A morning of Tuscan Cooking
It's Monday in the Villa san Michele and the shops and museums are closed...what to do? Learn to cook, of course! The hotel Cookery School had been host to a number of celebrity chefs during the season, but here we were on the last day of their calendar of classes, and the Executive Chef Attilio de Fabrizio was our man, ably assisted and translated by Luca.
We were a class of eight - four children and four adults. We were also joined by a couple of journalists, Roseanna with her assistant Siobhan, who were writing an article for their magazine, Vista.
First up was the Panzanella, a traditional Tuscan means of using up stale bread. Presentation was everything, and we were pleased to learn how to form quenelles with two spoons. Very cheffy.
There followed a lesson in making gnocchi in tomato sauce - from scratch, of course. This was fun - rather straightforward, until it came to making the little curls, which Attilio and Luca made look so simple - but, well, we would probably find it easier when we have made the tens of thousands that they have made!
The sauce was simple, but good. We found details of a good kitchen shop in Florence to hotfoot it to and buy a board for making gnocchi on - no excuses for lack of practice!
Next dish was Striped Red Mullet in a tomato, caper and garlic sauce. Attilio began by showing us how to prepare the fish, though ours were already cleaned and prepared for us. Making the sauce was simple, though Luca's advice to take out the root of the garlic clove to prevent indigestion was a real winner. We had never known to do that and such small but useful advice is invaluable. The finished dish was small - we were each served three fillets for lunch, and Attilio suggested that a hungry person might eat five!
Fourth and final dish was Tiramisu. No surprises here, though we were curious to see how "our" recipe differed from Attilio's.
Attilio had a novel way of marking each of our dishes, since we were to be served them as lunch in the restaurant later.
We thought that "our" recipe had the edge - less sweet, we like the touch of alcohol and prefer the firmer texture, though of course, had this one been made the day before, that could have been a little different.
Bryn's apron revealed the great pleasure he'd taken in the chocolate-y bit!
What a great way to spend the morning. We took away our aprons, the recipes (signed by Attilio himself) and freshened up before meeting up again in the restaurant for lunch. We were assured that the food we were served really was that which we had made....but we had our doubts!
After lunch, we cadged a lift down into town with Roseanna, who showed us her delightful office (with amazing ceiling and interesting archway, the "curtain" of which is held open by angels!) She also introduced us to her favourite chocolate shop Vestri where we just had to spend a few Euros! In the meantime, Siobhan had gone off to take an exam at the university.
We had enjoyed a lovely day and spent a happy couple of hours in the late afternoon, wandering around, finding new (to us) paper shops (name will follow when the credit card bill arrives!) right next door to an old favourite, Il Papiro. Spent a few minutes sitting in our favourite perch before heading back to Villa san Michele to get changed before a bellini or two and dinner!
(First posted by Gill)
We were a class of eight - four children and four adults. We were also joined by a couple of journalists, Roseanna with her assistant Siobhan, who were writing an article for their magazine, Vista.
First up was the Panzanella, a traditional Tuscan means of using up stale bread. Presentation was everything, and we were pleased to learn how to form quenelles with two spoons. Very cheffy.
There followed a lesson in making gnocchi in tomato sauce - from scratch, of course. This was fun - rather straightforward, until it came to making the little curls, which Attilio and Luca made look so simple - but, well, we would probably find it easier when we have made the tens of thousands that they have made!
The sauce was simple, but good. We found details of a good kitchen shop in Florence to hotfoot it to and buy a board for making gnocchi on - no excuses for lack of practice!
Next dish was Striped Red Mullet in a tomato, caper and garlic sauce. Attilio began by showing us how to prepare the fish, though ours were already cleaned and prepared for us. Making the sauce was simple, though Luca's advice to take out the root of the garlic clove to prevent indigestion was a real winner. We had never known to do that and such small but useful advice is invaluable. The finished dish was small - we were each served three fillets for lunch, and Attilio suggested that a hungry person might eat five!
Fourth and final dish was Tiramisu. No surprises here, though we were curious to see how "our" recipe differed from Attilio's.
Attilio had a novel way of marking each of our dishes, since we were to be served them as lunch in the restaurant later.
We thought that "our" recipe had the edge - less sweet, we like the touch of alcohol and prefer the firmer texture, though of course, had this one been made the day before, that could have been a little different.
Bryn's apron revealed the great pleasure he'd taken in the chocolate-y bit!
What a great way to spend the morning. We took away our aprons, the recipes (signed by Attilio himself) and freshened up before meeting up again in the restaurant for lunch. We were assured that the food we were served really was that which we had made....but we had our doubts!
After lunch, we cadged a lift down into town with Roseanna, who showed us her delightful office (with amazing ceiling and interesting archway, the "curtain" of which is held open by angels!) She also introduced us to her favourite chocolate shop Vestri where we just had to spend a few Euros! In the meantime, Siobhan had gone off to take an exam at the university.
We had enjoyed a lovely day and spent a happy couple of hours in the late afternoon, wandering around, finding new (to us) paper shops (name will follow when the credit card bill arrives!) right next door to an old favourite, Il Papiro. Spent a few minutes sitting in our favourite perch before heading back to Villa san Michele to get changed before a bellini or two and dinner!
(First posted by Gill)
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