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.

Montespertoli is a beautiful town near Florence in the heart of Chianti.

It’s surrounded by vineyards and olive groves, that’s why is also called “the city of wine” (La città del Vino).

Furthermore, Montespertoli is a nice place were having dinner, but first of all lunch: yes! Sit at a table surrounded by country landscape, drinking a glass of good red Tuscan wine.

My company is Cuoche in Vacanza (Cooks for your Holiday) and we go all around Tuscany for 2 kinds of service:

Private Cooking Classes and Dinners.

Customers find us on Google or through some tour operators and contact us to go directly to their Holiday Homes in Tuscany.

Although Chianti is a very popular area and we often have many requests about our “food-services” over there, Montespertoli is a place where we’re going for only a couple of years.

When I started this job with my friend Lella, I couldn’t imagine the power of word of mouth even with customers coming from abroad.

A little at a time we became very popular among tourists coming to Montespertoli and we already have been there 6 times only this year.

All around Tuscany: in Terricciola, Montespertoli, Radda in Chianti…I have a farmer friend who sells his vegetables in season on the road.

Furthermore our customers in private Dinners and students in Cooking Classes often ask for fresh veggies based dishes.

That’s why this farmer friend became one of our company’s best suppliers. And that’s why we’re going to make fresh veggies pasta sauce when coming to these holiday locations.

Talking about fresh homemade pasta, we can’t mention Gnocchi, everyone likes them, and their flavor is really enhanced by extra virgin oil and fresh and seasonal veggies like asparagus!

Here in the Tuscan countryside the best season buying asparagus and zucchini flowers in late Spring!

Furthermore, you can have some gorgeous Gnocchi with this kind of sauce, which’s delicate but incredibly tasteful at the same time, maybe because of the parmesan cheese and the asparagus intense flavor.

You know that in Tuscany we have a lot of kinds of Gnocchi (click on the following links for the recipes):

how making POTATOES GNOCCHI,

how making GNUDI GNOCCHI,

how making RICOTTA CHEESE GNOCCHI…

Well enjoy making them because they’re fantastic with lots of sauces, but veggie ones are the best in my opinion.

Although Gnocchi are fantastic with Ragu meat Sauce,

here you can find the best sauces (apart from the one that I’m writing below is the recipe of this post, that’s my fav!):

1. Pesto Sauce
2. Red Mullet Sauce
3. Gorgonzola Cheese sauce

The following sauce is perfect in Spring but is perfect with “Risotto” and all kinds of “short” pasta as well.

Do you have a particular sauce to recommend me trying for Gnocchi? What’s your fav sauce? Would you like to come in Tuscany and taking a cooking class? Want to know something more?

Contact US and we’ll answer you very quickly.

Eat fresh, eat seasonally. Buon Appetito!

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L'articolo Montespertoli: holiday home cooking classes with asparagus and courgette flowers Sauce for Gnocchi proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Squid Ink Tagliatelle is one of the most delicious gourmet and unusual ingredients.

So tie your apron strings and invite your family or friends, you can be sure you’re doing a very good impression.

All the people in our company “Cuoche in Vacanza (Cooks for your Vacations)” are addicted to fresh handmade pasta. It’s the protagonist in Private Cooking Classes directly at your holiday home in Tuscany, and in Private Dinners as well.

How could it be different? Our job is with tourists and travelers from all over the world and people like to spend time with fun, first of all on holiday.

Anyway if you have no time for making both pasta and sauce, No problem:

• you can buy squid ink tagliatelle HERE …and the sauce is very quick!

My granny often made “colored” pasta, according to the different ingredients directly added to the pasta dough. When I was a child and she made Squid Ink Tagliatelle I was fascinated by eating something so “common” in Italian Cuisine, but so different at the same time.

Everyone can make fresh pasta, with only 2 ingredients: eggs and flour!

About Squid Ink (if you’re going to make fresh pasta):

1. you can use the fresh one (directly from the main ink sac of fresh squid)
2. you can purchase it (sachet or jar)

They’re both good for colouring pasta. During our cooking classes in Tuscany we use the purchased one, of course.

Want to know how to make Squid Ink Tagliatelle? Click HERE for the Recipe

As I posted a few time ago, you can make different colors of homemade pasta, depending on the ingredients that you add to the pasta dough. For example, you can have fantastic Ravioli Orange Coloured simply adding tomato paste (click HERE for the recipe)

In Italy, we eat pasta every day (most of all dried pasta). Well, for us Italians, colored pasta (obviously with natural and fresh ingredients) it’s a way not to get bored while eating the most famous Italian food: PASTA!

That’s why a few time ago I decided to add to our cooking classes menu a new kind of cooking course: “colored pasta cooking class“.

Our cooking classes are all hands-on and almost all are suitable for children, so what’s better than replicate the “magic” from my granny?

Nowadays I can say that “colored pasta cooking class” is one of the most successful course; making fresh handmade “colored” pasta (as Squid Ink Tagliatelle for example) is really funny and our customers often make it again once at their home and send me the pictures of their dishes.

So what sauce for Squid Ink Tagliatelle?

• Every kind of fish or sea fruit sauce.

I love fresh and seasonal ingredients, so I opted for this sauce: red mullet with fresh rucola and fresh (yes, they’re not cooked) tomatoes. I tasted this sauce for the first time in a really good restaurant in Lucca, I was delighted and immediately made the sauce at home for my family and friends.

All my customers and students in Private Dinners and Cooking Classes in Tuscany know my love for Piccadilly Tomatoes. This kind of tomato has its origins in Sicily and they’re very sweet and juicy and the most suitable for our very appreciated Tuscan Bruschetta.

Well, I think they’re the best for this sauce, any way you can use cherry tomatoes (maybe more easy to find) as well. what you’re going to read it’s in my opinion the best sauce for Squid Ink Tagliatelle, but as I told you, do not hesitate to try any kind of fish (or sea fruit) sauce.

Any questions or suggestions? Do you like this article? Please share it with your friends. Leave a comment and I’ll answer you immediately!

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L'articolo Squid Ink Tagliatelle with red mullet, fresh rucola and piccadilly tomatoes proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Food made on the spot is a must for us Cuoche in Vacanza.

If you’re in Tuscany on holiday we’ll come to your villa and prepare an entire meal by scratch, from starter to dessert, fresh handmade pasta included.

Further more we pay the utmost attention to the quality of ingredients, only seasonal and local produce.

I think this is a big added value and one of the first reasons that satisfy our customers, even if often they can’t imagine all the work that lies behind a dinner preparation like this.

Food made on the spot means a particular way to work.

We do the shopping early in the morning, we drive and we arrive at our customers’ villas around 3 hours before starting dinner.

In case of Private Cooking Classes we shop in the morning as well and we come to your holidays villa around 15 minutes before course, than we’ll run the class and you’ll prepare your dinner/lunch by scratch. All our courses are hands-on and food made on the spot.

If you’d like to know more about our Cooking Classes in Tuscany click HERE

If you’d like to know more about our Private Dinners in Tuscany click HERE

IMPORTANT TIPS IF YOU HIRE A PRIVATE CHEF or a COOKING CLASSES COACH

1. Remember, if some private chefs come to your home just 1 or max 2 hours in advance, this means that probably they bought some ready food. Food made on the spot requires time, you know.
2. By working in this field for the past 8 years I know that many people, (especially ones that make you a bargain price), buy most of the ingredients (ready Italian sauces for example, but even the whole pot) from the superstores; than they “assemble” according to your choice. In this way you have certainly paid little, but the real real value/cost of this dish is less than 1/5 of the price you pay. That’s why their gain is therefore rather high, despite the low cost. But what are you eating?
   

   A real chef does not need to prepare food in advance; food made on the spot is the best guarantee.

   

3. If you want to spend your time happily with your family and friends, your Private Cooking Classes must be hands-on. Don’t risk to boaring you with dead times between preparations or just watching someone else cooking.
4. To be assured of seriousness, find someone who is part of an association dedicated to food quality. Cuoche in Vacanza is part of Slow Food, an International association working to ensure everyone has access to good, clean and fair food.
5. The Costs of a Private Service (Privated Dinner or Cooking Class) mostly depend on work of cooks/coaches and assistants. If you’re password is “food made on the spot”, the chef or the cooking coach can’t come to your home without an assistant. They need this even for a few amount of customers. With no assistant food made on the spot is impossible.

Here in this post you can see pictures from our private dinners in Tuscany and cooking classes as well.

Click on the link for recipes from our menus:

perfect pizza

parmigiana aubergines

spaghetti clams

chocolate salami

zuppa inglese

fresh homemade pasta

tortellini

L'articolo Food made on the spot in Tuscany: from starters to dessert with “Cuoche in Vacanza” proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

I can’t forget my grandma’s tips and suggestions while cooking and I’m very proud to pass down her “secrets” in the kitchen here in this blog. That’s why I created the section: my granny’s tips, where you can find all her advices and tricks belonging to the Italian and Tuscan cooking tradition.

With my company and group of “Cooks on Holiday” (Cuoche in Vacanza) we try to do the same while running Private Cooking Classes and Private Dinners in Tuscany

The most helpful thing that I can do (while teaching to tourists on holiday) is passing down an authentic experience and some tricks that you are sure they make the difference.

My grandma’s tips first part was about all you need to know when preparing “creams” and “creamy cakes and desserts”.

Here are my grandma’s tips for cakes and desserts, 2° part or

all my grandma’s tips for shortcrust pastry and cakes dough;

she told me the following sentences and I’m passing them down to you with joy!

Shortcrust pastry

1. Would you like obtaining a perfect scalloped mini tart shell? Cut the shortcust dough with a scalloped pastry cutter and than cook it on a baking cup upside down, instead spreading it into it.
2. To spread shortcrust pastry in an uniform way, don’t spread it directly in the baking tray, but over a pastry board, between 2 baking paper foils; in this way you can check the thickness (very important) and will be easier to place it in the baking tray just overturning it from one of the two foils.
3. To obtain an uniform thickness of the dough, use 2 wooden chopsticks or wooden skewers placed parallel to the sides of the pastry board. You’ll roll the rolling pin on these.
4. Wooden chopsticks are very useful to trim the edge of the dough; my grandma’s alway said me not to use rolling pin; it can spoil because of the cutting edge of the baking tray.
5. When you’re preparing a tart decorated with a shortcrust pastry grid, to avoid that the strips will break before placing them on the filling, lightly flour them and roll them up on themselves; than you can unroll them in the right position (as you do with carpets).
6. To avoid that the base of the tart is too wet (for example when you’re making a tart with fruit), at the end of cooking, brush the bottom of the tart with egg white lightly beaten. It will form an insulating film and you’ll fill it without any problem.

Cakes dough

1. Always to avoid that the base of the tart is too wet you can sprinkle the bottom of the tart with cookies crumbs (sweet cakes) or crackers crumbs (salty tarts). Crumbs will absorb moisture without  affecting the taste.
2. To prevent that cake grow in the center while cooking, forming a dome: slightly dig the center with the back of a spoon. When cake will begin to rise, the highest growing in the central part will compensate the hollow.
3. While you’re pouring a soft dough in a baking tin, stop pouring before it gets to the edge; in fact because of the weight it will level itself without creating excessive edges during rising.
4. To perfectly cook a cake the heat of the oven must be inversely proportional to the volume of the cake: the bigger the cake, the oven must be less hot. Obviously you have to extend the cooking time.
5. Time cooking for a cake depends on its ingredients too: for eggs based cakes is better starting cooking at warm temperature; for yeast dough cakes is better starting at already high temperature, for not stopping rising.

These above are not only my grandma’s tips, they belong to the Italian and Tuscan cooking tradition too.

As you know our customers and students are mostly tourists from all over the world: they come in Tuscany on holiday and contact us for having some cookery lessons or dinners directly at their holiday home.

Every time we do all our best to share with them many “secrets” in the kitchen, and we prepare together the most tasteful dishes.

One of the most successful base for cakes during our cooking classes and dinners is the Tuscan Sponge cake; it’s very easy and made without diary products or animal fat, only Extra Virgin Olive Oil! That’s why it’s suitable for Vegans and in case of dietary restrictions as well. It’s obviously a base, than you can fill it with anything you prefer…the recipe that I linked above calls for a mascarpone and nutella filling, maybe is not a perfectly vegan one  

An old cake, typical Tuscan, that my grandma often made and tastes amazing is: Tuscan Ricotta and Pinenuts Soft Cake

About shortcrust pastry you can be interested in the following recipes:

Crostata with Apricot jam

Befanini Cookies

Ricotta and Peaches Tart

Did you know some of these tips? Do you have other suggestions while preparing tarts or cakes, maybe passed down from your grandma? Leave a comment on the below form or write me a mail…I’m curious to know something from you!

Bachelorette Party and Private Cooking Class about fresh pasta and shortcrust pastry

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L'articolo terrific grandma’s tips that you didn’t know: shortcrust pastry and cakes. Let’s taste them in our cooking school in tuscany proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Itinerant Cooking School means that: “We come to wherever you’re staying in Tuscany for Private Cooking Classes and Dinners“.

Pappardelle with Salmon and Tuscan Fish

This is our job for 8 years. We’re mad about fresh egg pasta (stuffed and not): we teach how to make it in our private cookery courses and we make fresh pasta before your eyes if you call us for a private lunch/dinner at your home as well.

Our company is Cuoche in Vacanza (Italian for Cooks on Holiday): we’re a group of women who cook everywhere in Tuscany.

Nonna Rossy is a fantastic Tuscan woman who started working for our Itinerant Cooking School many years ago.

She is my mother in law and her main features are tirelessness and great skills in cooking Tuscan food and ingredients.

Here’s a recipe that she made few days ago in a private dinner for a Russian family who came from Mosca in Tuscany on vacation.

Since they were curious to eat a fresh pasta dish with fish sauce, they didn’t like going to the restaurant and looked for a Personal Cook in Tuscany to prepare it.

They already knew that ours is an Itinerant Cooking School and asked for a Group Cooking Class as well, 2 days after their Private Dinner.

The dish they asked for is a fresh pasta dish with Salmon and fish from the Tyrrhenian Sea (that one in Tuscany) as well. In fact we’ve a lots of fish here in tuscany, in Summer and Winter as well. It would have been a shame not to include Tuscan fresh fish as an ingredient.

The recipe below calls for:  Salmon, Sea Bass, Sea Bream, Baby squid…with a sprinkling of lumpfish eggs on the top.

In this reguard I tried to replace the lumpfish eggs with “BOTTARGA” (from mullet) and the result is amazing.

Do you know what Bottarga is? It’s an Italian gourmet ingredient, a delicacy: a small loaf made with eggs of mullet (or tuna) that you can cut in thiny slices or grate to put on the top of many italian dishes. It’s very tasteful (as you can imagine) and it gives an extra touch to each dish.

Maybe you name it: roe mullet…but I’m not sure.

When you call for a fresh pasta with sauce I immediately think to Tagliatelle and this is the kind of pasta that Rossy prepared for our guests from Russia.

We often teach how making tagliatelle, tagliolini or Tortelli (stuffed pasta) at our Itinerant Cooking School

You can obviously prepare this fantastic dish with dried pasta that you can buy in a box or bag. No problem: every pasta sauce is good with almost any kind of pasta. If you decide to buy dried pasta I anyway suggest you to use “long” pasta: spaghetti, vermicelli, linguine…I think that you can find: De Cecco, Barilla and Garofalo pasta abroad and they’re very good.

Instead, if you like making your own fresh egg pasta, click on the following link for ITALIAN FRESH EGG PASTA RECIPE

Click on the following links for some Amazing Italian Pasta Sauces

CARBONARA

PESTO SAUCE

GORGONZOLA CREAM SAUCE

MEATBALLS SAUCE FOR SPAGHETTI

RAGU (BOLOGNESE) SAUCE

What’s your fav pasta sauce?

Would like us Cuoche in Vacanza writing one recipe for you here in this blog? Please tell us and leave a comment.

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L'articolo Itinerant cooking school and personal cook at your holiday home: nonna Rossy’s tagliatelle with fish sauce 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.

Many people often ask us what’s kind of job is ours. Since I’m a personal chef someone thinks that I’ve a restaurant in Pisa or Lucca, but it’s not so. I’m a sociologist and I started cooking since I was child, I took the Professional Chef Diploma 4 years ago at the Chef Academy in Florence and I founded the company “Cuoche in Vacanza” (Italian for “Chefs on Holiday”) 8 years ago, together with a friend of mine who left early because of family committments.

1. Well “What’s our job?”

   We are a group of women going throughout Tuscany (central Italy) to run Cooking Classes or to cook Private Dinners (or Lunches) to wherever our customers are on holiday. Ours is an Itinerant Cooking School in Tuscany, we’ve not a fixed location where people have to come, we go directly to their holiday homes.

Cooking Classes in Tuscany:

• • we send to our customers our Menus (all hands-on and a lots suitable for children),
  • we do the shopping,
  • we drive till the holiday homes,
  • we run the cookery courses choosed by our students (about 3 hours) and than
  • they can eat the fruits of their labout comfortably sit at the table.
  • We clean up the kitchen and we come back home.

 Private Dinners in Tuscany:

• we send to our customers our Menus (3 starters, 1 first course, 1 main course and veggie, 1 dessert)
• we do the shopping,
• we drive till the holiday homes,
• we prepare and cook the Menu choosed by our customers (many many dishes are kidsfriendly). Everything is prepared and cooked by scratch, from starters to desserts; can you imagine the flavor of an Italian Pasta dish freshly made? Of an Italian dessert?
• we serve at the table
• we clean up the kitchen and we come back home

2. What you need for a Cooking Course?

Only 3 tools:

• a table where working
• a fridge
• a stove

3. How do I book your Private Cooking Services in Tuscany?

Just send us an email (info@cuocheinvacanza.it) or fill the form clicking here (make sure you have well written your mail address):

• kind of service requested
• possible days for the Private Service
• quantity of people in the party (eventual quantity of children up to 10 years)
• address/coordinates of your holiday home

4. Do you need a deposit?

•  We don’t ask for a deposit, just a confirming mail to book the date for you

5.What kind of ingredients do you use?

• Only seasonal
• Fresh
• Local
• First Quality
• The Oil is only Extra Virgin Olive Oil (first oil pressing) in any kind of cooking, except for frying (Peanuts or Corn Oil)
• We don’t buy our ingredients in bult, we can’t obviously, because we’ve a few and different customers each time. We do the shopping the same day of our commitment (usually in the morning); our suppliers are the local market or the supermarket in our village.

6. Do you welcome dietary restrictions or allergic people?

• We welcome Vegetarians, Vegans, Celiacs, Lactose free… and any other kind of dietary restrictions. We tailor our Cooking Lessons according to the needs and we prepare tailored dishes upon request in our Cooking at Home Lunches or Dinners

7. Children can be involved?

• Our Cooking Classes are almost at all hands-on and suitable for children by 3 years, especially the fresh-pasta ones

8. which is your specialty?

• Fresh Handmade Pasta:  during our Private Dinners Service we prepare it right before your eyes, right over a table in your holiday home, during the Cooking Classes here in Tuscany you’ll make it and learn all the tips and tricks that my Nonna’s first and the Academy Cooking School than, thaught me and the others “Cuoche in Vacanza”.
• Typical Tuscan and Italian Cuisine: each “Cuoca” (Cook) has her specialties depending from her origins or passions. In our group there are cooks experienced in different cuisines: Italian, Tuscan, Sicilian, Japanese,Vegans.

9. About your costs?

• Our costs depend mostly from quantity of people in the party and distance (the more people, the less cost)

10. How many people are involved in working during your private cooking services?

• We’re often 2 people (the Chef and the Assistant), except for Couple Cooking Classes or Dinners (only 2 customers, there’s usually only the chef)

Do you have any other questions?

Are you coming on holiday in Tuscany and you’re interested in our Private Services?

Please fill the contact form clicking here or send us a mail (info@cuocheinvacanza.it), we’ll answer you quickly!

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L'articolo Cooking Classes in Tuscany and Private Chef at your Holiday Home: top 10 questions and answers, all you need to know! proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

groupcookingclasses, cuocheinvacanza,cookingclassesintuscany, tuscancookery

Today I’d like tell you about 2 beautiful cooking classes experiences that I lived last Summer.

You know that CuocheinVacanza is an Itinerant Cookery School: “we come directly to wherever you’re staying in Tuscany for Cooking Classes and Private Dinners”, well, this time I was at one of my fav places where I’m working for 6 years, Poggio al Casone Resort.

It’s a very quite, full of charme resort here in Tuscany, located on a small hill, surrounded by vineyards of Castellani winery; spectacular view from a huge terrace and many luxury apartments with everything you need to enjoy your holiday in Tuscany in the best way.

cuocheinvacanza, traditional lasagne, ragu sauce

I was waiting in both cases for people coming from USA, California; a group came from Pappalecco, an “inspired Caffè” located in San Diego, where America meets Italy.

What I most love in my job is always the same: the smile, the expression of people tasting a dish made by them with fresh and seasonal ingredients, the life experiences that we like sharing, while drinking a good glass of wine or taking a bite of a slice of Bruschetta.

cooking traditional lasagne

I like calling these: “Tuscan experiences”; yes, because I can’t forget what my granny taught me and I had the same identical espression of my customers when I was child and she showed me and let me tasting the “wonders” of authentic Tuscan cuisine. She had always few words while preparing a perfect Tuscan meal: “Look at my hands, check the heat on the stove, smell everything, so that you may know if you’re on the right way”.

Nowadays I know if a steak is salted enough just smelling it…exactly as my granny knew.

Do you know why is possible? Because if a steak is not salted enough, you’ll feel the smell of blood covering that one of the meat. Of course, you need a practiced nose, but it’s not so difficult, by the way.

lasagne Tuscan cookery course, cuocheinvacanza, holiday, summer

The Menu chosen by our customers and “students” was very tasteful and based on fresh homemade pasta, absolutely one of our Hands-on Cookery Courses: Panzanella, Polenta with Stracchino and Gorgonzola cheese, Fresh Handmade Pasta, Tagliatelle, Traditional Lasagne with Bolognese Sauce, Tiramisu.

Thinking to Traditional Lasagne, we need:

1. Fresh homemade pasta (cut in stripes)Lasagne: a) Pour the pasta stripes in a big pot with boiling salted water b) let cooking 3 minutes c) drain the pasta stripes with a perforated spoon d) spread the pasta stripes over a cloth and wait 5 minutes. Assembling Lasagne: a) put 3 or 4 tablespoons of besciamella sauce on the bottom of a baking tray b) put the pasta stripes to cover the bottom c) spread the pasta with besciamella sauce, then with ragu sauce (alternating the layers so that they are at least 5) d) finish with ragu sauce and sprinkle generously with parmigiano cheese e) bake 25 minutes at 380°C (until a golden crust on the surface) f) IMPORTANT: let that lasagne rest out of the oven at least 10 minutes, before cutting the portions

2. Ragu Bolognese sauce

3. Besciamella sauce (recipe below)
   

private dinners in Tuscany, cuocheinvacanza, lasagne veggie ragu

Lasagne is not only in the traditional version, you can also season them with an amazing Veggie Ragu Sauce (I recommend only seasonal and fresh ingredients); the taste is more delicate but full of a fresh flavor!

I already wrote some posts with recipes:

• you can find how making Fresh Homemade Pasta Here (don’t forget, generally each person: 1 egg, 4oz flour)

• you can find how making Bolognese Ragu Sauce Here

And Besciamella Sauce?

Well, it’s a very simple and amazing sauce that you can use in a lots of dishes; it’s a must here in Italy and it’s one of the cornerstones in cuisine in general.

Following these steps, you’ll obtain a perfect one, I personally tested the recipe many many times, but remember: Simple it’s Not Easy…you need to put a heart into your job!

private cooking classes, lasagne veggie, holiday in Tuscany

L'articolo Itinerant Cookery Courses in Tuscany, fresh homemade Pasta, Lasagne and a special recipe for Besciamella sauce proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

When you get to the month of October, can’t wait to be able to rest a bit ‘ and then I’m so happy to dedicate myself to this blog, exchanging tips and recipes with my students who are abroad.

For my part: I’m excited, am also a bit ‘scared, as always before you take a leap on a land that you never know how it will be.

What’s better than: Chicken Scaloppine Sauteed in Marsala Sauce and Raisin? It’s a so simple and tasty dish, moreover fast and guarantee of success; you know it is not so simple to find all these benefits in the same dish!

Ginny’s eating Chicken Scaloppine Marsala sauce and raisin

L'articolo #Small Group Cookery Course and Chicken Scaloppine Sauteed in Marsala Sauce and Raisin proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.