me about the long rural vigils during the evenings of sultry weather, about the crusts of toasted bread in the fireplace during the long afternoons in Winter, the raids in the fields to steal “purnelle”, the fruit of a tree that I’ve never understood what it was. My grandmother gave meaning to my life, for 80%, has made me able to listen curiously the “olds” when they tell their stories, she sent me a huge passion for the countryside and religious respect for Nature; she pushed the tip of my small fingers in a “crater” of white flour for breaking eggs and begin to knead.

She made me realize that every dish is a synthesis of a long history, a scientific faithful guardian of an archive of memory that is renewed at the table, repeated in each family, even after centuries...

Each traditional dish is history in a bowl, a story which is passed without books, but through an act of care. Here is another aspect: cooking for someone is to take this person in your heart, from the shopping until you’re ready to wash plates.

As my grandmother was unromantic, however little romantic are those gestures when washing the vegetables, kneading the dough, cutting an onion or cleaning a chicken, I’ll never forget the feeling of “being at home” I felt every time I saw my grandmother make those gestures. The certainty of being loved by that petite woman, grew up with few pretensions and caresses, confirmed and proved by her strong desire that “all had to be good, for us”.

And also I felt almost blessed by that care, and a bit ‘more good and deserving of all the good things that I’d be enjoying...

The Acquacotta (literally “cooked-water”) which is sometimes written all attacked, sometimes not … and there is no rule for this, it is a simple dish that, like all simple dishes, requires the “lingering” to be exquisite.

My granny used to tell me: “Cooking is like giving a caress to someone, even a caress rushed, is always a caress; but if you run your hand slowly if you stop for a moment, it is definitely better. “
And in my opinion, with the hard life she had faced, she learned the meaning of “caress” from “cooking”, rather than by people.

The Acquacotta is the emblem dish of Maremma, land of “malaria” (completely eradicated only in the mid-50s) and “bitter land” as defined by a popular song. Over the years, this soup has gained ground into trendy restaurants, enriched by many different ingredients … ah, if my grandmother knew that I found even with truffles!!
And yet (who comes from Maremma knows) Acquacotta needs just 3 ingredients to be exquisite: onion, celery, bread.
It belongs to the Tuscan country, just like the Onion Soup and the “Bordatino”

Known as the dish of “BUTTERI”, or rather the “cowboys” from Maremma crossing fields, forests and swamps to move their herds and “govern” their inaccessible land.

And it is telling me about “Butteri” and their adventures that my granny Amossina took me in her arms and she told me about her childhood spent in contact with nature and, between a nursery rhyme and another on her knees, she often told me the story of “Ultimo” and the origin of Acquacotta.

“Ultimo (the Italian meaning is: the LAST ONE) was such in name and in fact, and one evening in Summer, tired for the job and hungry because of the absence of food (at that time was on the agenda) he sat next to a fire in the farmyard, thinking about what could eat from all that surrounded him.

In his pocket, there was an onion, and you know …this never missed the table of the poor.

He put a little ‘of water on a frying pan and he broke inside the onion, then began to turn around the barnyard and right there, on the edge of a field, he ripped some wild chicory and after a brief rinse poured even this in the pan; then went near the hen house and took a few loaves of dry bread for chickens from the sack… and threw also this one in the pan. While he was watching all that “poverty” that floated and seethed, his brothers called him from afar:

“Ultimo! Ultimo, what are you doing?”

“Nothing of important” he replied

“I’m cooking the water, I’m doing Acquacotta!! “.

When I got married I went around the Maremma to seek those who would cook better Acquacotta, grandmother Amossina, unfortunately, was no more with us for a few years, but I still wanted this tasty soup, rich in its history to the lunch of my marriage.
I found an exceptional Acquacotta in Castiglione della Pescaia, in the restaurant of a hotel overlooking the sea. The chef was called Enrica and note the coincidence, she had won an award for the best “Acquacotta”, over the years.

My future husband and I, from the first of a long series of tastings, we looked at each other at realizing that we had already decided: it was just the cook we wanted for the wedding, she knew for sure what’s the “lingering”.

For our party Enrica gave everyone a poem about Acquacotta, written on a sheet of yellow paper rolled up, beribboned with red raffia. I still have this gift and I give it to the “students” who attend the course on “Tuscan soups” … and recipes that I give after cooking classes in general, are always rolled up and closed with a raffia bow dark red...

Ginny’s eating Acquacotta

Acquacotta Old Tuscan Veggie Soup

Recipe by Erika Elia (CuocheinVacanza.it)

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes + 15 minutes (to grill)
Total time: 1 hour

Ingredients

11 oz spinach
11 oz swiss chard
3 celery stalks with their leaves
1 large or 2 red onion
6 leaves calamint (optional)
4 tomatoes (Piccadilly or San Marzano) or
8 cherry tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
4 slices country-style bread toasted
4 eggs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (Evo)
to taste salt
to taste pepper
1 l simmering water

Cooking Directions

Rub the slices of toasted bread (just one side) with half garlic clove
Drizzle a heavy-bottomed large pan with Evo oil
place in it calamint and the remaining garlic and wait until the oil is hot
place the red onion roughly chopped in the pan and cook over medium-low heat until it becomes translucent (not brown)
add the roughly chopped veggies: celery (remind to put in the leaves too), Swiss chard and the spinach (you can also use mushrooms and chicory), and stir briefly to wilt.
Add tomatoes and one cup of simmering water
cook over low heat for about 20 minutes (lid over the pan) until veggies are very soft, adding the remaining simmering water in 2 times.
Season with salt and taste
place the toasted bread in 4 soup bowls
ladle broth and veggies over the bread in each bowl
when they’re full, use a teaspoon to slightly dig a hole in the center of veggies
and break the eggs in this hole, one in each bowl
top with a generous sprinkling of parmesan cheese
put in the oven 400 F° to grill, for about 15 minutes. Until the whites are set, but the yellow is still runny

Salva

L'articolo “Acqua-Cotta”: the ultimate Cookery lesson about Tuscan Soups and my childhood memories proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Tuscany: pasta with chickpeas puree. Enjoy this hallmark of rustic italian cooking

Erika Elia — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 19:42:00 +0000

Pasta and chickpeas puree is a typical dish from Lucca, belonging to poor and farming cooking, such as the onion soup.
When I was little I did not love this dish, it seemed tasteless, devoid of personality and especially monotonous, like many soups.
Then one day a friend of my father, chef and owner of a famous restaurant in Maremma, made me taste this dish and finally, for the first time I appreciated it. It seemed immediately flavorful, so that I finished the whole plate, under my father’s surprised eyes.
The trick there was! His name: anchovy fillets

When you discover how magical is this combination … you stay on.
Here in Tuscany the kind of pasta to use with chickpeas puree are the “Tagliolini“, but actually there’s so much variety suitable for this dish: capelli d’angelo (I like them most of all), ditalini, gramigna…
Since chickpeas are the protagonist, one can say that this dish has not season, and enjoy tasting it even in Summer, with that aroma of rosemary reminiscent of pine forest and fills you nostrils.
When I got it, though, I immediately think of our small house on the mountains and of the winter in general, aspects that represent for me the search for new recipes for our private dinners, and new dishes to be included in our cookery courses.

It’s on the mountains, thanks to grandma Adriana, where I learned to make tortellini from Emilia and is always on mountains where I experience the most diverse dishes, with my family that acts as a “guinea pig”, immersed in an extended time, in a warm and welcoming environment, in a region (Emilia Romagna) famous for happy people and good food.
And so, every time we go to the mountains, while the fireplace is lit, the fire crackling, and outside there’s the snow… on the table waiting for us you can often see some steaming “terracotta” bowls: it’s our homemade pasta with chickpeas puree.

Ginny is eating “pasta e ceci”

My tips:

can not miss: rosemary sprig
choose a pasta with a cooking time no longer than 4 minutes, otherwise you risk compromising the right texture of the puree.
If using dried chickpeas: soak them in cold water with a teaspoon of baking soda for a whole night. Throw away the soaking water and boil them in salted water for about 40 minutes (20 minutes with the pressure cooker). Use their liquid to prepare the chickpeas puree
If using canned chickpeas, throw away the liquid in which they are immersed and use only the vegetable broth
if you do not like very much the flavor of the garlic, remove it before using the immersion blender
garlic should never burnish, in any recipe

PASTA WITH CHICKPEAS PUREE TUSCAN STYLE

Recipe by Erika Elia (www.cuocheinvacanza.it)

Prep time: 10 minutes (excluding time to boil chickpeas)
Cook time: 15 minutes (with 3 minutes pasta cooking time)
Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

3 cups boiled and drained chickpeas (liquid reserved)
1/2 cup extra virgin oil
2 garlic cloves
5 anchovy fillets
to taste salt
to taste black pepper
1 rosemary sprig
2 cups veggie broth
1 tbsp tomato paste
4 tbsp parmesan cheese (optional)

Cooking Directions

Over medium heat, pour 4 tbsp extra virgin oil in a pot with the garlic cloves cut in half; add the rosemary sprig and the anchovy fillets. Wait until anchovy melt, stirring well with a wooden spoon.
Add drained chickpeas continuing stirring until they take all the flavors of the sauce with anchovy, rosemary and garlic
add their liquid and 1 cup hot veggie broth and let them simmer for about 10 minutes
remove the rosemary sprig and blend the chickpeas directly in the pot with an immersion blender (or transfer them to processor)
taste and add salt if needed
add tomato paste and stir to mix and to have a nice hot color light orange
bring to boil and add other broth if the cream is too thick; you need to have the texture of yogurt if you add “capelli d’angelo” pasta (3 minutes cooking) and that one of a soup if you use a pasta which requires a longer cooking.
Pour the pasta in the soup
as it boils again (crumble capelli d’angelo by clenching them in the fist)
continue stirring medium-low heat and be careful it doesn’t stick
finally you have to obtain a soft puree, a cream
add salt if you need and turn off the heat when pasta is cooked
pour in soup bowls very hot
add a grinding of black pepper,
1 tbsp of parmesan cheese (optional)
and 1 tbsp of extra virgin oil (top down) over each bowl
bring immediately to the table

Salva

L'articolo Tuscany: pasta with chickpeas puree. Enjoy this hallmark of rustic italian cooking proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.