For your homemade pasta

INGREDIENTS 4 people:

PROCEDURE:

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L'articolo The Real Italian Meat Sauce (Ragu) proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Gnocchi Gnudi from Tuscany: they are easy but delicious and therefore the perfect dish to prepare when you have little time but you want to enjoy it!

Today I do have not much time to cook because I have: to print new menus for  CuocheinVacanza Private Dinners, to answer a lot of emails from travelers who will be in Tuscany in Summer, and ask me for information on Cooking Classes in Tuscany, to make a dozen phone calls … furthermore it’s finally done the gate at my Brick’n mortar place, the cooking school near Lucca: Dolce Vita Cooking School and B&B.

Simple, Fast, and delicious

I am preparing the menu for an exam about the chef world, ideas, ideas, and even a little ‘fear. The days go by fast and the tests and experiments on what to bring on that fateful table … well, just do not seem to end.
Anyway, I’m not sure I get anxious, cooking is my passion, it’s what makes me feel good, and I keep this in mind, from when I wake up in the morning when I close my eyes and fantasize about what to prepare the next day.

Well, today I’m going to prepare a dish belonging to cucina povera Toscana: a simple one, and maybe not just so beautiful to look at, but for flavor and aroma, it has nothing to envy a first-course gourmet.

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L'articolo Gnocchi Gnudi from Tuscany, recipe and cooking class proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

During my Cooking Classes in Tuscany Villas, I often give suggestions and tips on how to make a perfect jam. In fact, everyone who spends the vacations here in Tuscany, cannot fail to notice the beautiful ripe fruit at the end of Summer.

Furthermore at my bed and breakfast Dolce Vita, in the Lucca countryside, you can taste these exquisite jams, surely accompanied by homemade cakes, tarts, and local delicacies.

Lola Rudolphi photo

Actually here in Tuscany at this moment it is not really a good season: it is windy and it rains almost every day.

Yet a couple of days ago the sun was still shining like in Summer. This is why I went to make blackberries and strawberry grapes around the fields with my husband.

Well, we love going for walks in the countryside, in late Summer. To pick the fruits that the earth offers us before autumn comes. Many families especially in Tuscany take delight in making blackberry jam. In fact, in Tuscany, there are many varieties of plants of the Mediterranean scrub; well, the blackberry is one of these and you can make exquisite jams but also liqueurs.

So, at the end of August and in September, in Italy, we’re not only making bottled tomato sauces or in a jar, but also many kinds of jams. In fact, in addition to blackberries, I really like strawberry grapes. The procedures are slightly different but what interests me is to give you the main tips and tricks so that each of your jams can be delicious.

If you’re looking for Cooking Classes in Tuscany Villas, please CONTACT ME HERE, I’ll answer you immediately to all your questions.

Cooking Classes in Tuscany Villas

During our cooking classes in Tuscan villas, you can learn not only the tricks of tradition but also what I learned at the academy for professional chefs in Florence. You will also have a lot of fun with your friends or family. We’ll drink together with a good prosecco and you will learn how to make the best dishes of traditional Tuscan and Italian cuisine.

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TIPS AND TRICKS

First of all, never add pectin or substances chemicals to your homemade jam. It is natural and it must remain natural. Otherwise, you might as well buy it at the supermarket. So even when you make strawberry jam do not use pectin or chemicals, just add small pieces of apple to make any jam soft and creamy.

The second tip to give you is that in general, it is always better to add sugar to the fruit in a bowl, cover it with a film and let it macerate for about half an hour. In fact, this allows the sugar to enter the fruit but also allows to release fruit juices itself so that your work is already halfway through.

Another trick advice that you must absolutely follow is to cook the fruit as little as possible. This not only preserves the aromas, the perfumes the vitamins, and minerals but obviously makes it aesthetically much more beautiful. The colors in fact remain almost intact.

But how to preserve the colors of the fruit and above all to obtain a jam even with little cooking time?

Well, we find the answer in the type of container, in the type of pot you have to use while cooking. So here’s the trick: do not use tall and long high pots and narrow but prefer wide non-stick pans where all the fruit can be safe without being superimposed too much. In this way, the juices will evaporate very easily and quickly. So with about 20-25 minutes, you will have obtained a perfect excellent delicious jam!

Just a note: I do not pass the blackberries in a vegetable mill. Actually, I prefer to preserve the seeds which are very useful for our health and clean the intestines. Anyway, you can use the mill after the first 15 minutes of cooking, or as the blackberries appear softer.

micheile-henderson photo

L'articolo Cooking Classes in Tuscany Villas: make the best Blackberries jam! proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

The best strawberry jam is always what your grandmother made to you. Well, this recipe comes right from her.

Among the things that I am delighting to do and cook during this COVID quarantine could not miss the strawberry jam. Right now in Tuscany strawberries are sweet, red, and juicy and I am using them to prepare the most disparate things from salads to cupcakes to stuffed cakes.

This Tuscan strawberry jam lends itself to multiple uses:

you can also use it to make the delicious Italian Crostata (tart);  to decorate your dishes, as a sauce for Panna cotta and a very interesting aspect of strawberry jam is to accompany cheeses deliciously, at the end of the meal.

You can spread it on a slice of bread and be directly in paradise maybe adding a little bit of butter. Well, this is what you can find here in Tuscany at my b&b near Lucca:  dolce vita in Tuscany.

Anyway, I am not the only one to say that this is the best strawberry jam you can eat. In fact, many chefs and restaurateurs have asked me for the recipe and obviously, I did not hesitate to pass it on because good things must be handed down, as my granny often said.

This jam brings to my memory the stories of my grandmother.

Traditions of walks in the fields to pick the strawberries of the Maremma land. From Spring to late Summer the women who lived in the countryside gathered in the farmyard and prepared the most varied jams. They had at their disposal ripe fruit directly from the trees. At that time, preparing a jam, was an opportunity to meet and laugh together. Large pots steaming with ripe and sugary fruit were in the center of the farmyard;  the perfume (told me my grandmother) spread throughout the surrounding area.

However, although this was already the best strawberry jam, I wanted to add my touch to the recipe. My variant for this jam is the use of vanilla bean which in my opinion gives a unique and enhancing flavor and aroma.

The secret of the goodness of this recipe:

is to use a fairly large pot (I use a large pan) because in this way cooking will be fast and not only the flavor but also the color of the jam will be exceptional.

L'articolo The best Strawberry jam from Tuscany: healthy and easy proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Yes, a super easy cake that everyone asks me, absolutely a protagonist in many of our family Cooking Classes in Tuscany. So easy that children can make it with no problem, even if they’re 5 years old.

This tasteful cake doesn’t ask for baking or another kind of cooking: just put it in the fridge and wait 2 hours about.

I could not write the recipe here on the blog, because it is simple like all the things that I love and, in its simplicity, holds the secret of deliciousness.

Super easy cake Story:

This cake was born after the Second World War here in Tuscany.

When American soldiers came in the Tuscan countryside, they met the Tuscan housewives which often prepared meals with poor and few ingredients from the country. The American soldiers had some military biscuits and cocoa and the Italian housewives had the butter (from their cows), the sugar and the egg… From this meeting was born the super easy cake Chocolate Salami!

And you?

Do you know in your country a simple cake or dessert that even children can make? Please inform me leaving a comment below. Or directly send me the recipe if you’d like that I publish it. I’m very interested in simple and tasteful new recipes.

Gluttons pour whipped cream over the slices, someone prefers to accompany it with vanilla ice cream and I like it very much with fresh strawberries.

L'articolo A super easy cake loved by children: here is Chocolate Salami! proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Venus rice, really fresh, maybe the most fragrant rice.

The first time…

Can’t forget the first time that I fell in love with venus rice. My friend Simona introduced me to this fascinating and flavored ingredient. I’m writing here a very fast recipe full of Italian fresh veggies flavors!

Sciué Sciué

It’s one of those recipes that here in Italy we call “sciuè sciuè”, Italian for “very quick”. Once arrived at home after my beloved job throughout Tuscany, I watched my kitchen and my fridge (like the Donald Duck one!) and I realized I had just fresh and seasonal veggies and some venus rice.

I like to experiment with new dishes and make fusion cuisine.

Well, what’s better than sundried tomatoes from Puglia  to give the real Italian taste of Summer to a far East dish?

So guys here’s the recipe, success is guaranteed and flavor as well.

Taste it and you’ll understand why I fell in love with venus rice!

Do you prefer venus rice with shrimps or fish, or did you try to make it with fresh veggies, like me?

What’s your best recipe for venus rice?

L'articolo When I felt in love with Venus Rice proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

 That’s why I wish to share with you these secrets and tips, not only because we face “kitchen” and food everyday, but to share and pass down some authentic folk wisdom.

1. More time you let that Pizza dough rises, better is. Anyway, to check if it’s at the right point: put a small ball of dough in a glass with cold water, if it resurfaces, the dough is ready to be stretched, stuffed and baked.
2. You should pull the Pizza dough on the pastry board and not directly over the baking tray. Because of a gluten reaction, in fact it tends to shrink during the cooking.
3. Pizza dough inevitably shrinks a bit when transferred on the baking tray; but if you grease the baking tray with butter instead oil, you’ll avoid that it shrinks already before the cooking.
4. While kneading the dough of a pizza (or Focaccia), don’t use just the water. If you want it more digestible, add an infusion made with rosemary or oregano.
5. You’re going to read a very precious secret from my Granny. I can assure you that if you follow it you’ll obtain the most delicious bread, focaccia and pizza as well. When my Grandma moved into a new home she hadn’t a wood-fired oven, but just an electric one; she strove a lot and made many tests to have the same amazing pizza she made with the wood-fired oven. At the end she arrived in what is a very good solution that’ll give you a real success and an authentic flavor to your pizza &Co: buy a rectangular piece of marble (the black one is the best); it has to be 2cm high at least and big enough to stay in the baking tray of your oven. Heat the electric oven to maximum waiting that the marble be very hot; you can cook your pizza or bread directly over this surface and you‘ll obtain a flavor very very similar to the real Italian pizza made by a wood-fired oven. 
6. Are you interested in “The Perfect Pizza” Recipe? Want to know all the right steps to obtain it? CLICK HERE and you’ll read a very very interesting post.

Is there some new trick that you know for making pizza?

Please leave a comment, I’ll answer you asap!

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L'articolo Italian tips for Pizza: My Granny’s secrets in the kitchen; let’s start a new section on the blog. proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Under the Tuscan sun grows every kind of plant.

Some years ago I came to live here in the Lucca countryside, to manage my “Dolce Vita” Cooking School and Vacation Home”.

I immediately thought of the indispensable plants for me.

First of all the aromatic herbs, necessary for a chef, cooking classes Instructor as for anyone working with food.

In this period, during my online interactive cooking classes, I always show wild Tuscan herbs. So, live, it is much easier to understand what it is. Especially if my students live in a country far from mine.

So I immediately sowed

• thyme (here in Tuscany we call it “pepolino” and it’s fantastic with any kind of Mediterranean sauce)
• basil
• mint
• origan (for pizza but for “pizzaiola meat” as well)
• catmint (amazing with mushrooms)
• sage
• rosemary

These plants under the Tuscan sunshine definitely grew very well and they are still alive in my garden even after many years.

Then I tried to grow 4 0 5 types of hot pepper that I love using for many dishes, both in our cooking classes and private dinners.

And then one day I saw in a greenhouse near my home a beautiful lemon plant and I quickly brought it home.

Well, the lemon under the Tuscan sun, rather than that of Campania, has grown steadily and for 15 years my plant gives me beautiful and juicy lemons like the one from Sorrento.

How I usually use these fantastic lemons:

• Limoncello 
• Lemon jam
• Lemon jelly

Anyway, first of all, I love preparing the “exceptional” lemon curd (I’m writing the recipe down to this post).

This custard is an excellent filling for pies and tartlets.

Its “degreasing and refreshing” power makes it the most delicious way to end each meal.

It’s gorgeous even if you simply spread it on toasted bread, that is exactly what I made yesterday.

I enjoyed it while sipping a hot cup of tea in the garden under the Tuscan sun. Bello!

This cream has the strong flavor of Sorrento lemons, and should not be confused with the lemon pastry cream because it is much more “lemony”.

Photo by Gala Rodriguez on Unsplash

Anyway, after several attempts, I managed to get a balanced recipe, where lemon makes the lion’s part, but without being too aggressive.

I like to prepare this cream and put it in glass jars.

The fact that it can be done in full Winter consoles me a lot because even without being under the Tuscan sun, is like producing jars of sun.

Well, do not hesitate to prepare this curd from Tuscany.

Be sure to buy (or to pick up ) organic lemons; they can’t be treated with chemical compounds.

If you’re interested in wild edible herbs you can read the followings:

• HERB GATHERING AND COOKING 
• AROMATIC HERBS IN TUSCANY

What are your “must-have” plants at home?

Do you use your own herbs or plants in cooking?

Is it difficult to grow a plant of lemon in your country, not under the Tuscan sun?

Please write to me in the comments, I’ll answer you asap.

L'articolo Under the tuscan sun: lemon curd! proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

My granny (like all the grannies here in Italy) used to say many proverbs and she often said: “Il fritto è buono anche in capo a un tignoso” that’s italian for: “fried food is good even if eaten on a dirty head”…how to blame her? If there’s something we don’t like,  we’ll probably like it if fried.

Probably that’s why Frati Toscani (Tuscan Doughnuts) are one of the most requested desserts in our Cooking Classes in Tuscany, mostly in our kids’ cookery classes, when there’s someone who like kneading and working by hands. Anyway ours are definitely all hands-on cookery courses on vacation and we often prepare Tuscan Doughnuts in our couple cookery courses with and for adults as well.

In Spring or Summer, when sun is high and a swimming pool is waiting for you, you can mostly enjoy your holiday learning to make a typical Tuscan Menu at your holiday home; there’s no bigger gift to me than see the smiles and happiness of our cooks-students together with their family and friends.

Last Summer we run a Private Cooking Class for a family of 4 that came from U.K.; they were here in Tuscany on vacation in a beautiful B&B among olives trees, between Pisa and Lucca: La Lucertola. The parents like cooking and kids are used to read culinary books and try recipes, anyway they were curious how to prepare Tuscan Donuts and Tortelli Maremmani and their cooking class was focused on these.

Tuscan Doughnuts are very simple to make, but (as everything simple) it needs to be respected each step; in addiction to this, I’m passing you a small trick from my granny: using fresh heavy cream in the dough, to give an amazing soft and light texture.

The name is “Frati” (italian for monk) because of the “ring” of hair that monks have on their head.

If you prepare them without the “hole” in the center, here in Tuscany they are named Bomboloni (Italian for Krapfen) and you can fill them with a Chocolate Cream or Custard…I leave you to imagine how they’re amazing.

Here in Tuscany we used to prepare Frati Doughnuts during Carnival festivity, together with other fried delicacies sold “on the road” during country fairs. In fact nowadays you can find these doughnuts in every season of the year, but they’re still sold as a street food, or prepared at home from mothers and grannies.

Like everything “easy to taste”, Tuscan Doughnuts are perfect at any time of the day: snack, lunch or dinner time; the left doughnuts from our cookery lessons in Tuscany (we often prepare a lots) are perfect as breakfast for the day after.

My granny’s tips:

1. Use heavy fresh cream
2. Be sure having set all you need handy when you’re frying
3. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to thread it into the hole of the doughnut and get it spinning while frying
4. Put in the caster sugar immediately after drained in oil absorbing cooking paper; they’ll be very hot, but it’s important that they’re in contact with the sugar just when they’re still hot

Click the links below to read, share or print some other recipes in our Cooking Classes in Tuscany:

• Fresh-Handmade Pasta and Italian sauces
• Bruschetta 
• Chocolate Salami or Tiramisu

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L'articolo Tuscany: Enjoing Cooking Classes at your Holiday Home with Frati Toscani (Italian for Tuscan Doughnuts). Here’s my Granny’s authentic recipe! proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Days of fire here in Tuscany… in every country as well, I suppose: Christmas’s gone, the last day of the year’s gone…our tummies are full!

If you’re living my situation and you invited a lots of people at your table before, during and after Christmas…maybe you’ll need to sleep (first of all) and to manage “these days after” the party as well.

Organization is a must, but first of all: it needs to prepare quick and easy dishes for the days coming after the big (in Italy for sure) Christmas lunch.

1. Butter and Sage
2. Pummarola Sauce (Tomato, Garlic and Basil)
3. Mushrooms Sauce
4. Pesto Sauce
5. Sea fruit sauce 
6. you name it…

Homemade Ricotta Gnocchi 

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L'articolo Tuscan Cooking Class: Homemade Ricotta Cheese Gnocchi… a perfect Italian meal after Christmas Holidays! proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.