Cooking Class

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Today was our first day in Tuscany and knowing that we would need a little break after Rome, we arranged a cooking class at the Villa.

At 11:30 we donned our aprons and reviewed the menu:

Ravioli filled with potatoes, nutmeg, parsley and parmesan;

Chicken “Hunter Style,” with garlic, rosemary, sage and wine; and

Panna Cotta, a custard-like dessert.

We started with Chef Hanna, who helped us prepare pasta from scratch. When the pasta was completed Chef Anna, a Scottish ex-pat, arrived to help us prepare the chicken and the panna cotta.

When we were done, we moved out to a patio overlooking the beautiful rolling hills of Tuscany, poured some wine and enjoyed our home-cooked lunch.

Later that afternoon, armed with a map, we visited a few of the local wineries. We say “armed with a map,” because the GPS in our rental car was not working. Without an operational GPS we had to rock it old school … taking to the winding roads of Tuscany with a simple map.

In perhaps the most wondrous occurrence of the entire trip, it turns out that … against all odds … Jeff and Fuzz make a pretty good navigation team, with Jeff at the wheel and Fuzz with the map (not that Fuzz and Jeff should get all the glory … because Jeanne, Karen and Mal certainly had “many helpful suggestions” from the backseat).

Over the course of the next couple of days we made a few, we but not that many wrong turns, which included driving through the parking lot of the local grocery.

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Photos

Chef Mal
Malcolm has either been taking a cooking lesson, or he has joined the Klan.