COOKING CLASS with LAURA: learn how to prepare excellent dishes!
What about learning how to cook Tuscan recipes? You can do it with Laura! We will do a complete menu from the appetizers to the hand made pasta and dessert while listening to traditional Italian songs! At the end of the 4 hours cooking class you will be served dinner with your creations. You will have fun while doing the Tuscan cooking lesson and once at home you will be able to prepare tasty dinners for your friends!
Tuscany has a very rich culinary tradition.
We recommend you some dishes and typical food. Our area is plenty of good restaurants where tasting our specialties: “Casa Masi” for a special occasion, “Il Lago” which is on a lake, “Il Caminetto” for the “Fiorentina” (beef steak), and the “Pizzeria Erasmus” where eating more than 30 different pizza made with organic food.
Moreover you can buy local specialties in San Gimignano, Florence and Montaione’s small picturesque shops; buy them and bring at home to remember your holidays!
APPETIZERS
- Liver pâté canapés (sauce made of chicken livers spread on warm bread)
- Bruschette ( tomato slices and basil on Tuscan toasted bread; the simplest bruschetta is with garlic and olive oil)
- Ham
- Wild Boar Ham from Maremma (hand cut!)
- Finocchiona (Salami with fennel, pepper and curry)
- Salami
- Salame toscano
- Lardo di colonnata (Colonnata’s lard)
FIRST COURSES
- “Pasta e ceci”, litterally “pasta and beans”, it a a delicious bean soup
- Bread soup or “ribollita” (black bread with vegetables like black cabbage, onion, carrots and legumes)
- Panzanella (wet bread with olive oil, basilic, onion, tomatoes, salt and pepper)
- Pappa al pomodoro tomatoes soup: wet Tuscan bread, garlic, tomatoes and basil)
- Florentine Rice (rice and mill meat)
- Pappardelle alla lepre o cinghiale (long egg pasta with hare or wild boar sauce)
- Cacciucco alla livornese (mixed seafood, white wine, tomatoes, curry, salt and pepper). Excellent fish soup to be served with “pane agliato” (garlic bread).
- Acquacotta (wet toasted bread with onion, bacon and herbs)
- Pici (homemade pasta)
- Riso (fish rice)
SECOND COURSES
- Bistecca alla fiorentina (Florentine T-Bone Steak) it must be sliced 5 cm steaks and must be “blue” 5 min. cooking time
- Pollo/coniglio alla cacciatora chicken/rabbit (oil, spices, wine and black olives)
- Roast rabbit with chips
- Porchetta aretina (boneless pork roast)
- Rosticciana (Pork Spare Ribs)
- Livornese mullets (mullets with onion, garlic and parsley)
- Trippa, lampredotto alla fiorentina (tripe with tomatoes and spices)
- Fritto misto alla fiorentina (fried chicken, lamb, vegetables)
- Tagliata (meat with mushrooms, cheese and racket)
- “Cee” Eels with onion and sage)
VEGETABLES
- Raw vegetables with dips on the side
- Beans
- Fried mushrooms
- Fried artichokes
- Boiled cabbage
CHEESE
- Pecorino senese sheep milk cheese (it is very popular also from Mugello, Garfagnana, Casentino and Maremma)
- Marzolino (typical cheese of the Chianti area)
CAKES
- Schiacciata Firenze (cake with sultana grapes)
- Castaganaccio (sweet cake made with chestnuts and pine nuts)
- Buccellato di Lucca (doughnut with anise)
- Biscotti di Prato or cantuccini (biscuits with almonds to be eaten with the Vinsanto)
- Panforte (cake with almonds and patties)
- Ricciarelli e cavallucci di Siena (almond cookies)
- Brigidini di Lamporecchio (anise cookies)
- Zuccotto (rich alcoholic cake from Florence)
Typical Tuscan products
Olive oil, red wine, sheep milk cheese from Pienza, panforte and ricciarelli (almond cookies from Siena) white truffle from S.Miniato (rare tuber used on pasta or as sauce on the bread), lardo di Colonnata, Lampredotto (tripe).
