Cooking on the rooftops of Florence? Done!

When Mary Lynne wrote me an email asking for a Private Cooking Class in Florence downtown I couldn’t imagine that we would have run it over the roofs.

Furthermore, there were 120 stairs to arrive at the attic where she and her family were on holiday.

We go to Florence many times a year, usually for a trip to the Market “Centrale” followed by a cooking class with shopping is done; CLICK HERE to see our experience in Florence Market.

Our Cooking School is ITINERANT.

We go all around Tuscany to run Cooking Classes and Private Dinners directly to the holiday homes of our customers. Our job is very physical (load-unload the car, to drive a lot of hours a day…).

That’s why I was very scared by all these stairs to arrive to the apartment: once you have been injured the job season is over.

However, Mary Lynne immediately reassured me: “My 4 “children” are young adults in their 20’s and are willing to help you carry everything up and down the stairs. My mouth is watering already!”

We couldn’t ask for the better treatment…let’s go to Florence for a Private cooking class, cooking on the rooftops

One of the best things about my job as a cooking classes coach and private dinners chef is the possibility to meet new people coming from all around the world. Each one has his own background, but they all have an insane love for Tuscany and genuine-fresh food.

Every cooking class or private dinner is often an adventure:

new people, new roads to drive, new villages or landscapes to visit, new holiday homes and villas.

Oxana (my assistant) and I were very thrilled to live this new adventure and very curious to watch the view once that you’re cooking on the rooftops.

So, after 120 stairs we finally arrived at the apartment: can’t imagine the view; it seemed to touch Santa Maria’s cathedral!

We could really say: cooking on the rooftops of Florence

The amazing family that hosted us came from Texas: 4 sons and an incredible, smiling, and sweet mother.

I’ve to declare all my love for Texans! Many customers and students from over there and all full of joy for life, love for simple but important things, the desire of having fun together.

They chose the classic Italian menu:

starter, first-course fresh handmade pasta based, main course meat-based and typical dessert.

And so: Bruschetta to start, fresh handmade egg pasta, Arista Tuscan Style, and Tiramisu.

Anyway, the queen of this cooking class in Tuscany was the sauce for the fresh handmade pasta,

fresh tomatoes (Piccadilly or Cherry) that you let “caramelize” and “flambè” in the pan. Everyone is asking me the recipe and the students in our cooking classes are starting to send pictures of their sauce and pasta, once they’re at home.

And so my friends here’s the recipe (by popular demand) of Caramelized Tomatoes Sauce. It’s incredibly simple, incredibly tasteful, I’d better say Amazing!!

Just a few suggestions to obtain the best performance from this excellent Mediterranean condiment;

follow the tips and be sure you’ll delight your guests:

• First of all the pan: a no-stick one! you can’t use another kind because the result will be completely different
• Tomatoes to buy: Piccadilly (in some countries you can find Santorini tomatoes, as my friend Jeannie told me on Facebook) or Cherry tomatoes.
• Buy the tomatoes in Summer (the best months here in Tuscany are July and August). During the rest of the year, you can cook a very good tomato sauce (salsa di Pomodoro) like that one in THIS RECIPE for Parmigiana Aubergines.
• Tomatoes must be ripe, but firms and without stains.
• Here in Italy, we can find very sweet tomatoes, so you can flip the step to add some sugar: in fact, the sauce goes away and still remains the fruit with all its sweetness. You could maybe add 1 or 2 teaspoons max depending on the number of tomatoes.
• Add salt immediately after pouring the tomatoes and flip them (high fire) “flambé”. Be careful with your kitchen and switch on your kitchen fan.

Cooking on the rooftops was a new experience for us, but meeting this amazing family was even better. They were very happy with our sauce and I’m sure they cooked it once at home.

 Can you find “Piccadilly tomatoes” in your country? Do they have the same name?

Would you like to inform me about a simple but tasteful sauce for pasta that you usually eat in your country?

Salva

Save

L'articolo Cooking on the rooftops of Florence: caramelized tomatoes! 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!

Salva

Salva

Salva

Salva

Salva

Salva

Salva

L'articolo Montespertoli: holiday home cooking classes with asparagus and courgette flowers Sauce for Gnocchi 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!

Salva

L'articolo Vegetarian Cooking Classes in Tuscany: Risotto fresh Asparagus 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.

Spring is in the air, daisies (margherite in Italian) are blooming and I woke up full of optimism.

At this very hour, a friend of mine (last Summer student in a party cooking class in Tuscany) is posting a video on Facebook where it’s snowing heavily far away from Italy.  So cold over there in West Babylon, New York. I don’t know where you live but here in Pisa (Tuscany, Italy) the weather is warm and beach resorts are already open. Can’t believe that someone is swimming in the sea of Marina di Pisa!

I live in the Tuscan countryside, where cherry and plum blossoms greet you along the dirt roads. Fields seem to invite you to lie down and God only knows how much I like it!

So Spring is in the air and every time it happens I realize that a new job season is starting for our group of Cuoche in Vacanza (Cooks for your Holiday in Tuscany).

We run Cooking Classes and Private Dinners in Tuscany; we go directly to our customer’s homes. In fact, they’re mostly tourists and travelers and we women who cook are very busy from Spring to Winter starting.

Anyway, there’s also a Brick N’ Mortar place: DOLCE VITA IN TUSCANY Cooking School and B&B, in the Lucca Countryside.

While planning our new job season during Winter, I often think of new dishes and recipes to offer to our guests the next Summer. Our must is to prepare a full Menu Meal, that’s why both kinds of dishes (those ones for cooking classes and dinners) have to be easy and fast. That’s why as I feel that Spring is in the air I finally write the last version of Cooking Classes and Private Dinners Menus and send them to all my Tuscan partners (resorts, villas, castles, and B&B) interested to introduce my company to their guests.

How do we like to end a meal? Of course dolcemente (sweetly) with desserts that are in equal part easy, yummy, and quick.

Last year our customers’ favorite desserts were those ones in a glass. The winner was: mascarpone and amaretti crumble in a glass,

similar to our customers’ absolute favorite: the real TIRAMISU.

This time I’m posting (video and recipe below) another fresh dessert in a glass: a creamy yogurt, heavy cream, and berries with cookie crumbles.

Sometimes I can’t believe that something so simple could be so delicious as well. As I often say to my students from Cooking Classes in Tuscany there are 3 rules to follow in cooking, especially in making desserts:

1. having basic techniques
2. using right amounts of ingredients
3. respect the right steps

Well, to make this dessert you just need to know a few basic techniques:

1. well whip fresh cream (cold bowl)
2. dissolve gelatine in a hot liquid (a wooden spoon is better)
3. combine gelatine with whipped cream and yogurt (folding technique)
4. cook (shortly) fruit with sugar till translucent.

Are you ready?

You know, today is a wonderful day here in Tuscany…how’s the weather in your area? What best occasion than preparing a dessert to (or with) someone that you love?

Spring is in the air like never before and I can’t wait to insert this creamy dessert in our Cooking Classes in Tuscany Menu.

A special assistant beside me this time, my daughter Ginevra. She’s passionate about cooking but she is very busy with school and “adolescent” interests. Anyway, it just takes 30 minutes!

So this time she was sacrificed to my wish and was very helpful in preparing this dessert (you see her hands in the video).

What we’ll wow you in this dessert is the fluffy consistency added to the yogurt aftertaste. Everything dissolves in your mouth leaving the flavor of berries.

I think to have found the right proportion between yogurt, honey, and fresh cream…anyway I don’t like “too sweet desserts”. Please taste the yogurt and honey moisture to check if it’s enough sweet for you.

Have you your own fast and yummy dessert in a glass recipe?

What’s your favorite one?

Please, leave a comment. I approached this kind of dessert for 2 years and I’m looking forward to new recipes and pictures to share with you.

L'articolo Spring is in the air. Let’s whip up a fresh yogurt and berries in a glass, recipe and video. 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

Salva

Salva

Salva

Salva

L'articolo Cooking Courses in Tuscany 2016 gallery and Summer memories proviene da Cooking Classes and Private Chef In Tuscany.

Here’s a secret (in fact anymore) and special recipe about some really delicious Christmas cookies…I think the best I never eaten and my favourites at all.

It’s not a fast recipe at all, that’s why is a bit difficult to realize it during our Private Cooking Classes in Tuscany. Our cooking lessons last in fact 3 hours and often people ask to prepare a full Tuscan Menu. Anyway we served these cookies during our Cooking at Home and Private Dinners in Tuscany as well and everyone, yes everyone asked for the recipe.

Anyway it’s not fast because of the “decorations”, so you can prepare the dough the day before and cooking and decorating the day after. You can also make the dough many days before, in fact I often freeze it.

I think that you’ve to be relaxed while decorating…so no problem if it takes a while, or not?

These cookies brought me luck:

• 3 years ago I was honored to write a guest post on Tuscanycious (the Tuscany Region official blog concerning regional food and wine) just about these cookies: Befanini.
• the picture of the “star-shaped” cookie won last year the “One Day Challenge” on Instagram about EXPO EXPRESS (MILANO EXPO 2015)

Now, by popular demand I’m going to post the whole article here, Christmas is coming and you’ve definitely to to try these; make them for your kids, parents, lovers, friends…everyone’ll love these special cookies and…above all will love you.

A few years ago, thanks to my mom, I met an elderly Tuscan lady who made me taste these delicious cookies. She lived near a forest, in a small village near my hometown, Grosseto. She gave me the cookies in a beautiful glass jar. 

1. The first thing that hits you is the look of these cookies.

They are of a brown that tends to red hot, warm the heart and at the same time, they bring joy with their silver beads, sugar and colored stars.  

At my home, every year at Christmas, these cookies are a must and my girls are starting to request them since a month before Christmas. I can not blame them: they know that they will not eat them again until next year!

In fact this morning I woke up at 6.00; couldn’t wait o prepare “befanini” and the opportunity for a guest post has particularly inspired me.
So I give you these cookies, as someone did with me, inside an old biscuit tin glass that recalls the smells and tastes of grandmother’s larders.
2. The second thing that will impress you is the taste: intense and regenerating as a glass of mulled wine!
Once tasted you will not leave them anymore, my word.
Well my friend, Merry Christmas! And may you shine like the beads on these cookies!

Do you have a Christmas recipe that you particularly love?

Please, share it with us! You can send us an email with pictures or just write it down in the comments form. We’ll really appreciate it and publish it on our Blog!

Salva

Salva

L'articolo Private Chef in Tuscany: your Holiday with the best Befanini tuscan cookies! 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!

Salva

Salva

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.

You know we go all around Tuscany for Private Cooking Classes and Dinners and we often have to face a long way, up to 2,30 hours by car.

Finally, last time they call us just 10 minutes from where I live…alèèè! A beautiful villa near Lucca named villa del papa, located in a Santa Maria del Giudice a small village with many shops where buying all you need.

I already knew the customers who I was looking forward to meeting, they had a “Private Couple Cooking Class” with us, Cuoche in Vacanza (Chefs at your Holiday Home) about 3 years ago and the liked having another class together with their daughter and her boyfriend.

I was so thrilled when they contacted me, we were keeping in touch on our facebook-page and I’ll never forget when, right in the middle of their cookery course, we’ll decide to stop for a while and they taught me to prepare the Real Scottish Porridge!

Like most of our customers and students, they love Fresh Handmade Pasta and like making it for their family and friends. Therefore, with a special Italian sauce, fresh Pasta is one of the most amazing meals you can offer to everyone that you love. Despiting what they say (time-consuming…) you can prepare your pasta and store it for a while;

if you make a not filled pasta (ex: Tagliatelle):

1) you can store it over a tray at room temperature covered with kitchen paper (consuming by 6 days)

2) you can store it in the freezer (put it in a plastic-bag) once dried it at room temperature

if you make pasta with filling (ex: Ravioli, Tortelli…):

1) you have to eat it by 2 days (there’s often ricotta cheese inside)

2) you can store it in freezer in plastic bag: first you put the pasta in freezer over a tray for 30 minutes, than you can take the “semi-frozen” Ravioli and put them inside the plastic bag and store in freezer up to 3 months.

Coloring Pasta with only natural ingredients is possible and funny!

My special customers choosed to learn making:

• Fresh Handmade Pasta ORANGE Ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese and fresh Basil and seasoned with Rocket (Rucola) Pesto Sauce and Pinenuts. You know you can “colour” make fresh handmade pasta with many ingredients…here’s the link for black tagliatelle!
• Panzerotti suffed with mozzarella cheese and fresh chopped tomatoes
• Pummarola sauce
• Chocolate Salami

Here’s your recipe about this amazing Italian First course that you can make at your home for your friends and family.

Salva

Salva

L'articolo Chef in Tuscany at your Holiday Home and Cookery Course: Fresh Orange Ravioli and Rocket Pesto recipe! 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.