Okay so where to begin.... So let's recap.
Monday: Truffle digging with bella and furla
Tuesday: toured pretty much everything sustainable, eco-friendly, biodynamic traditional area in florence. Lots of informational sessions and presentations. A tad dry for my foodie liking.
Wednesday: Cheese Day!
This day we were at Palace Ruccelai and we got to taste over 20 different types of cheeses. Our professors is a lover of all things goat so first on the list of cheese's of course was a little goat cheese. These here are my personal favorite. If anyone out there in this world of internet who knows me, knows that i do not eat cheese outright, picking up a piece of cheese and eating it creeps me out. But dum-dum-da-dum dum, ladies and gentlemen I have stepped out of the box and grabbed me some cheese. Thank you, thank you very much. And to top it off I even have two favorites! But please no standing ovation and don't you dare go out and buy me any cheese.
So in class we got a little background on her goats of course, and then a little bit about the cheese making process. We were already equipped with the prior knowledge of making ricotta so much of the class was spent tasting. Fruit and crackers were even provided for in between fresh, aged and aging cheese tastings. We tasted italian gorgonzola, french roquefort 1070, english cheddars, italian parmesan of course, dutch gouda, french camembert and so many goats and other salted cheeses. Many smoked and covered in hay, it was quite the site.
Now moving on to our big and final day, Thursday: This day was the end all be all of being an agriculture student. I know I said before that I think they feed us ag kids more than any other, well if I didn't think that before I sure as heck do now. So we trekked into the hills of Tuscany early in the morning to only find ourselves at the top of a mountain where this lovely couple and their family resided there to help us prepare a sustainable meal. We are a bit obsessed with sustainability in case you haven't gotten that. So the husband, was a celebrity chef but of course left the field to stay at home and share his skill with his family and those traveling abroad; the wife, she teaches middle school and they have two children. The kitchen is huge, filled with canisters of flours and wheats, millions of jars in their spice cabinet; there is so much you can tell about a cook by looking at their spice cabinet, uhh I love it, it's like a candy store to me. So the group of us 12 are divided up amongst the tasks for the meals. The menu is so delicious it would make your mouth water.
Appetizer: Roasted eggplant, roasted red and yellow peppers, and tomato and basil crostini's
Primo: Spinach and Ricotta filled ravioli with sage and butter. These were twice the size of a deck of cards uhh delicious. We eat these often in our house here in italy except we put pesto on them! so goood.
Secondo: Red sauce from scratch with homemade gnocchi
Contorni: Roasted pork loin with roasted onions
Dolce: Tiramisu!
Espresso of course, but pass for me, although i am slowly entertaining the idea of sharing a cup of cappucino one of these mornings
gnocchi, all made by hand
The table we ate at outside, this was so italy it was like gushing! It was sunny, there were kittens running around, we were sharing in great conversation and eating more than we could chew. It was the perfect day for a perfect meal. Afterwards we all piled on a bench and absorbed the sunshine and felt warm and full.
the large and in charge ravioli
the pork
The dolce, I was in charge of this, I am a master at this now! We used Amaretto this time, Marsala the last, but oh boy did I have one too many servings!
This was one of the kitties that sat next to us on the bench at the table. So adorable. I was trying not to cheat on my kitty. This one liked gnocchi and tomatoes, it was totally italian.
After this meal we made our way to the biodynamic farm. This is a another story that I will tell you about soon. Let's just say the whole sustainabilty and cycle of all life as we know it, was demonstrated at this farm. I will upload some pic's and fill you in on the conclusion to our last day of workshops....for now at least!
