Baked Tomatoes Filled with Rice
You can only use parboiled rice in this recipe since the grains stay separate. Non parboiled rice will turn into a sticky blob!
Eggplant, tomato and basil sauce with ricotta
This simple sauce relies on good eggplants (aubergines), tasty, ripe tomatoes, fresh basil and a good ricotta cheese. A real treat in the autumn 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.
Pomarola ~ Simple fresh tomato and basil sauce
During our cooking vacations in Italy, we teach you various tomato sauces, some that are packed with tasty vegetables and some that have a purer tomato taste. This simple sauce relies on good, tasty, ripe tomatoes, fresh basil and a good olive oil.
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!
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.
Vegetable-based Tomato Sauce
This is a good alternative to a classic tomato and basil sauce. It has more texture and a more subtle, less tart flavour.Great with potato gnocchi, pasta, or any recipe that calls for a tomato-based sauce.
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.
Fresh Basil Pesto
In the summer, nothing beats the pungent, aromatic flavours and satisfying texture of a home-made pesto sauce.
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!