Roast Peppers & Goat’s Cheese Canapés

Crostini are little appetizers that you can invent yourself depending on what’s in season and what ingredients you happen to have around. We often serve these crostini (which are red, white and yellow) alongside our green salsa verde crostini. A pretty combination!
Pear and Fig Tart

Pear and Fig Tart

You can make this tart with pretty much any fruit, but the combination of figs and pears is divine! During our cooking classes in Tuscany, we use ripe figs from the trees at the top of the hill.

Peperonata ~ Stewed bell peppers

This dish is even nicer the day after it has been made and is delicious warm, cold and at room temperature!

Fruit and Custard Tart

This is a tart to rival a patisserie bought one. In our cooking courses in Italy we show you just how the pastry should be rolled out: quickly, gently but firmly. It takes some practice, but is well worth mastering. Delicious with soft fruit such as raspberries.

Slow-cooked green beans in a tomato sauce

This is a signature dish of the late great Mario, the multitalented father of Tina who used to be one of our amazing instructors at our cooking classes in Italy. You may say that you like your green beans to be firm and crunchy, but after tasting this dish you may also appreciate their sweet, melt-in-the-mouth quality when slow cooked.
eggplant croquettes

Eggplant /Aubergine Croquettes

One of the most delicious things invented! Best fried just before you serve them, but they are fine at room temperature too if it’s a hot day. These go quickly when we make them at our cooking school in Tuscany!

Tuscan Grape Harvest Cake

In Tuscany, this complex-flavoured but simple to make cake is only made for a few weeks a year, when the small, sweet, seedy red grapes are around (many are “gleaned” in the vineyards after the harvest). Use the sweetest red grapes you can.

Minestrone alla Genovese ~ Silky vegetable soup with basil pesto

This soup is almost too solid to be called a soup. Its flavours are very rich, with the mushrooms and basil really adding a great depth of flavour.

Zucchini (courgette) and ricotta sauce

The pungency of the garlic and fresh flavor of the basil make this a delicious sauce. The zucchini that we use on our cooking courses in Tuscany are small and light green skinned.

Fried Zucchini Blossoms

This is a dish to be made and savoured immediately. You can even make it as a pre-dinner nibble while you finish cooking something time-consuming with friends.