Cooking up a storm

The next morning we woke up to blue skies which was nice, as when we checked the forecast the day before they had predicted possible storms. After breakfast we chilled in the room for an hour or so until it was time to head to the next town for a Tuscan cooking class! So we headed downstairs, and I put my sunglasses on as we opened the front door, only to be greeted with grey skies and some light rain. Oh. Ryan said he's just pop upstairs to go and get the umbrella - 5 minutes later he still hadn't found it (we hadn't brought our whole bags to the hotel as it was a 10 minute walk uphill so we had just bought some changes of clothes for a few days). Within that 5 minutes as well the rain suddenly turned torrential, but we had no choice but to walk out into it so that we could get to the car and to the cooking class on time! Within 30 seconds we both looked like we'd jumped into a pool, so after giving up on running and slipping on the cobblestones, we just laughed and sauntered the rest of the way to the car. Lucky our bags were still in the car, so we both dried off a bit and changed clothes. So by the time we arrived at nearby Il Vicario we only looked like half drowned rats.

Ryan is so good he can make pasta with his eyes closed

We met the lovely Katia who was taking the class, and her husband Fluvio. We were doing the class with 5 Americans - one couple from Minnesota and 3 women from North Carolina, and although yes they were loud Americans, they were all very funny and friendly. We were just doing a basic cooking course, even though Ryan could have done the expert course but not only was it not offered that day, but it was 3 times the price. So due to imposed austerity measures to cope with our fine dining, basic Tuscan cooking it was. Katia gave us a bit of a background to Tuscan cooking, and how you don't really need to follow recipes, as each dish just has a few core ingredients, and measurements of them are not at all strict (compared with say baking). So we first started with making some pici, which is a hand-rolled pasta like a fat spaghetti - just 2 types of flour, a touch of salt and some water - no egg. It was really very easy.

Ryan cooking under Katia's watchful eye

Then we headed to the kitchen and all pitched in to make the accompanying aglione (garlic sauce - garlic, tinned whole tomatoes, oil, salt, pepper and tiny amount of chilli) and a second fagioli cannellini e timo sauce (cannellini beans with thume, onion, parmesan, oil, salt, pepper and  tiny amount of chilli). Both so simple and easy. Next we prepared the panzanella salad - the key ingredient in this was some very stale Tuscan bread. It was rock hard, but once you soak that in water for a few seconds, wring it out and then mix it with fresh tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and generous serves of olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt/pepper then the bread soaks up everything and is re-born. Quite remarkable how soft it becomes again - I love all the historical back-stories behind each dish, like how this was a "poor" person's dish as it uses old bread (as they never threw away food).

Our appetiser plate

So along with some young, middle and older age buffalo milk pecorino cheeses and some simple tomato and/or garlic bruschettas, we enjoyed the panzanella salad for our appetiser, all washed down with a glass of Vernaccia - a white wine from San Gimignano that I think was the first wine ever to be given the official DOC status, and which I really like. I will have to try and get my Italian mate up the road at Cittavino to order me in some in Aus :) This was soon followed by our pici with the aglione sauce or the cannelini bean sauce, washed down of course with a glass of Chianti and everyone sharing some tales of their travels in Italy.

Our homemade pici and aglione sauce

Saltimbocca in preparation

Then back into the kitchen to make the second course of saltimbocca- a thin slice of chicken breast, with a slice of prosicutto, garlic clove and sage leaf - season with salt and peppper, skewer them together, dip in flour and then fry in some vinsanto sweet wine. Too easy! And it was so tasty! Especially when washed down with a glass of Chianti Reserve. So that all wrapped up at about 4pm, by which time all the rain had passed and the sun was back out! So once back in San Gimignano, we headed to the top of the hill where there was a wine museum! Even though I'm not a huge fan of museums, this one was a good one - it had 3 small rooms which didn't require much reading, and then there is a tasting room :) Aw yeah, now this is my type of museum.

Terrace views with Chianti of course

jSo with another 2-3 hours before sunset left, we decided to spend our last night in San Gimignano, and indeed Tuscany, on the beautiful terrace, even though it was pretty damn windy by this stage! But this spot was a great discovery and such a stunning vista that we just enjoyed the wind blowing through our hair!

Determined not to let the high winds ruin my rooftop sunset viewing

More terrace sunsets

Our favourite restaurant was closed that night, being a Tuesday, which was OK as we were still pretty full after our cooking class. So once the sun set, we wandered around town once more, which really is adorable. Then Ryan had somehow worked up another appetite so stopped into a restaurant where we ordered a couple of pastas, of which I had 0.5 and Ryan had 1.5. So by 10pm it was time to head to the nearby bar which was showing the Brazil vs Germany match. So we sat out in streets expecting to watch a very exciting game - lucky there were quite a few Germans in the crowd. The bar owner had a horn to hoot every time a goal was scored, so in the flurry of German goals around the 20th minute there was an equal flurry of horn hooting which was pretty funny. In the end the bar owner just surrended the horn to some of the German supporters as it was getting ridiculous. What a game! We ended up meeting a couple of nice guys who live in Canada and after the 7-1 thrashing had a nightcap of grappa with them before finally hitting the hay.

Watching Germany thrash Brazil