Cookin' in Tuscany

As I mentioned, the whole trip to Italy started with a plan to go to a cooking school in Tuscany. Katie found our spot on the internet: A Taste Of Tuscany. It was great! You can actually stay in one of several villas they have on the property - but you need a reservation of about a week. As we were just in town for the weekend, we stayed at a hotel in Florence, but after getting a look at the villa that housed the cooking class and the surrounding buildings - I could seriously see going back just to soak up the Tuscan scenery! The school itself is set in a 13th century villa:  

We looked around the villa a little, but hey - we were there to cook, right? So we got to it!  

Our menu was bruschetta, ravioli stuffed with eggplant, gnocchi with pesto sauce, chicken and tiramisu! All from scratch and all delicious! In addition to our foursome we met Carrie, Martha and Nancy - great women who felt like old friends as we dived into our cooking class. Some action shots:  

That is Lisa our chef/teacher showing us all the best way to chop up tomatoes for bruschetta. 

 

We all got a chance to crank out the pasta in preparation for making our ravioli. 

Here is Katie, Nancy and I pushing all the air out of our just stuffed ravioli:  

We also rolled out gnocci:  

After we were done cooking and learning we sat down to enjoy the fruits of our labor:

It was really, really fantastic! I don't know how much I've improved my cooking skills, but I do feel brave enough to try making gnocchi and tiramisu from scratch! The hubby is pretty thrilled!