Florence Cooking Class

One of my personal learning goals for myself for this trip was to do a cooking class or two. I really had a French cooking class in mind, since I'm a fan of Julia Child and especially love her book, "My Life in France" which really inspires the French epicurean sensibility.

Since I didn't manage to get that together and Lila Brown did, Tuscan cooking it was. Lila organized a class for three of us with Sharon Oddson of La Cucina di Garga, the cooking school branch of Garga Trattoria.

I arrive with my cooking partners, Lila....
and Sandra at the Trattoria where we waited for Sharon...









Then we headed over to Sharon's home kitchen which was beautiful stocked with all the ingredients for our class.

First we prepared the pastry for dessert and then we roasted the tomatoes for the Primi Piatti.

We dice, sliced and sipped wine. We learned the proper way to butterfly and tie a lamb roast (prepared with mint).

Most excitingly, we learned how relatively simple it is to make fresh pasta.

By the way, watch out for these two and their new venture Divina Catering.

While I'm sure it's much easier to get it right with a pasta machine, I plan to try it at home.

(left) Pecorini, basil and mint, ready to be gound up and mixed with the home-made bow-ties.

(right) Artichokes steamed after a rinse in lemon water.

Here is the artichoke and mozarella salad, ready to eat...

...the chef, ready to eat it...

...the Bow-tie pasta..

The Roasted Lamb with mint...

....and finally to cap it all off, pastry with fresh fig, marscapone, with a touch of balsamic vinegar.