Italian Food
Italian food. Until I went to Tuscany, I have to confess that I just didn’t get the excitement. Pizza….Pasta…Chopped tomatoes on toast. Not only were these dishes I knew I could make myself (unlike, say, steak tartare or the dazzling inventions at El Bulli in Spain) – but this was the type of food I made as a student.
Or even earlier.
Frozen pizza, thrown into the oven. Pasta from a packet with a pour-over sauce. When Brits think of cheap, cardboard convenience food – they tend to think Italian. And I was no exception…
While this may sound like heresy to Italians, I come here today to beg my forgiveness.
Now that I have visited your country.
Now that I have stepped away from the tourist trail and experienced the real tastes of rural Tuscany.
Most importantly, now that I have had some cooking lessons.
Cuoche in Vacanza
Cooking Lessons in Tuscany
Cooking Lessons: The Best Way to Learn
Let’s be honest. This must be the best kind of study. Cuoche in Vacanza come to your home (in my case, the tranquil Casa Gentili) to teach you how to cook authentic Tuscan food.
They bring ingredients. They bring knowledge. They bring equipment – and they bring wine. And if you take your eye off the ball at some point, they carry on without you.
I’m going to show you some of the recipes I learned at cooking school right here on this blog…in a little while.
In the meantime, I’m just going to let you enjoy the photographs – and think about the following words: olive oil, smoky, grassy, garlic, pepper, fresh, basil, family, tradition, eggs, flour, mint, laughter, food…
Enjoy!
Fresh Cloves
Home-made pasta
Slicing artichokes in Italy…
Fresh mint in Casa Gentili
Disclosure: I attended this cooking course as a guest of Casa Gentili. All views are, of course, entirely my own. Especially the comment comparing Italian food to cardboard…
Fantastic! Italian food in Italy is so fresh and always about the ingredients…I’d love to take a cooking class there.
Well, I’d highly recommend these guys. The food was wonderful but they were also really good fun – and that’s priceless!
Wonderful pictures, as always, and I look forward to your upcoming posts about the food. I cook Italian food a lot at home (luckily we have lots of good fresh ingredients here in CA), but one thing I really want to do is take a cooking class in Italy. This one sounds great!
Yep, it’s amazing what can happen when you step away from cling-film wrapped food! ;) As I said before, I’d highly recommend Cuoche in Vacanza. A great team.
Looks and sounds wonderful. Any cooking classes would be welcome by my family!
Must be pretty similar to rural Spanish dishes? In which case I have no excuse.
Thanks again for inspiring me Abi.