Under the Tuscan Clouds: Part Quattro

January 2nd: Cooking Class

I've always wanted to take a cooking class, and what better place to do it than in Tuscany with a real life Italian granny?  A short drive from Brenna lies a charming farmhouse, Le Pietre Vive di Montaperti, where Nonna Ciana welcomed us into her kitchen to teach us the tricks of the trade.  Her English was limited (granted way better than our Italian), so her friend Valeria stood in as translator.  The highlight of the class was learning how to make pasta from scratch (no machine, just a rolling pin, a knife, and pure upper body strength) - a tricky and laborious process.  After all our hard work we were able to sit down to our beautiful meal.  Here was the menu:

ANTIPASTI

Bruschetta with garlic, tomato, and basil

Bruschetta with caramelized sweet peppers

Bruschetta with Stracchino cheese, fresh pork sausage, and black pepper

PASTA

Handmade tagliatelle with pumpkin and sausage

DESSERT

Tiramisu

The farmhouse Le Pietre Vive di Montaperti

Dicing up some pumpkin

Kneading the dough

Rolling the dough out into a "circle"...ours looked more like Australia

Left: Nonna Ciana, Right: Valeria
Enjoying our trio of bruschetta

The remnants of our hard earned pumpkin pasta

A combo of rainy weather & stuffed bellies caused us to retreat back to Villa Agostino and succumb to the second food coma of our trip.  The evening was spent by the fire with a bottle of Chianti and The Walking Dead.  Romance people.  There's only one more episode of Under The Tuscan Clouds left featuring our adventures in Montepulciano & Pienza, along with our misadventures in the journey home to Zürich ...