I do not know how to explain it, but yesterday I cooked this dish and I still think to it, its perfumes, the crunchiness of the bread, the baked gruyere flavor… well, I can not wait to taste it again. Another surprise from this soup: it’s loved “very very much” by my girls, it’s the guarantee that if a dish is a delicious one, that is for everyone!

Furthermore, as you can see from the picture, this onion soup still continues to be appreciated after many years: Ginevra is now 16 years old, but in the first picture Ginevra was 10 only 10!

The onion soup, the original French one, needs golden onions.

Ingredients:

Onions 550 gr (1Lb) usually: 2 red, 2 gold, 3 shallots, 1 white, 1 leek)

Chop the onions veeeeeeery thin and pour in a pan with 50g butter and 4 or 5 tablespoons of oil.

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L'articolo San Giuliano Terme. The Best Onions Soup proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Hire a Private Chef: Why?

As a Professional Chef and Sommelier, I can definitely recommend you to hire a private Chef in Tuscany.

Of course, she/he has to be a professional one.

In fact, there are too many smart ones who buy your supper ready and then they pass it off as prepared by them.

With my activity as a private chef, I do the shopping, I come to your holiday home and start cooking until dinner time.

I usually arrive about 3 hours before dinner. Be wary of those who take less time. I warned you!

Anyway, guys, what is a better way to get to know people and cultures other than ours? Food is a great vehicle for knowledge.

Watching someone cooking and preparing your fav Italian dish, here in Tuscany, Italy, is a precious experience.

And me, as an Itinerant Chef who has been doing this job for 10 years, I can say that’s always an amazing experience for the Chef as well.  

The 2 best first courses (Primi Piatti) at your holiday home

No doubt, home-made pasta has first place. I roll it and cut it under your eyes. And if anyone wants to try using the pasta machine, I teach them to use it.

However, immediately afterward comes the risotto, the Prince of the Italian tables.

Risotto is by no means a simple dish to prepare. This is why cooking enthusiasts and gourmets love to watch me from the preparation of the broth to the creaming of the finished dish. Often every step is marked in order to be able to do it again at home.

Image by Ulrike Leone

The recipe: Saffron Risotto

The Milanese risotto is the most classic of the classics. It is the best-known Italian risotto. The version that I show you here is an ancient recipe that comes directly from the greatest writer and lover of Italian recipes: Pellegrino Artusi.

Saffron Risotto

Recipe Type: First Course

Cuisine: Italian

Author: Erika Elia (Cuoche in Vacanza)

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 5

Ingredients

• 2 cups (450 gr) Carnaroli Rice (or Arborio)
• 1/3 cup (80 gr) Unsalted Butter
• 1 onion (medium)
• 1/2 tsp. saffron threads
• 6 cups (1l) broth (beef or veggie)
• 1 cup (100 gr) grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• 1 glass dry white wine

Instructions

1. For the cooking: chop the onion very fine with the “mezzaluna” and put it on the fire with half of the butter.
2. As it’s translucent and golden, pour the rice stirring it constantly with a wooden spoon until it has sucked all the sauce
3. After a few minutes add the wine and begin to pour the broth: a ladle at a time, waiting it sucks all the broth every time, stirring continuously
4. Remind: it has to boil slowly, otherwise the rice remains hard in the middle and crumbles on the surface
5. Salt it
6. When the rice is almost ready, add the last ladle of broth with the saffron melted in it
7. As cooked, turn off the heat, and add the Parmigiano Reggiano
8. Add the remaining butter
9. Stir gently (this process is called: “mantecatura”) 5 seconds and let the risotto rest 5 minutes (don’t touch it during this time)
10. Serve IMMEDIATELY and Buon Appetito!

If you hire a Private Chef in Tuscany, you can taste many different kinds of Risotto:

Risotto Lime and Salmon

Fresh Asparagus Risotto

Risotto with baby cuttlefish and Tuscan pumpkin

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L'articolo Hire a private Chef making for you the best Saffron Risotto 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.

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).

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.

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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.

A Tuscan sauce usually is something on the season, made with simple and fresh ingredients.

Fresh pasta represents the essence of my job and the bond with my grandmother. I know it could be silly to explain “the food” as something of great value or an important message, but food is my life and I try to communicate love through food as well. Yes, with my family, friends, but also with my students and customers on holiday in Tuscany.

Almost all of you know that we “Cuoche in Vacanza” (Italian for Cooks on Holiday) are all mad for Fresh Pasta; well, we obviously are mad for every Tuscan sauce for pasta, as well.

So, with our itinerant cooking school around Tuscany, we try to teach how to make fresh pasta in all the possible ways.

In my opinion PASTA is the most versatile dish:

• First of all, enjoying your time, you can make both fresh eggs pasta or no eggs fresh pasta
• Furthermore, there are a lot of fillings for fresh pasta; meat-based, fish, veggies… anyway here in Tuscany we prefer pasta filled with ricotta cheese. Then you can add to the ricotta what you prefer
• well, what is fantastic with fresh pasta is the chance to “color” depending on ingredients that you use with the eggs and flour. Click the link for the many ways to color FRESH PASTA
• Finally, you’ll never finish experimenting to season your pasta dish, because the sauces are endless. Here in this post, you can find the recipe of a very tasteful Tuscan sauce, made with mussels from Livorno and asparagus from San Giuliano Terme.

Well, this time we were called by a group of tourists from Norway to teach them a Tuscan menu:

• Bruschetta
• Ravioli Maremmani and Tagliatelle (black)
• Fresh Veggies Seasonal Sauce

• Tuscan Sauce with mussels and fresh asparagus (recipe down here)

What you’re seeing in the picture are all the vegetables in season here in Tuscany: cherry tomatoes, leeks, basil, asparagus, and the amazing courgette flowers.

Well, don’t be surprised, in Italy we often cook courgette flowers in many ways and I can guarantee you that they are delicious.

• fried: in a blatter, stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies, or with ricotta cheese and olives
• steamed stuffed with fish and egg
• cut in stripes and cooked in a pan (just 5 minutes) to season all kinds of pasta with a Tuscan sauce. Want to see a sauce with courgette flowers? GNOCCHI SAUCE HERE

Our customers and students from Norway were such “hard workers”!

They set a long table outside of the beautiful “Podere Zobi”  (we call “podere” every country villa here in Tuscany) with a fantastic view over the hills.

Sun was really shining and the table was open air, so it was not easy to run the cooking class. But when you’re doing something that makes you feel good, you forget any nuisance.

So we went forward making fresh pasta outside and cooking a gorgeous Tuscan sauce in the beautiful kitchen inside.

The result?

The Tuscan sauce with asparagus and mussels was delicious and everyone asked for an extra portion. It’s a very good sauce for “black” (squid-ink) pasta.

Finally, down here you can read the recipe and I’m sure that you’ll appreciate this dish both for its flavor and the easy way to make it.

You know the Cuoche in Vacanza said: #SimplebutExquisite

Well, here’s another tasteful sauce: red mullet, rucola and piccadilly tomatoes

Anyway, I’ve some questions for you:

Have you ever tasted asparagus with mussels? Where?

So, do you know that here in Tuscany (in Spring) you can find “wild asparagus”?

As “Cuoche in Vacanza (Chefs on holiday) we organize walks in the Tuscan country to pick up and cook wild herbs. CLICK HERE to know more.

L'articolo Fresh pasta before your eyes! Tuscan sauce: mussels and asparagus proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Vegetarian cooking classes are in high demand for a few years here in Tuscany.

I’m not surprised at all: “eating fresh” is one of the main features of these places. The countryside is often a few miles from all the Tuscan towns and many people have their own vegetable garden where growing all kinds of veggie and fruits.

So why not take advantage of all these gifts from Mother Nature?

Vegetarian Cooking Classes imply a recommendation: follow the season!

That’s exactly what we usually guarantee our customers coming from all over the world. Are you coming on holiday to Tuscany? We come directly to your Holiday Home for Cooking Lessons or Private Dinners.

In fact, if you’d like to know the real flavor of a fresh vegetable, you’ve to be sure that is in season. Only in this way, avoiding long trips in cold stores there’ll be improvements and benefits to the environment and surely to the taste.

Since our customers come from abroad (mostly from the USA, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Australia…) and often can’t know which veggies are in season here in Tuscany, I hope to be helpful with the picture below. It comes from an organic vegetable shop of a friend of mine; have a look at it, to be sure to eat fresh veggies in the season when you’re in Italy.

So, what’s in Spring? Fresh Asparagus of course. That’s why I’m preparing a full-flavored Italian dish: Risotto Fresh Asparagus.

Watch the below video just to know the steps and read the full recipe below this post.

As every dish with few ingredients, Risotto requires following the right steps, but do you know the most important aspect in making it?

It’s the quality of the Rice: please use Carnaroli Rice or Arborio…anyway use only rice with a long cooking time (15 mins about)

After many years as a cooking classes coach and private dinners chef, I can say that everyone loves vegetarian cooking classes, not only vegans or vegetarians but omnivore too.

Eating healthy it’s so easy here in Tuscany furthermore without sacrificing the taste or giving us a “label” of a lifestyle.

Better explaining what I mean I write you

2 examples of vegetarian cooking classes menus that my company Cuoche in Vacanza run throughout Tuscany:

1. Parmigiana Aubergines

fresh homemade pasta with fresh Pesto sauce

Zuppa Inglese dessert

2. no-egg Pici pasta with Veggie Ragu Sauce (all the vegetables from the garden included zucchini flowers)

Burger made with lentils, zucchini, and leaks

Chocolate Salami.

In short, it’s not difficult running vegetarian cooking classes with the most delicious vegetarian meals possible; maybe it’s difficult to find tasteful and fresh veggies, but this is not a problem here in Tuscany.

Furthermore, we go shopping early in the morning, when farmers go to the market to sell their veggies.

On Summer (but already in Spring if it’s hot), we’ve in Tuscany very sweet tomatoes. One of our most famous sauces is the “caramelized tomato sauce”. It’s a very simple sauce, incredibly sweet, loved by everyone, adults, and children. It’s impossible to make it without the right ingredients. If you’re coming to Tuscany and you’re interested in vegetarian cooking classes we’ll be glad to teach you to make this sauce: it’s amazing!

Are you looking for vegetarian cooking classes in Tuscany?

Contact us, Cuoche in Vacanza, we’ll answer you immediately.

We have a lot of menus, you’ve only to choose yours. Can be sure about the quality of ingredients and veggies freshness and seasonality.

Are you interested in other RISOTTO recipes? Click the below links to discover how to make:

Pumpkin and leak Risotto

Milanese Risotto

Fresh Veggies Risotto

Porcini Mushrooms Risotto

This article came out to about 1-day work, please LIKE and SHARE IT if you think it’s interesting.

Have you some questions? Please leave a comment and I’ll answer you immediately!

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L'articolo Vegetarian Cooking Classes in Tuscany: Risotto fresh Asparagus proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

We run an organic cooking class few days ago, in San Miniato, with our group of Cuoche in Vacanza (Cooks on Holiday).

My guests and students demanded that each course was organic, from starter to dessert. They were very nice people from New York and one of them had a severe allergy to preservatives and other chimical products.

Everyone is surprised when I say there’s no problem to run an organic cooking class here in Tuscany.

Often we eat organic even if we don’t know; this is the luck to live in this region.

You can buy organic food everywhere and the cost is not so high like in America, furthermore, if you live in the countryside you can have organic and fresh ingredients directly from your garden. Where I live, for example, I just open the door and pick up some salad, tomatoes, basil…and you can be sure they’re not treated with chimical products.

Organic cooking class means not only preparing and eating organic food,

but also to explain how to buy organic food here in Italy and what labels and certifications are valid.

Here’s the European label about organic food: 

Law is very strict in Europe and must spend 10 years from the last visit with an expert before declaring a field as organic and with an organic cultivation.

Well, as they asked for an organic cooking class I immediately thought to this recipe: penne, broccoli and sun-dried tomatoes.

And I thought to Carlo as well, our neighbor from Sicily. He is an old man of few words, kind-hearted. He worked as a chef on cruise ships; one night invited all my family for dinner and prepared this amazing pasta with vegetables from his garden.

The region of Sicily (South of Italy) is beautiful and when you taste some veggies from there, it seems to taste a bite of sun, because of their sweetness.

Once tasted this dish I decided to make it again during our cooking classes in Tuscany. Tourists which come in Tuscany on holiday, often ask for an organic cooking class and this sauce is what I was looking for. With this you can season fresh egg pasta as well. I love cooking only food in season, that’s why I keep this pasta sauce for Autumn and Winter cookery lessons. Despite the fact that our job has its high season on Summer, I run many cooking classes in Tuscany during Winter and this dish was very successful.

It combines all the sweetness of sun-dried tomatoes with the velvet texture of brased broccoli.

The steps of this recipe can be summarized in the following video. Click to watch the video.

Maybe you can be interested in the following veggie recipes:

Veggie Italian sauce for pasta and risotto

Fresh orange ravioli and rocket pesto recipe

Acquacotta (Italian for cooked water) soup and my childhood memories

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L'articolo organic cooking class: penne, broccoli and sun-dried tomatoes proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Cooking Courses in tuscany: some words that I couldn’t imagine how would have become important.

I started the cooking courses job 8 years ago with a friend of mine, Lella, that one with me in our company (Cuoche in Vacanza) logo image

At that time I worked as sociologyst many hours a day and it was very hard to grow 2 small daughters and staying with them just a couple of hours. I wanted to spend more time in family, but I had to earn some money to grow the girls.

And so, thinking to a “seasonal” job, I started this adventure of cooking courses in Tuscany, convinced that it would have not brought me many hours away from home.

I know it was a leap in the dark following my passions: cooking, meeting people, passing down my granny’s tips, speaking english; anyway I started this job with the spirit of a Hobby more than a real job, conscious that I had to wait before earning enough.

This was a real investment, a bet to improve the quality of my family life. During the first 2 years we didn’t work hard, no many people asked for cooking courses in Tuscany and I was very busy to introduce myself and staff, building the cooking courses menu and contacting the holiday home’s manager here in Tuscany.

After the second year we started receiving mails from abroad;

many people asked for our private cooking courses in Tuscany service and I got the Professional Chef Diploma  after attending the Italian Cooking Academy in Florence.

Now, after 8 years,  because of my job I’m spending many hours far from home.

The small company named “Cuoche in Vacanza (Cooks on Holiday)” is very busy from March to November.

We’re experienced in Private Dinners and Cooking Courses in Tuscany…anyway my daughters have grown up now 

Someone tell me that it’s a very hard job: driving far away, cooking and cleaning one day after another, but I love this job so much and I’d not change it with any other.

Well every year during Winter, when sun is no more shining and I can weekly write on my blog, I feel the lack of customers, students, I’d say friends. Yes, because it’s true that they pay to have a service, but in many cases we become friends and we keep in touch. Often we send messages each other and we spend time together when someone come in Tuscany again.

That’s why I liked making a gallery about our 2016 cooking courses in Tuscany;

I often see these images running continuosly on my Mac desktop to any hour of the day and then I think to the happy time spent together and to the incredible places and landscapes that I’m lucky to explore during our trips to the Holiday Homes in Tuscany where our guests and customers are on vacation.

Spring 2017 is knocking on the door, and we’re ready to meet new people interested to improve their way of cooking or just learning some tricks or secret from Tuscan cuisine. Anyway each year is perfect as it is, with flavors, people and smiles that are similar to fire:

always the same, always different.

I can’t forget any job season spent at the holiday homes of my students and guests, everybody bring me in a different location to meet people who like enjoy a cooking course having fun together with family and friends.

Everyone has a different job, a different way of life and experience, but there’s a strong even if thin thread which joins our memories: love for Tuscany, for Italian fresh handmade Pasta, for cooking and mostly for enjoing a lunch or dinner with those you love.

Hope this gallery makes the idea of our Cooking Courses in Tuscany atmosphere and if you’re interested in what I wrote on this post, please leave a comment below.

Are you curious about our Private Cooking Courses in Tuscany? Here are 10 FAQ and answers that would probably interest you.

Would you like knowing something more about Cooking Courses in Tuscany? Please contact us clicking HERE or mail us: info@cuocheinvacanza.it

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L'articolo Cooking Courses in Tuscany 2016 gallery and Summer memories 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.

Eggplant (Aubergines) Parmigiana di melanzane!

Know that you can make this dish also as a single portion. It will be very elegant and you will make a good impression with your friends. The only care, in this case, is to use a mozzarella that is not fresh.

In fact, during my online cooking classes, I could see that if you use fresh mozzarella, the eggplants slices tend to relax, to expand in the oven. Therefore the elegant scenographic effect of the Aubergine Tower is lost. This does not happen with the low moisture mozzarella.

Eggplant (Aubergines) Parmigiana di Melanzane

Recipe by Erika Elia (CuocheinVacanza.com)

Prep time: 40 minutes + (30 minutes to rest)
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 1h,40 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 pound, 500 gr caciocavallo cheese (or 5 mozzarelle)
• 3 large eggplants
• 1 bottle peanut oil (or corn oil, sunflower oil)
• 5 oz; (10 tbsp; 150 gr) grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp; 20 gr fine salt
• 3 cups, 75 cl Tomato Sauce

Instructions

The Tomato Sauce for Parmigiana

• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• to taste olive oil
• 1 bottle (75cl) tomato puree (passata). I use this one
• to taste salt and pepper 
• 5 basil leaves

Cooking Directions

To prepare the tomato sauce for Eggplant (Aubergines) Parmigiana di Melanzane add the garlic and the onion in a saucepan, with 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Fry for a few minutes, then add tomato sauce and simmer to the thickening of the sauce and, lastly, add the salt and the basil leaves (cut them with your fingers); then taste, turn off the heat and it’s done!

To prepare the Eggplant (Aubergines) Parmigiana di Melanzane: wash and cut the eggplants into slices about 1/4 inch (0,5 cm).

Prepare a pan with the oil (about 1/2 a bottle), fry the eggplants until they are golden on both sides, and let them dry on a paper.

Anoint a baking tray, sprinkle the bottom with a little of the tomato sauce, and start to have the first layer of eggplant to be placed side by side without overlapping.

Pour a little sauce on the eggplant, spreading it uniformly, and sprinkle with a little Parmigiano Reggiano.

Slice the caciocavallo (or mozzarella) cheese and deal a few slices of it on the sauce leaving a little space from one another. Now prepare the second layer, placing the aubergines in the opposite direction to the previous one (if at first, you have arranged vertically, now arrange them horizontally) and continue covering them with sauce, Parmesan cheese, and finally with slices of cheese, until all the ingredients.

Remember that the last layer must be of only tomato and grated Parmesan cheese. 

Place the aubergines in the oven at 180 °C (375 °F) for 30 minutes until they present the characteristic golden “crust”.

You can serve your eggplant parmigiana hot, just pulled out of the oven, or at room temperature … it’s good anyway, even cold!

Suggestion: you can grill the eggplants (instead of frying). This Eggplant Parmigiana will be not the original one. Anyway, it will be very tasty and “lighter”.

L'articolo Eggplant (Aubergines) Parmigiana di Melanzane on the top of a hill in Tuscany proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.