Cooking with Valentina Harris in Tuscany: Intensive Immersion Program

With more than 350 varieties of pasta in Italy, it's easy to understand why it is the staple of every good Italian's diet. While many credit Marco Polo with the introduction of pasta or spaghetti to Italy, noodles have actually been present in the region since the time of the ancient Etruscans and Romans.

Tuscans take their pasta making very seriously, and the skill is one passed down through generations of Tuscans around the world. Choosing the right pasta to go with the right sauce is crucial, as is the method and timing required to make and cook the pasta dough.

Over the course of today you will learn all the basics of traditional Italian pasta making starting with a selection of the right kind of flour and followed by a gentle process of kneading and folding the dough by hand using the traditional method. Learn about the history, names and meanings of different pasta shapes and discover which sauces accompany which types of pasta in Tuscany.

All the ingredients for the pasta fillings and sauces come straight from local producers, including the villa's own organic kitchen gardens and farm.

Make ricotta-filled ravioli with sage, tagliolini with sausage ragù, and gnocchi with sheep’s cheese that comes from the surrounding local farms. 

For our adventurous chefs in the coming days, we will also explore gourmet pasta and Risotto dishes served with the elusive and precious tartufo (truffle).  You will learn how to make ravioli with truffle and ricotta, truffled tagliolini, and gnocchi with truffle and sheep's cheese. 

With a truffle expert near San Miniato (world famous for tartufo) we will venture into the woods to see the lands where truffles come from and hopefully find some ourselves as we learn how to store and create various products with tartufo, but today is dedicated to pasta! 

Today will be dedicated to Italian cheese including Pecorino, Ricotta, Mozzarella and a variety of other local cheese unique to this area.

We will start our day by heading to a local farm about 30 minute drive from our villa where we will be able to understand the art of creating artisan cheese.  The demonstration this morning will allow you to see that there is an elaborate process that goes into  pecorino, including the phases in between when the first curds float to the top and are extracted to make the simple cream-like raveggiolo and its salted equivalent, primo sale.

We will also witness and learn the secret to making great ricotta, which gains its name from the fact that the whey leftover from making pecorino is 'recooked' and transformed into cheese with the addition of fresh sheep's milk.

Since there are a number of local chesse which produced here we will also be purchasing some cheese and sampling cheese which we will be using again in some other dishes. 

At the farm today you will enjoy a light lunch where we will be pairing some of the cheese with local wines and meats so you can first hand experience these rich flavors.

In the afternoon we return to the villa for some quiet time followed by our late afternoon pizza making demonstration where we will be focusing on preparing the dough which we will need to leave to sit, during which time we will head to the spa town of Montecatini where you will have access to the thermal baths. 

Return to the villa to prepare the rest of our pizza ingredients and bake them in the oven this evening. 

Tuscany boasts one of the cleanest coastlines on the Italian peninsula and supplies some of Italy's finest fresh fish.  Our villa is located in fact only 45 minutes from the coast and it is here where we will head to to explore the daily catch of seafood that comes in from the Tyrrhenian Sea which includes sea bass, red mullet, mussels, clams, octopus and more.

We will inspect the sea-food and purchase the catch on-site. Before heading back to the villa we will give you some time in Viareggio for some time to see the town, grab a coffee on an outdoor terrace before heading back to the villa to begin our lessons for the day which will be focusing on traditional fish and seafood course, where Valentina will teach you how to marinate anchovies, make risotto with black squid ink, cook octopus in red wine sauce, and create the world-famous cacciucco fish stew.

Today is an advanced session and at true seafood cookery class where you will learn to cook scampi or jumbo prawns with spelt and herbs, whole anchovies, pici pasta with red prawns, and roasted sea bass with green peas and peanuts. 

Playing with many ingredients from the garden and looking at how Italian cooking in so far as seafood is concerned can also be very similar to the Japanese at times and in fact Japanese and Italian cooking are becoming more and more of a fused art form in Italy.

Today will certainly be an experience you will not want to miss and one well worth coming to Italy for if just for this! 

Panforte is Siena's pride and joy, often referred to as 'Italian fruit cake'. Made from dried fruit, nuts, honey and spices, it dates back to the thirteenth century when Crusaders carried this so-called 'strong bread' or 'peppered bread' with them for energy. In fact, the people of Siena believe that each cake should contain 17 different ingredients to represent each of the city's contrade (neighborhoods).

Ricciarelli are also native to Siena and date back to the fourteenth century. These macaroon-type biscuits are made with almonds, sugar and egg whites, topped with icing sugar and traditionally served at Christmas with a warming glass of vin santo.

Pesche di Prato also have an intriguing history. Created to celebrate the unification of Italy in 1861, these little Italian sweets resemble a peach in appearance and are made using orange and lemon zest and liqueur. Traditionally served at Easter, these delicious treats are still popular with Tuscans today.

• The Antipasto and wine for the meal 
• Soup 
• First Courses - Risotto and Pasta 
• Second Course  
• Salads 
• Side Dishes 
• Desert