What better way to celebrate Carnival & Fat Tuesday than with fritters fried in pork fat?! Castagnole are a specialty of Carnevale and eaten across Italy during this period. Pastry shops are filled with Italian fritters drizzled in honey or rolled in sugar with the ruby colored alkermes liquor atop.

Make your kitchen smell outright divine with this Tuscan-based slow roasted tomato bread soup, Pappa al Pomodoro. This recipe is a perfect example of eating with the seasons & peasant cooking. Using our homegrown tomatoes & garlic along with stale bread - with only three ingredients, the taste is explosive!

Originating in Tuscany (about an hour away) we can't resist sharing this mouthwatering recipe at our farmhouse during summer cooking classes with dinner alfresco - using our plump and juicy homegrown piccadilly, datorini & cherry tomatoes!

On a warm Spring afternoon we added Fried Elderflowers or fiori di sambuco fritti  to the menu - these edible flowers when fried in a beer batter create a light, crunchy, aromatic antipasti/appetizer!

For an experience unlike any other, with a knife in hand, learn to butcher a whole hog with an Italian Master Butcher. This is NOT a demonstration. This is a roll your sleeves up, elbow deep in meat kinda class, not for the faint of heart. And for those that choose, be witness to the slaughter the morning before.

LIVE from ITALY - Online Cooking Classes
Sunday, February 16, 2014

LIVE from ITALY: Online Cooking Class Sunday, January 26, 2014

We are back at it again!

Fall Farro Salad with Pomegranate, Walnut & Truffles
Insalata di farro con melagrane, noci e tartufi

Butchering, sausage making, truffles, mushroom hunt & wine tour in Italy

A Fall Favorite ~

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

1 medium-large butternut squash, seeded and cut into thick 1 -inch slices
salt & pepper
8 tablespoons of olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 medium red onion, sliced paper thin
1 clove of garlic, sliced paper thin
handful of fresh oregano
pinch of red chili flakes