Cooking Tours - The other day I was out for dinner with a small group of ten friends/clients from Portland. We had dinner at the Ristorante Ducale in Volterra, Tuscany. I had a soufflé of pecorino cheese topped with fresh shavings of black Piedmont truffle, followed by soft ricotta and spinach gnocchi with a light sauce of parmesan and truffle. It is autumn here so that was followed by a fresh porcino mushroom cooked on the grill and dressed with extra virgin olive oil and seasoned with ground sea salt and the tiniest pinch of fresh oregano and mint. It was fantastic!
I wished I could make that soufflé at home, so decided to organize cooking tours in the hopes that a group of people would ask me to set up a tour for them and I could go back to the Ducale and find out exactly how the chef made the soufflé!
I have a good idea how to do the gnocchi, as I learned from Marissa how to make Gnudi (the literal translation being 'Nudies'), which are dumplings made of the stuffing of ravioli (ricotta and spinach) but without their pasta jacket. Marissa taught me this during a cooking course that I organized for a private group of New Zealanders back in 1996.
A cooking tour is a wonderful way to spend some time in France and Italy. Not only do you learn the secrets of regional cooking, but you also get the chance to spend time in the kitchen and at the dinner table with your chef and hosts, and we all know that the best parties are in the kitchen! Indeed, it is a wonderful way to get to know your hosts and chefs.
We can arrange cooking lessons with dynamic Michelin-starred chefs or charming Italian grandmothers. Indeed, we have contacts with dozens of chefs and cooks throughout Italy and France who invite you into their kitchens to share their passion for food. We combine the cooking courses with trips to local markets to learn how to pick out the best seasonal produce, the best cheeses, meats and fish. We also offer the opportunity to get some fresh air and exercise on any number of optional countryside walks which allow you to see first-hand the bounty of the land (grapes, olives, wild herbs and mushrooms), while also helping you build up an appetite!
Please contact us to arrange both cooking and walking or biking tours or to find out information about week long cooking schools.
How to make Gnudi - Gnudi are naked ravioli, which is to say that the usual stuffing of the ravioli (ricotta, cheese and spinach) are not wrapped in their blanket of pasta, but left "nude." They are held together by a thin veil of flour which turns tanslucent when cooked. The resulting balls of soft warm ricotta cheese and spinach are delicious and can be topped with many different types of sauces ranging from traditional tomato sauce with fresh basil to more elaborate concoctions of creamy cheese and truffle sauces.
Ingredients:
250 grams ricotta cheese (sheep or cow ricotta)
grated parmesan
1 small onion, finally diced
2 ,3 or 4 eggs
lots of fresh spinach or 500 grams fozen spinach
1 tablespoon flour
a quarter teaspoon ground nutmeg, salt and pepper.
Put a large pot of water to boil.
Sauté the finely diced onions in olive oil until translucent.
Cook the spinach in salted water and then chop very VERY finely, being sure to squeeze out the excess water.
In a large bowl mix the ricotta, parmesan, cooked onions, spinach, nutmeg, flour and egg yolks. Be careful not to add too much flour, and the fewer egg yolks the better. You want to produce a beautifully soft dumpling, and the more flour and egg you use the harder they will become. However, you need the flour and egg to bind the ingredients together, otherwise they will disentegrate when cooked in the boiling water.
Put the mixture into the fridge for at least 20 minutes. Then make small balls out of the mixture, you can go as small as a gnocchi or as big as a golf ball. Then roll the balls in some loose flour and put aside. While you are doing this, coat your hands and fingers in flour which will help prevent them from getting gooed up with the mixture.
Once you have made your balls, drop them gently into a pot of boiling water. After a few minutes they will float to the top. Remove with a slotted spoon and serve immediately, topped with whatever sauce you have prepared. Buon appetito!