13 at the Table

Cinta Senese pigs are not the only ones pigging out in Tuscany

In Italy, thirteen at the table is unlucky as it is the same number Jesus had at the last supper and look what happened to him! However, for me thirteen has always been my lucky number and this week myself and twelve other foodies took on Chianti and were very lucky!

Blessed with good weather all week, except for a morning drizzle in Siena, we cooked, ate and drank our way through Chianti. I adore the planning of these trips. I try to personalize each one, depending on if we will be cooking more or touring more.



This week we alternated cooking days with touring and had a blast. We also visited a Cinta Senese farmer who also had wine and olive oil, this was a real treat.Casamonti is located just outside the town and is a little piece of paradise- happy pigs make happy pork!

Cinta Senese Prosciutto's aging at Casamonti

splendid fall colors in Chianti

What is fun for me too, is that most of the people on the tour share my same passion for fotography too. We had some wild paparazzi moments of everyone snapping away at the incredible views and magical places we visited. I can't wait to see everyone's foto's.

We were lucky that we came off season to see the grapes for Vin Santo hanging to dry at La Volpaia. When the grapes turn to raisins, in about 5 months, they will be crushed and the juices are then put in small wood casks and sugar and yeast added to start fermentation. The Vin Santo is ready 2 years later around Easter. True Vin Santo is a precious liquid, to be sipped and meditated upon!



The week ended and the rains came- time now to plan my winter trips teaching and to also set up next years programs in Tuscany and Sicily. Stay tuned!

I am updating the website and will post when the new calendar is ready.

Join me in January in San Miguel D'Allende at Casa Luna Cooking School, where I will be guest chef- I can't wait.

If you would like to book a custom tour for you and your friends, just let me know!
I love sharing my little piece of paradise.I do 2 to 12 people for custom weeks as well as collaborating with the Villa La Poggiolaia now from April to November.

New programs will be posted soon!

Tuscany in fall is at it's best, the new oil is out now and white truffles are in season. Each weekend has food festivals and we are ready to plump up for the winter cold! Next year join us here and celebrate falls flavors. Not to be missed.

Falling Back

my room with a view, where I write

Today we fall back one hour- sleeping in a little extra and waking to an incredible fall day.
When I am working at my computer upstairs in our tiny 1/3 of a old stone farmhouse in the hills outside of Certaldo, the songbirds are soundtrack during the day. Sometimes in the morning I am awakened by the sounds of hunters, hopefully shooting something larger than the songbirds, like pheasant or wild boar.

We arrived home from Torino last night too late to shop, too early to eat out. Thank goodness for the freezer. I heated up a bag of minestrone and we had our tray of miniature pastries from the fabulous pastry shop in Torino near our hotel, Querio. There is never a problem to find a wonderful pastry shop nearby! They are more like jewelry shops with tiny precious sweets and chocolates.
How can one refuse?

a tiny sampling of the incredible mini-pastries from Querio Pastry shop in Via Cernaia, Torino

Today woke up well rested with that extra hour of sleep, we changed our clocks here in Europe last night and with an empty fridge called for reservations at our local town favorite, La Casalinga. Mamma is still in the kitchen, not polite to ask her age, but probably 70 or 80?

Here is a typical lunch array- We ate light- no sliced meats or crostini to start-

penne pasta with broccoli and sausage sauce

lasagna with ragu and bechamel sauce a Sunday lunch classic

the spit-roasted pork: sausage, filet, liver wrapped in caul-fat and bread

oven-roasted potatoes cooked in the pan drippings- Patate alla ghiottona

Sunday is time for pastry- Ciambella con crema chantilly- cream puff ring with pastry cream/whipped cream

Andrea's cookie plate with empty Vin Santo glass

finishing your meal with fruit is a true Italian way to end a meal

If you want to really be Italian- you can add-on to this menu

Buon appetito

Italians have a saying: A Tavola non si invecchia- One doesn't age at the table.

Pull up a chair and join us!!!

Domenica da Dario

Just another Sunday lunch with friends

but at the Officina della Bistecca-
you leave with more friends than you came with!

Domenica da Dario from divina cucina on Vimeo.

I feel really blessed to have worked for several years with Dario- before he became such a media star, when only a few journalists like Faith Willinger were writing about artisans in Tuscany.

Thanks to meeting Burton Anderson and Faith Willinger early in my stay in Florence, I had a great starting point- 25 years ago. Feeling like you belong in Florence is not easy, but was easier than Paris for me. I had gone on 4 different trips to France trying to stay and study but didn't feel at home. Now, 25 years later, I can feel at home in many places in Italy and adore it!

Part of being Italian is Sunday lunch,il pranzo Domenicale-is the time when Italians get together and spend hours at the table over huge meals but more- spending time talking and catching up.

There is a saying: A tavola non si invecchia- One does not age at the table. As you can see in the video, this is no normal restaurant. The Officina della Bistecca, is where Dario presents three versions of the steak- Tuscany's 2 pound T-bone, Fiorentina as well as his own creation, the Panzanese and the Costata.

We started with raw vegetables, pinzimonio, followed by Dario's sushi- a sort of tartare- served raw and cooked. Cooked beans are passed around the table an then the steak orgy starts.
Luckily they pass a platter and serve small pieces, re-passing often to be sure you have had enough. Three different steaks are served at the officina. Second round also brings on the oven-roasted potatoes served with the "burro del Chianti" an herb infused lard- lucious!
The last steak is served with a baked yellow onion.




















Save room for the incredible olive oil cake, topped with a crisp sugar pinenut crust along with coffee and some military issued liquors- hold on- they are 40- 60 proof!


We started lunch around 1pm and ended around 4pm- allow enough time to be Italian.
Come hungry and don't be shy- join in the joy of celebrating food and life.

Officina della Bistecca
50 euro per person Macelleria Cecchini
click above for website

Panzano in Chianti
Reservations a must!

Fall has arrived

Not living near the beach- summer does nothing for me.

Living in Tuscany in the middle of olive groves and vineyards- Fall is when the countryside springs to life. Crisp cool evenings make me crave stews and vegetables roasted with herbs.

Pumpkins and squashes are filling the markets for ravioli and soups, roasting and gnocchi.

My village, Certaldo has a wonderful flat red onion, which we use in all of our recipes.

The sounds of hunters in the fields below my house, may irritate me early in the morning, but it is nice to know that tradition lives on.

At the local bar where my husband and I have a midday snack, we love to eavesdrop- this time of year all the local truffle hunters are sharing their tales- so far no truffles in sight except at the wine shop!

I am off this week for my yearly chocolate masters program in Tuscany where another kind of truffle is on our minds- the Chocolate kind! Who knows what new delight we will discover.
At the end of the program the students can head down to Perugia for Eurochocolate and really drown themselves in chocolate from all over the world.

Fall is filled with reasons to come to Italy- most of them are to eat! I adore cooking when the temps drop down. Looking forward to more time in the kitchen starting next week!

I will need a salt fix after all this chocolate.

New Market to Table Class in Certaldo-

I am thrilled to be getting back into the Kitchen!

Francesca and I at her stand at the market

I start my collaboration with Villa Poggiolaia this week with a custom cooking class for a group, and then a full week Chianti experience for two sisters!

Saturday is the smaller market in the downtown piazza, so when I shop on Wednesdays at the larger, wilder market, I know I can still get more fresh products Saturday from Francesca.

But Wednesday is the most fun, the weekly markets are really you get to know a village. The stands move from one town to another .

Wednesday is also the Siena Market day around the Fortezza-
Thursday in Poggibonsi
Friday in Colle Val D'Elsa
Saturday smaller in the main Piazza in Certaldo- one fish stand and two fresh fruit and vegetables.

So when you come to a village I hope you can attend a market day- for me it is where I can pick up fun kitchen items are great prices. I have seen ceramics made for America at half the price.

Bring an empty suitcase to stock up!

La Vendemmia- Schiacciata con L'uva

In Italy, each region has seasonal dishes which one can make once a year. September is the wine harvest, vendemmia, and in Tuscany we make the Schiacciata con l'uva.

A simple bread dough, often enriched with a rosemary-infused olive oil, is rolled out into a top and bottom layer and filled with Concord grapes, here called Uva Fragola, making a natural jam baked right into the bread.


The best recipes ooze with syrup! At my Florence bakery near the market, Ivana Braschi makes a fresh fig schiacciata which is incredible. Now that I have found an abandoned fig tree near my house in the countryside. I will try making my own.



Here is my recipe from my cookbook-

Schiacciata con l’Uva Tuscan Grape bread

1/4 cup olive oil
1 rosemary branch

2 lbs red wine grapes, Concord grapes or blueberries
1 lb flour
1 cake fresh yeast
1/2 cup sugar
honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

• Heat rosemary branch in olive oil. Remove rosemary.
• Dissolve yeast in 1 cup warm water.
• Place flour in a large bowl and add the yeast mixture. Stir to mix. Add the rosemary-scented oil and 4 Tbs. sugar.
• Knead dough until smooth.
• Place in greased bowl.
• Cover and let rise until doubled.
• Divide dough in half. Roll out into a thin rectangle.
• Place on greased cookie sheet.
• Top with 1/2 of the grapes.
• Sprinkle with sugar and drizzle with oil.
• Cover with other half of dough, rolled out as before. Seal edges by folding bottom edge over top.
• Press down on dough to crush grapes.
• Cover top with remaining grapes.
• Crush these too, to release juices.
• Sprinkle with sugar and drizzle with honey.

Bake at 350 degrees until golden. Baste, if possible, with any juices.

Italian Treasures- Andrea Bezzecchi- Acetaia San Giacomo

Acetaia San Giacomo
Novellara, Reggio Emilia

It is harvest time!

Andrea Bezzechi at the winery buying the mosto for his traditional balsamic vinegar
from Dario at the organic winery Villa Castellazzo
which is also an agritourismo

Why is it that a traditional balsamic vinegar from Reggio Emilia or from Modena is $125 a bottle? If you ever have seen what it takes to make it, it seems like a real bargain!

• Start with grape juice and lose 70% in cooking it down.
• Invest in 5 to 7 different kinds of handmade wooden barrels.
• Wait 12 years to sell your first bottle of traditional balsamic vinegar ( if you aren't lucky enough to have inherited your set of barrels from dad or grandpa).

True balsamic vinegar does not have vinegar added to it, nor sugar or glucose. It is a time honored traditional condiment for food, passed on generation after generation. The grocery store balsamic vinegars were created for a market that wants things NOW.

Although it may seem expensive in America to buy a bottle of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar at $125 a bottle which is 1/2 cup of liquid gold. Time is the most expensive part in the preparation.

I went with Andrea Bezzechi of Acetaia San Giacomo on his acquisition of "mosto" to start this years batch. The color of the freshly crushed grape juice was amazing. Electric almost.


Andrea brought the mosto back to the Acetaia ( where one makes their Aceto Balsamico) and began the long slow process of reducing it by 70%.


Part alchemist, part mad scientist it takes patience and passion to create this elixer dating back to 30 BC. Andrea showed me written documentation from Virgil and Apicius referring to the cooking of grape juice, called sapa in the Latin texts, now saba.

Cooking the grape juice must stops fermentation and preserves the juice. We tasted a 25 year old saba that Andreas late dad made. It is sweet and rich, much like prune juice, quite concentrated.
I have had saba drizzled on desserts from the south and it is lovely. I use this light condiment often in savory cooking to deglaze a pan for a sauce instead of Marsala.

The saba is then left to acidify naturally and moved into large wooden barrels called Badesse.
From there they being the long slow process of becoming balsamic.

The word balsamic refers to the essence that the saba extracts from the different woods of the barrels used for aging. A set is called a batteria. Andrea's barrels are:

• Cherry
• Chestnut
• Beech
• Oak
• Juniper
• Mulberry
• Acacia

Barrels are part of your inheritance and when a child is born a new set is added

Once a year some of the balsamic is removed from the smalleset barrel and taken to be judged.
In Reggio, it is not the years, but a very controlled level of quality they look for in flavor and balance.

The balsamic is taken from the next smallest barrel to replace what was removed in the smallest and so on, and the largest barrel in the set is then filled from the Badessa barrels. In the foto you can see the barrels are left open, covered with small cloth napkins and then the tops to help evaporation.

After touring, while the mosto was slowly reducing- we did a tasting of Andrea's products:

Saba
Two orange label ( aragosta- which means lobster for the red)
Silver- argento
Gold- oro
and his apple balsamic, Essenza and Condimento, which are not considered Balsamic Vinegars, but condiments.



When I use Traditional Balsamic Vinegar, for me, it is like wearing Chanel profume.
I always get kissed!

That is worth any price. A one ounce bottle of Chanel is $260. You wear a tiny drop at a time and it lasts forever.

The same with a Traditional Balsamic Vinegar( TVB) - one tiny drop is all you need as a portion.
To showcase the TBV, Andrea served us drops on 24 and 36 month old Parmesan Cheese.

For dessert- WOW- a tiny scoop of vanilla gelato served in a shot class with San Giacomo's signature porcellan tastings spoon laying on top to recieve the drizzle of balsamico and some saba on the bottom.

My favorite way to end a meal

A young bottle of balsamico in Italy costs 45 euro a bottle and a bottle holds 100 1ml portions which are an eyedropper full- that is a lot of balsamico at 50 euro cents a portion. In the USA, it would be $1.25 a portion. Now it doesn't seem expensive!

See my recipe for the Montagliari apple tart-
I serve this with a scoop of gelato and drizzle with balsamico- ONLY the traditional!

Because I love my friends and I can.