The recipe names are funny. This is a personal favorite: naked ravioli. Naked? Yes, they have no pasta dough around them, so the classic spinach and ricotta filling is simply made into a gnocchi-like dumpling. In other areas, they are known as strozzapreti, “priest-chokers,” but strozzapreti can also be a long hand-rolled spaghetti-like pasta, which I would…
Food Markets in Tuscany
When ever I go anywhere, the first place I want to see is the city market. If it is a large town, there will be a market in a building. Smaller towns have weekly markets in the small squares once a week or more. We have monthly markets for organic food markets, flea markets and…
Taste Chianti- New APP
2016 has started off with a bang. Doors closing but new doors opening. I closed my teaching space to concentrate on my weeklong programs and offer “Divine Day Trips” Custom tours of the market, day trips into Chianti or lessons at your villa. I spent the past winter recreating my app, which Sutro had…
Tuscan Fall Pleasures- Chickpea Pancakes
Old recipes are new again, Cecina, a gluten free crepe,is popping up all over again. I am always thrilled with I get return students. This past season, I hosted a student from 10 years ago, that has now found a new path. For her program, using food to heal people, gluten-free cooking is a large…
New Beginnings
There is nothing more that I love more than new beginnings. This year I decided to close my teaching space in Colle Val D’Elsa, after 5 years. I had a 5 year plan, which was to have a space like my via Taddea space in Florence, but in Chianti. Been there, done that. In the…
Change of Seasons- Fall
Returning from Sicily where the temperatures were still hot, Tuscany was a little cooler and fall is starting to show it’s colors. The wine harvest has started and the roads are full of trucks bringing grapes to be crushed. The roads are stained with grape juice and the fragrance fills the air. …
Sicily is DIVINA
I have never been to Sicily in September. Usually, I come “off-season” in March for the St Joseph’s day celebrations , in May, just before the tourist season starts or in Fall when the new oil is being pressed. This trip has been so incredible. We saw the salt being harvested at the salt flats. The…
Bless this Kitchen- San Lorenzo
August 10th is the feast day of San Lorenzo, he is considered patron saint of cooks as well as the poor and librarians. He was grilled alive so is depicted with a grill by his side and often holding a book, as he had protected the written documents of the church. I have a collection…