Cooking Courses

Discover the authentic Italian cuisine

The flavor and goodness of authentic Italian cuisine emerges from the use of impeccably fresh ingredients from the pantry: a variety of meats, fish and shellfish, and vegetables; cheeses and breads as well as pasta, grains, and pulses; aromatic herbs; mushrooms and truffles; fruit of all kinds.

For our clients who want to learn more about Italian cuisine, we are able to offer cooking courses in Lucca and Chianti: they include lessons with hands-on experience in professional kitchens as well as visits to food markets, practical lessons in the selection of raw materials, and careful schooling in the noble art of Italian table setting.

Italian vegetables are noted for their flavour, and their exceptional quality is due to both the long growing season and the cultivator's skill. They are not grown for size or shape but they are allowed to reach full maturity in natural surroundings, and picked ripe when the flavours are fully developed and at their most acute. Typical of Italian vegetables are the peppers (pepperoni), aubergines (melanzane), plum tomatoes (pomodori san marzano), the green beans (fagiolini), artichokes (carciofi), asparagus (asparagi), aromatic fennel (finocchio), mushrooms (funghi) and a variety of salad leaves that include rocket, red chicory, escarole, spinach, the famous lollo rosso—a frizzy red leaf—and radicchio, another red leaf.

Italian cuisine relies heavily on the use of fresh fish: coastal regions benefit from the daily catch from the sea; in the more mountainous regions, fish are procured from freshwater lakes and streams. Typical of the Italian fish are anchovies, whitebait, sardines, red mullet, sea bass, sea bream, salt cod and fish steaks such as swordfish, tuna, and monkfish, all of which can be fried, baked, boiled, or barbecued.

Italians prize shellfish for their briny flavour, and the most widely used are mussels (cozze or mitili), clams (vongole or arselle), and squid (calamari) as well as cuttlefish (seppe), octopuses (polipi), prawns (gamberi), superb langoustine and crab (granchio). Also, oysters, scallops, and host of exotic and lesser-known varieties. They are served as a stand-alone dish as sauces.

Although there is very little meat eaten during the course of an Italian meal, a great variety of it is used including game, domesticated and cured meats (salumi): game includes duck, quail, guinea fowl and rabbit; meat includes beef (manzo), lamb (agnello), veal (vitello), pork (maiale), venison (cervo) and offal (frattaglie) as well as the much-prized and really delicious wild boar (cinghiale). Cured meats include mortadella made from finely-ground pork; bresaola, wafer -thin cuts of air-dried beef fillet; pancetta, unsmoked bacon; coppa, cured pork aged for 3 months; salami, either fresh, dry-aged or cooked and preserved; prosciutto – either crudo (raw), salted, air-dried pork leg or prosciutto cotto, cooked ham.

Italy has over 450 local cheeses, and each is a product of geography, history and tradition: every region has its own hand-made cheeses which are based on cow, sheep, goat or buffalo milk.

Typical of Italian cheeses are the great mozzarella, ricotta, mascarpone, grana padano, aged and young pecorino, fontini, toma and, of course, the aristocrats of them all, gorgonzola and parmesan.

Pulses, grain, and the many products made from them have formed the bulk of the Mediterranean diet for over 4,000 years: pulses include a variety of beans, chick peas, polenta and rice: pasta comes in well over 350 varieties, and it can be dried – factory-made from durum wheat semolina flour mixed with water – or fresh when it is made in the home with wheat flower and eggs; breads and sweet breads come in an infinite variety.

A wide variety of herbs are used in Italian cooking, but they are invariably employed in smallish quantities: basil (basilica), marjoram (maggiorana), oregano (oregano), fennel, mint (menta), rosemary (rosmarino), sage (salvia) and bay (alloro) are but a few; sea salt, pepper (pepe), saffron (zafferano), cloves (chiodi di garofano), cinnamon, nutmeg, juniper, and chilly peppers are the main spices.

Other ingredients found in the Italian pantry include canned tuna, anchovies in oil, dried porcini, capers (capperi), tomato products, olives, fine balsamic vinegar and – most important of all – olive oil (olio d'oliva). We believe the highly aromatic, fruity, cold-pressed, extra-virgin oil derived from the first pressing is essential: its colour varies from deep gold to grass green, and its flavour and aroma are affected by the olive variety, soil type and climate. It is best used relatively young.

A traditional, fully-blown Italian meal consists of many courses: bruschetta to start off with; antipasta like bresaola with olive oil and lemon; then primi piatti which is usually pasta with tomato seafood, or meat sauce although it could be simply with garlic and olive oil; secondi di pesce, a fish course like calamari ripieni in teglia; secondi di carne like veal scallops or wild boar; a contorni, often a salad; dolci, a sweet; and formaggi, a cheese selection. All are accompanied by fine wines and followed by coffee and grappa.

It is, however, rare that such a gastronomic marathon is practical – or really even desirable – and it is now fashionable to pick and choose what one wants: a reduced version of the above, for example; or just a simple salad composed of various leaves and wafers of semi-dried parmesan cheese with olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzled over them, and followed by a small fish steak poached over beans in a spicy sauce.