Fruit Tart

In this lazy pre- Christmas afternoon in Florence

 I decided to make this delicious fruit tart.

Preheat the oven medium  temperature

Ingredients:

300 gr of flour

2 Spoonfull of sugar

grated lemon peel

one packet yeast

20 spoonful of soy milk

300 gr of jam

8 spoonful of oevo

Preheat the oven medium temperature

Pour the flour into a bowl

Pour into the bowl  the oil, milk, sugar, yeast, lemon peel,

Mix well in the spring and then begin to add the flour a little at a time

Work the dough for 4 minutes

Spread half of it into a greased medium size baken tin

Cover with jam

With the remaining dough, make strips

Arrange the strips making diamond-shaped intersection

Bake for 25/30 minutes

and then eat with a good Tuscan Vinsanto...

Merry Christmas!

Radicondoli, Siena, Tuscany

Radicondoli, lovely medieval hamlet in Siena Province

just one hour from Siena, it is full of festivals, village parties, concerts, theaters, a lively and lovely little village

with its own music band

and down below another Villa that a friend of mine would be happy to rent....

from Radicondoli, you can take one of the most fun wine tour ever in Tuscany! 

Umbria, Orvieto

     Beautiful day trip to Orvieto  only one hour far from Florence

            with an old friend of mine, that has got a wonderful Villa  in    Orvieto to rent ... see below

               that is the famous gothic Duomo  one of the most beautiful Cathedral of Italy

                                       the bell tower with a man ringing 

                                     the bell every hour

                                      pinocchio relaxing after a long walk

                                          a dog relaxing after a short drive 
                                         through Orvieto

                Orvieto in the distance and vineyards of the 

                               typical Orvieto wine       

                          called Orvieto Classico, doc

Civita di Bagnoreggio, the dying city.... 

built on a tufa hill very close to Orvieto, it worth a visit

nearby the famous wine region, only 40 minutes drive from Orvieto, called Sagrantino and Montefalco wine region,

have a look at my previous post: Sagrantino and Rosso di Montefalco wine

Florence cooking class: gnocchi with pesto recipe

Ingredients for gnocchi: 6 potatoes, 10 spoons of flour

6 potatoes to cook with steam not in the water, then when they are ok, take out the skin,  and smash with the masher

and let them to get cold

after about one hour you blend with a little flour; more flour harder gnocchi, less flour softer gnocchi...

 make a roll as big as a finger

and then cut in pieces put a little of flour and after finish all the gnocchi put in the boiled water they are ready in a couple of minutes when they come up from the bottom of the pot

 Pesto

Basil , pinoli and  extra virgin olive oil

You put everything all together  you crush until you get a soft sauce, 

in addition you can add a little garlic and parmigiano cheese, but I like just pure so it is more basil taste

Combination with wine:  Chardonnay, Chianti Colli Fiorentini o Chianti Classico around 2 or 3 years old

Buon Appetito!

Florence cooking class: Tuscan soup recipe, la Ribollita

Black cabbage from my yard

Ingredients: round cabbage, black cabbage, onions, garlic, carrots, potato, old bread, celery, extra virgin olive oil, salt, black pepper, cooked beans, tomato,

Having chopped the vegetables, make a fried oil with garlic and onion and some herbs, rosemary, sage, thyme, basil, when the onion is browned add two tablespoons of tomato, a glass of hot water, chopped carrots, celery, the cabbage into thin strips, sliced potatoes, salt and pepper, cook for 10 minutes, after that add the beans, half a liter of water and cook for an hour.

When the vegetables are cooked, add the sliced bread, beans and boil the whole mix for 10 minutes.

Pour into a bowl and serve with extra virgin olive oil

Good combination with wine: Chianti Classico, Rosso di Montalcino,

Tuscany: chianti in the Fall

                                           Some pretty pictures of this time of the year in Chianti

Piedmont: Barolo, Barbera, Barbaresco

In late  August I had a fantastic trip with three of my former clients Ava and Dorothy and two friends Marina e Pauline in Piedmont;

we wanted to discover the famous Barolo and Barbera wines, two DOCG wines with many rules such as Chianti or Brunello in Tuscany

 Barolo is the most famous of the two wines, it is a strong, full body, robust, complex, the wine is made with Nebbiolo grape and one of the main rule is the aging: at least three years in oak casks after the vintage

The production area is located south of Asti,  the views are stunning, the vineyards cover the region together with many castles being Piedmont rich of history

We went to Barolo, the town, house of the Barolo wine and we discovered three good wineries producing Barolo and Barbera.

Now we are already thinking at the next trip in Veneto for the Amarone tasting