Most of today was taken up with smaller activities and no major expeditions, as we all wished to be at Locanda del Molina on time for our Tuscan cooking class.
Tuscany is the orchard and vegetable garden of Italia and Tuscans are justifiably proud of their local produce. The olive is their staple ingredient ( big surprise!) Cuisine here is rustic and simple. Local cheeses (especially the pecorinos) are, bar none, some of the best we have ever tasted. Some ingredients, we have never tasted - white truffles, Valdichiana beef and wild boar. Chestnut trees abound and the nuts are used in ever conceivable fashion. It was with much excitement that we met Sylvia Baracchi, our instructing chef and heard that the recipes we would be preparing were local traditional dishes.
The late afternoon session (4:00 p.m.) began when we donned our aprons. Not sure how happy the guys were, but we gals loved it! Then it was hands on from here on. We were to prepare each of the courses and then at 7:30 dine on the fruits of our labour. This is when you hope that you don't mess up! After donning our aprons, I should say that we were each given a glass of wine, of our individual choosing. I'm thinking this was to make us happier when we realized the work involved in preparing such a meal.
So here is the menu
Antipasti: Fiori di zucchini ripen con ricotta e basilica (stuffed zucchini flowers with ricotta cheese and basil)
Primi: Pici con sugo di anatra (Pici with duck sauce)
Secondi: Pollo in umido con fungi di stagione (braised chicken with mushrooms)
Dolce: Sfogliatina di pere e pinoli con cioccolato caldo (puff pastry with pears, pine nuts and melted chocolate)
If you are on Facebook, Jim has posted quite a few photos of the class. For two and a half hours, we worked in a warm kitchen (pizza oven was even lit) and learned sooooooo much! We cleaned zucchini flowers and stuffed the flowers with the most incredible mixture of ricotta cheese and local herbs. I do believe that there was quite a bit of sneaky tasting by we chefs-in-training. Of course, Silvia pretended not to notice. Small wonder, actually, that there was any filling left to actually use in the flowers!!! Pici is a pasta made of flour and
water from which the chef forms the thin threads with their hands. This, believe it or not, was back-breaking work. First the pasta had to be made and then the tiny threads rolled in our hands. There was much joking during dinner about which noodle belonged to which one of us. "Hey, that noodle has to be yours - it's uneven!!!" The making of the duck sauce had all of us salivating as the aromas met with our now hungry stomachs. The braised chicken with mushrooms was quite easy to make actually. (Jo, sorta' like Mom's chicken cacciatore!) For the dessert we made a fabulous custard, rolled puff pastry, filled the pastry with the custard, pears (we had peeled and sliced) and pine nuts. We then rolled the pastries up and baked them.
So here's the scoop. We had the time of our lives and cannot wait to try out our new recipes on poor, unsuspecting friends. But to be a chef, working at this full time, must be mind boggingly fatiguing. Donna said that seeing what is involved, she wonders how some chefs don't commit murder when a dish unjustifiably gets sent back by some ego-centric diner trying to look important. In our now tired states, we all agreed.
I thought the most welcome words were, "Here's your apron!" I was mistaken. The best words were, "Chefs, would you like to be seated."
Oh, and the meal? Damn fine!
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