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.

Teenagers cooking class yes! Kids are going to prepare a special dinner for their parents.

We go throughout Tuscany for Private Cooking Classes and Dinners with our Company: Cuoche in Vacanza (Cooks on holiday).

These times we went to Massarosa and Montespertoli.

So: many people at the table, enjoining the fruit of their sons’ labour.

The Locations

The first Villa where we run teenagers cooking class was near the “city of wine”: Montespertoli.

It’s one of our most frequented destinations this year.

The name is “Casa Tara” and we worked very well over there because of the large kitchen and dining room where we could serve at the table.

The second Villa was fantastic… and let me say a fantastic one… near the village of  Massarosa : “Al Valentino”. You can enjoy your outdoor meals on the comfortably furnished verandas.

People

Our students came from the USA and SCOTLAND. I couldn’t imagine they worked so hard, better than many adults.

I and my assistant chatted with girls and boys about various recipes, fresh ingredients in season, and different kinds of meat here in Tuscany.

Everyone was guided by enthusiasm and passion and I’m so proud of them and the work that they made. Sometimes, while making fresh pasta, for example, there was a deep silence in the kitchen…that’s why they were really concentrated.

They wanted to make a good impression with their parents!

The Main Course: Tuscan Arista with Garlic, Rosemary and Milk Sauce

Here’s the perfect Tuscan dish for teenagers cooking class.

It’s anyway a successful dish loved by everyone likes the Tuscan cuisine and the tasteful pork meat in general.

That’s why the pictures come from various courses and cooking experiences during this year of cooking classes and private dinners in Tuscany.

Arista is the best cut from the pork (the meaning in ancient Greek is precise “the best”)…you know the word “aristocracy” for example.

What we’re going to make is an old Tuscan recipe that my granny taught me when I left my birth town for going to the University in Pisa. I can’t forget her words:

“Let’s prepare Arista right now my dear, I’d like to teach you the recipe. So that you can cook it when you’re in Pisa and will invite your friends for dinner!

I know you’ll be thinking of me, honey”.

The Story of Arista dates back to 1432 when during the Council of Florence was served this Tuscan meat dish. The Greek patriarchs were so excited about that they shouted: “Aristà, Aristà! (meaning: excellent)”. From that moment this is the name of Pork Loin Tuscan Style.

Anyway, the recipe that I’m gonna write for you is a bit different from others here in Tuscany, it’s my granny’s one and I loved teaching how making the characteristic “garlic and rosemary milk sauce” during our teenagers cooking class. It’s a perfect way to maintain tender meat.

We obviously run cooking classes for all ages, not only teenagers cooking class and there’s one curiosity in common at all ages: to know the…

Tips and tricks to make perfect Arista

1. arista (pork loin) that you’re going to buy should not be completely lean but have some fat and brown streaks, indicating the tastiest and close to the bone meat. If you buy a completely lean one, you can be sure that you’ll obtain a very dry and hard-to-eat the dish.
2. weigh the meat and count about 3 minutes for each 100gr (3 oz) of meat. For example you’ll cook 1 kg (2 pounds) of meat for about 30 minutes. After this time you’ll cut the meat into slices; if you see that it’s still with some point of blood, you have to reheat it for a bit. If instead, the cooking is perfect (light-pink, not dry), set your slices in a tray and just cover them with the hot milk sauce before serving.

Arista (pork) with Rosemary, Garlic, and Milk Sauce (Florentine Style)

Maybe you can be also interested in:

1. The real Ragu (meat and sausage sauce)
2. Gnocchi with asparagus and courgette flowers

What do you think about this post? Please spend just 1 minute of your time to leave a comment or like this post.

Do you know a similar recipe? Any question? I’m at your disposal to answer you.

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L'articolo teenagers cooking class in Tuscany and “arista” (pork) recipe and video! proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

You know ours is an Itinerant Cooking School in Tuscany: you can learn while being at your holiday home in Tuscany (just call us and we come), but is equally true that I can pass down many “secrets” while you’re at your own home…faraway. This is the magic of the web!

In this post you’ll find everything you need to know before preparing cakes and desserts successfully, as my granny taught me.

If you completely lack the skills in cooking it could be a little difficult to learn without making something together.

If you’re coming on holiday in Tuscany you can call us: Cuoche in Vacanza (Cooks on Holiday) and take a cooking class wherever you’ll be, thanks to our cooking school in Tuscany.

Anyway, if you’re just a bit skilled, you can read the following tips and learning how preparing something in the best way. Learning by doing it’s the best way. That’s why I think it’s not necessary your phisical presence beside me, and this is the first reason who brought me to start the blog section: my Granny’s tips.

In fact here I try to pass down all my granny’s secrets in the kitchen. Together with what I learned to the Professional Chef Academy in Florence, this is my largest heritage and I’m so happy to share it with all my friends, students and customers abroad.

My Granny’s tips is what you’re looking for to live better your own kitchen, with family and friends.

Time is short, but the success of your dishes in front of your guests is very important for you; is this your case?

Well, read the following tips, this section could be really helpful, even if you’re not coming to our cooking school in Tuscany.

I already wrote in blog posts some granny’s tips about Frying and about Italian Pizza, now this post is about something that usually takes a lot of time …often without success; here are for you: Tips about Cakes and Desserts.

And now let’s start with some granny’s advices about fundamental ingredients for cakes and desserts:

CREAMS:

EGG WHITES (HOW TO WHIP UP PERFECT):

1. Use a glass or porcelain container (NO plastic)
2. Use a warm/hot container
3. If you have to mix 2 different texture compounds (like egg whites in a cake for example), always pour the lighter weight in the heavier. You’ll avoid in this way that it goes flat.

HEAVY CREAM (HOW TO WHIP UP PERFECT):

1. Use instead a very cold container. Maybe stored in the fridge for a while before pouring the heavy cream. You can put in the fridge the whips as well.
2. Hold a medium-low and constant speed. Too high speed turns your heavy cream in butter

CUSTARD, ENGLISH CREAM, COFFEE CREAM:

1. When you’re preparing a cream that changes texture as it cools, to know when you have to stop cooking: deep a spoon in the cream and then pass a finger on the back of the spoon. If remains a definite sign, the cream is ready
2. Never use electric whips to prepare custard or English cream, just a wooden spoon. If you work them too speedy you risk to loose your cream
3. Would you like preparing a Coffee cream, but you’re afraid to obtain a too liquid cream? Well, combine the boiling milk (that you’ve to use for the cream) with a handful of coffee beans, coarsely crushed (not minced). Let it rest for 1 hour at least, than sieve it and use the milk for the cream.
4. If you’d like obtaining a velvet texture for your cream (even if it has not lumps): sieve it when is cooked.
5. If you need to wait that a custard cools. To avoid the formation of a film on the surface (it’d change the cream texture once mixed), pour the hot cream in a low and wide box and cover it with a cling film.

RELATED AND “CREAMY” LINKS TO THIS POST.

Would you like to know some Tuscan and creamy Desserts that we usually make at our Cooking School in Tuscany?

Click on the Colored written to see their pictures and recipes

 ZUPPA INGLESE (CUSTARD is an important ingredient of this typical Tuscan dessert)

The PERFECT CUSTARD and Zuppa Inglese (Tuscan Trifle) recipe

NO EGGS BAVARESE, YOGURT, VANILLA AND WILDBERRIES SAUCE

TUSCAN ZUCCOTTO WITH COFFEE AND CHOCOLATE CREAM

THE REAL TIRAMISU

Well my friends, this is the first part of my granny’s advices about cakes and desserts, see you soon for the second part about other tips for pastry and cakes.

Do you like this section? Did you already know or try some of my granny’s tips? Please leave a comment and tell me what are you thinking about.

If you’re coming in central Italy on Holiday, don’t forget our Itinerant Cooking School in Tuscany and contact us: we’ll prepare together the tasteful dishes!

Have a nice week-end!

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L'articolo cooking school in tuscany: my granny’s tips and secrets. Cakes and Desserts 1° part 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.

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.

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. 

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

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

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

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

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

Heart Ravioli Stuffed with Taleggio Cheese and Pear

Two days ago, I held what will probably be my last cooking class for this year. I had the pleasure of meeting a wonderful family: sweet father and mother and three solar and full of life daughters.
Mom had already booked the cookery course from the month of August and gave me some tips about dishes she tasted in Italy, which had failed to replicate in her country. One of them, here in Tuscany, was “Fiocchetti stuffed with Taleggio cheese and pears”: she ate them at the restaurant “4 leoni” in Florence.
I saw that in that restaurant they made teh sauce with the asparagus, but we are CuocheinVacanza and we do not cook ingredients out of season… and then I saw that they spoke mainly about “taleggio cheese sauce,” while Rachelle asked me “stuffed with taleggio cheese”. So I rolled up my sleeves and did a couple of tests.  

And then I went to my guests for the cooking class in Terricciola, more than ever proud and confident that they would come up like something really good.   
Also, since I knew that they were a nice family in which love prevails … I decided to bring their some molds for the pasta in the shape of heart and so our ravioli stuffed with cheese and pears, have become beautiful hearts to serve to those you love.
Unfortunately I do not have the photo of the finished dish … but I hope to post it soon.
What else to say? Try these ravioli, the Recipe for Home Made Pasta is here, and that one for the filling is below… you have no idea how good they’re. 

heart mold for homemade pasta

IMPORTANT

All my best guys and girls and … as always … let me know, I’m always here. 

Beautiful family from Texas

Ravioli stuffed with Taleggio Cheese and Pears

Recipe by Erika Elia

Prep time: 1,40 hour
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 2 hours

Ingredients

• For the Filling
• 8 oz Taleggio Cheese
• 4 oz Ricotta Cheese
• 1 Kaiser or Abbe Pear
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 sprinkle black pepper
• 1 oz unsalted butter

For the Sauce 

• 10 oz fresh cream
• 6 tbs parmigiano cheese
• 1 sprinkle black pepper
• 1 oz unsalted butter
• 1 pinch salt

Cooking Directions

 For the Filling:

1. Put the butter in a sauce pan with Taleggio cheese roughly chopped
2. put on fire and melt, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon
3. once melted cheese, turn off the heat and let cool, stirring the whole time to time
4. meanwhile peel the pear and cut into small cubes
5. skip the pear in a pan over high heat for a minute and then allowed to cool
6. combine the ricotta cheese melted and mix thoroughly
7. add the diced pear and mix
8. end with the sprinkling of pepper
9. add salt if necessary
10. with the aid of a teaspoon, take this mixture and place it on the strips of pasta, at the distance of about 5cm (depending on the size of the mold for pasta)
11. cover the pasta strips with the filling over with other pasta strips (same size)
12. squeeze out all the air
13. seal the pasta with your fingers and then proceed
14. to cut the pasta with the pasta mold (“heart” in our case)
15. place the “hearts” on a tray with kitchen paper so theat they do not stick together
16. cook in boiling salted water for about 5 minutes after the water boils again     

 For the Sauce:

1.  melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat
2. once melted add the cream and stir for 3 to 4 minutes
3. remove from heat and add the Parmesan
4. pour the sauce over the ravioli
5. sprinkle with pepper

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L'articolo #Terricciola and #Selvatelle, cookery course in Tuscany with a special family from #Texas: Ravioli stuffed with Taleggio and Pear proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

We prepared  this Zuppa Toscana (Tuscan Soup) for our friend Renata: it was her birthday!
Wonderful party with CuocheinVacanza, so many special Tuscan foods…and happiness.

Here is a very old recipe of Zuppa Toscana; it comes from Artusi, the most famous writer of tuscan recipes, who lived in 1800.

The soups (Zuppe) are very popular in Tuscany and very different from what can imagine a person who lives abroad.

Here the links of some Typical Tuscan Soups Recipes that I assure you that are delicious!

Acquacotta (with egg) Soup

Carabaccia (Onion Soup)

Artusi says: “This Soup which, modestly, takes the epithet of “farmer” soup, I’m sure that it will be appreciated by all, even by gentlemen, if done with due care.  

Black cabbage (it’s a must here in Tuscany!),     in the same quantity and even more.

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L'articolo #Lucca: Zuppa Toscana (Tuscan Soup): The original Recipe from Artusi book proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

When the water boils, throw down the meat and the rest of the butter and season with salt and white pepper, which is the flower of the common pepper. Cover the pan with a sheet held in place by the lid and boil slowly. When it’s two-thirds of cooking, take off the bunch and, if it’s the season of fresh mushrooms, you can make a most gently fricasee with 100 or 150 grams of these thinly sliced, and if not, a pinch of dried mushrooms.

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L'articolo Recipe N°256 Artusi: Fricassee (La Fricassea) proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.