Day 6: ‘Maddie’s’ Excellent Cooking Class

What will this day in Florence, Italy hold?

On granddaughter Maddie’s strong recommendation, we head off for a 10:00 am cooking class (that is after a breakfast of bacon, eggs, croissants, yogurt and more at Hotel Pendini.)

We meet our chef Nicola at a small farmer’s market, where he tells the vendor what he needs – zucchini flowers, tomatoes, the largest basis leaves you’ve ever seen.

He teaches us that in Italy you can ‘point out’ what you like, or let the vendor choose, but you may not touch the produce without gloves.

Then it is up 5 floors to the rooftop over looking the Duomo. Ron and I walked 2, then took the lift to the top! There we find our stations already set up with place mats, flour, aprons, cutting boards and knives.

Nicola gives us a short lesson on knife safety, then we proceed to cut our tomatoes, garlic and basil to prepare out bruschetta.

Nicola adds what we think is a exorbitant amount of olive oil and we add salt and pepper and oregano. Then he lets the bruschetta topping sit out for the remainder of our class.

Next, its the preparation of Italy’s quientessential dessert, Tiramisu. Soaking lady-fingers in coffee and layering them with whipped mascapone and chocolate powder, we all make individual stenciled bowls which are refrigerated.

All throughout, Nicola peppers us with information and instruction, with a nice balance of time to wash hands, visit and rest. He seems to be a master of time management, sprinkled with humor.

Part of the experience is those you share it with and we are blessed to be accompanied by four Aussies, and a newleywed couple from Ohio, Matt and Kennedy, on their honeymoon.

Now it is time to make two kinds of pasta by hand, using only egg and flour. We mix, knead, roll, fold until we have the right length and width. Then we cut our dough into 2 pasta shapes, fettuccine and tagliatelle.

Nicolas adds a vegetable and a tomato sauce and we enjoy the fruits of our labors – tomato bruschetta, two types of pasta, and tiramisu. It is all delicious.

Well, Maddie, you were right, the class was 10/10 and I think something we can replicate at home. All in the shadow of Florences majestic Duomo. We’ve paid more in the past for lesser classes, but his one was one we too will highly recommend.