ecco la cucina

Let's get this show on the road! I find that if I don't blog within a week of coming back from a trip or event, it will never happen, so I must be disciplined and do it now because my week back from Italy is almost up!

Day 3 of our great Tuscan adventure consisted of cooking with the wonderful Gina Stipo from ecco la cucina. 

Gina is American with Italian decent so she was able to give us the full rundown of what a proper Tuscan meal consist of, rather than that westernized American cuisine we get back home. Italian food is broken up into various styles based on the region it originated. What we usually see at a typical Italian restaurant is really from Naples or Sicily, so learning about and cooking Tuscan cuisine was exciting! And the kitchen was fabulous. What I didn't realize was how simple everything was. As long as you have fresh ingredients, you can have a wonderful Tuscan meal. No need for fancy spices or sauces, eating naturally and seasonally is what the Tuscan do best. September's goodies included strawberry grapes, sangiovese grapes and zucchini with it's flowers.  I won't go into details on how everything was made, but just know that it was super simple.

Antipasta (starter) - Panzanella Salad (Tuscan bread salad)

Primi Piatti (first dish) - Sugo di Zucchini (zucchini sauce) with fresh pasta

Secondi Piatti (second dish) - Pollo Arrosto w/ grapes (roasted chicken with grapes)

Dolci (dessert) - Schiacciata (grape bread)

We thought  the cooking class would last until mid afternoon but after eating and chatting about Tuscan life, we were already going into early evening before it was time to head home. Every dish was delish, which topped off with some good Tuscan wine made for a wonderful day! 

Here are somethings I did learn:

• Tuscan's do not use salt in their bread as it creates moisture and causes mold. Therefore, after a few days, the bread gets rock hard, but instead of throwing it out, they soak it in salt water and make a wonderful Panzanella out of it.
• Tuscan's are big on roasting dishes because back in the days, when the stone ovens lit, they were too hot to cook bread or anything else, so they used it to roast their meats first and then cook everything else later when the temperature cooled down a bit.  Talk about efficiency!
• If eggs are not washed when they are first received and sold, they are okay to leave out at room temperature because the egg has a natural coating that protects it. In the States, all eggs sold at grocery stores must be washed beforehand, hence the refrigeration there and not in the UK or Europe.
• To get evenly diced onions, all you have to do is cut slices along the width of the onion and then dice following the curve of the onion, like the rays of the sun. No more slicing and then cutting in half and then dicing!

Well, that's all I can remember for now. If you're ever in Tuscany and want to learn a thing or two about Tuscan cuisine, I definitely recommend checking out Gina and ecco la cucina. Since Italian is Gerald's favorite cuisine, I just might make him do all the cooking since he can't say he doesn't know how =)

Chianti Classico

Today, we woke up to beautiful fog over Tuscany and got our lesson on the Chianti Classico wine. After two winery stops and a two hour lunch, what was suppose to be a 6 hour tour, ended up being a 10 hour tour.  We had our first taste of wine at 11 am and didn't stop drinking until 6 pm! We were seriously drinking wine like it was water. I didn't mind it one bit because the wine was so good! On the tour with us were seven Canadians from Toronto.

Our first stop was Colle Bereto, where we got a tour from our guide, Franco, and the director of the winery, Bernardo. 

We started off seeing how olive oil was made and bottled. Colle Bereto still bottles and labels each olive oil by hand.  I can now appreciate why good olive oil is pricier than the mainstream ones. Afterwards, we toured the family's wine cellar and production facilities ending with a 5 glass tasting of all their different wines. Along with the wine tasting, we enjoyed some olive oil and balsamic vinegar with fresh bread, picked up by Franco from the local bakery in Siena on our drive over. So good! This was by far one of the most intimate winery tour I've been on.

After the first stop, we went to a local trattoria for lunch. We spent two hours here eating and drinking like we were part of an Italian family. The grandma even came out and greeted us!

The afternoon was almost over and we still had another winery to go to. The second winery was called Castello d'Albola. As the name suggest, it was housed in a castle! We did this winery tour a bit different, starting off with our tasting first and then headed downstairs to the cellar and production rooms. By this point, I was pretty much wined out, so took to enjoying the beautiful views around the castle grounds while Gerald was still sipping away. Franco led us around the castle, showing us the beautiful cellars that dated back to the 12th century! 

We were now at the end of our tour and couldn't have asked for anything more from our wine lesson in Chianti. I learned that the black rooster is the logo for the Chianti region and thought that was pretty cool. Makes for a good label on their wine bottles. Franco went above and beyond and treated us like friends rather than tourists and that made a world of a difference. Grazi Franco!

Radda in Chianti with a touch of Siena

There were so many nearby villages to visit around our villa, we couldn't have possibly known where to go, if it wasn't for the handy little guide book Casa Cornacchi left us. The description of Radda in Chianti sold us on where to venture off for the day.

"Built in a panoramic location among woods and vineyards, Radda lies in the heart of the Sienese Chianti region. From 1415 it became the head town of the Chianti League and still retains its original medieval layout. The Fattoria of Montevertine, near Radda houses the Museo del Chianti, with exhibitions relating to popular traditions connected with aspects of domestic life and farm work. The nearby Fattoria Castello di Volpaia also offers the possibility of visiting it's winery and olive press"

So off we go in our white C-class!  The old buildings along the small country roads with the beautiful tall Cyprus trees that lined the roads and villas made the drive quite lovely. We arrived to Volpaia, only to find that the restaurant we wanted to eat at, in the castle of Volpaia, was closed =( Most places are closed at least twice a week on random days (usually Sunday and Monday), so if you don't call ahead, you can get screwed. Luckily, there was a cute restaurant nearby that we managed to get a seat at. Our first meal of our Tuscan adventure was none other than caprese salad and pasta with truffle cream sauce for me and pecoroni cheese salad and pasta with procini for Gerald. Topped off with a liter of wine and tiramasu and we were done! The restaurant we ate at was called La Bottega, which had beautiful views of the countryside.

After lunch we explored Volpaia for a bit. Volpaia is a tiny town with pretty much nothing there but the castle. We wandered around the castle grounds, going through the small narrow streets and alleyways and stopped off at the winery for a look around.






















Driving back down, we stopped at Castello di Radda winery for our first wine tour of the trip. This was a fairly new winery, so everything was nice and modern.


















At this point, the clouds were getting darker and it looked like it was about to pour, but we decided to stop off in the village of Radda anyways. Again, this town was surrounded by walls with cute little cobblestone alleyways and footpaths. There were a bunch of shops and enotecas (wine bar/shops) so we poked our head in a few and then the rain came down! We were forced to take shelter in the local grocery shop until the rain died down, so I was able to study all the meats and cheeses they had to offer. Pecorino is a fairly new cheese to me and I didn't realize how many different types there were. After having it once at Jamie Oliver's restaurant, I thought there was just that one kind, but apparently, not. So we bought some cheese and meats and made a run for the car as the rain was dying down.



We arrived at the villa for a quick nap and change of clothes and headed out to Siena for dinner at Enoteca i Terzi. After our 3 course lunch, we decided to again have a 3 course dinner. Gerald wanted the "Florentine" steak so I said I'd share it with him. What we didn't realize was that the steak was meant to feed 10, not 2, and it was 65 euros! You better believe we took home what we didn't finish and had it for another meal =) This is where we learned: portions are huge in Italy, and it is not necessary to eat 3 and 4 course meals, every meal, every day! Feeling stuffed to the max, we walked through the shell shaped square and back to the car for a nights rest after a food-filled day. We needed energy for our next excursion - Chianti wine tour with Franco.

Casa Cornacchi

We arrived in Florence late afternoon and were excited to pick up our rental car and head out to the countryside to our villa, Casa Cornachi, for the first part of our Tuscan adventure. However, upon arriving in Florence, only one of our luggage made it =( This always seems to happen to us; guess we just have bad luck when it comes to checking in luggage. So, it was either wait another hour or so for the luggage to come on the next flight, or wait until the next morning to have it delivered to our villa. We opted to wait, since the villa was about an hour and half away and we didn’t want to risk the delivery not making it. Anyhow, to kill time, we went to pick up our rental car. I really wanted a Fiat 500 but the only ones they had were manual and neither Gerald nor I can drive one, so the next available option was a white C-class, boring! Not practical for driving through unpaved country roads of Tuscany, and I guess a Fiat probably wouldn't have been any better...haha. Anyhow, we took a little joy ride to none other than Mickey D’s, for some grub. We needed something to fill our stomach after a long travel day and didn’t feel like wandering around town for a place to eat, so McDonald’s was nice and convenient. I actually like visiting McD’s in a foreign country to see what they have to offer. Here in Florence: caprese salad, burger with real parmesan cheese slice, and McFlurry with pistachios! We were boring and stuck with the nuggets and fries! Anyhow, the sun was now starting to set and we needed to pick up our luggage and hit the road before it got too late.

After making a few wrong turns and a stop at the wrong villa, we arrived at our destination pretty late, by Tuscan countryside standards (9:00 pm), to a chair with our name on it pointing to our room. It was kind of creepy driving up a private non paved country road to the villa, with no one in sight, not even the reception lady. I guess that’s the nice thing about staying in hotels; there’s always someone to greet you upon arrival. We set our luggage down and took a minute to admire the charming room and went around for a night time walk. Felt kind of strange as no one was around and we practically had the plae to ourselves; if we would have known, we would have thrown a party..haha. We were hoping to get a glass of wine at the restaurant and light snack before calling it a night, but the restaurant on site wasn’t open and we were too lazy to explore the nearby towns. Thank goodness for that McDonald’s we had earlier! So we opted for sleep instead.

We woke up to the beautiful Tuscan sun and had a little photo shoot around the villa after having a delicious breakfast of fresh meats, cheese, fruits and veggies.  

 

We had a lot to look forward to the next few days, each day taking up more of our time than we expected but well worth every minute. Here’s a summary of what is to come…

Chianti

Day 1 – wander aimlessly around the countryside – Radda and Siena

Day 2 – wine tour of the Chianti region with Franco - Radda area

Day 3 – Tuscan cooking class with Gina from Ecco la Cucina - South of Siena

Day 4 – a visit to Castle Brolio and the outlets before heading to Firenze