The Tuscan Kitchen, from the Farmhouse to the Villa - Italian cooking courses and wine tours in Tuscany, Italy

The Tuscan Kitchen, from the Farmhouse to the Villa
Available on request to groups

The Tuscan Kitchen, from the Farmhouse to the Villas, six full days celebrating the joys of Italian cooking, blends the simple and savory "cucina povera" of the farms with the elegant and bountiful cooking of the villas. You are taught and encouraged by talented chefs, and the course is held in our warm and inviting professional kitchen. It also includes wine tours, cultural visits, shopping and other activities.

The Bounty of Toscana

At Abbondanza Toscana cooking courses, we – and our chef Emanuela Dini - emphasize and celebrate the seasonal and fresh ingredients essential to produce the regional cucina renowned in this part of Tuscany.

The "mantra" of Italian cooking is: simple, elegant, seasonal and fresh.

Lucky visitors in the Spring will enjoy the excitement of the first vegetables to emerge from the garden and fresh herbs to snip just outside the door. Ingredients include springtime specialties like fava beans, piselli (the first peas), wild asparagus, as well as baby artichokes and spring lamb. Menus might include gnocchi casentino (early spinach and ricotta gnocchi), a peppery fava bean and pecorino salad, pasta primavera alla Selva and veal limone. A favorite Selva dessert is simply ricotta, from the local sheep, drizzled with miele di castagna (chestnut honey).

Summer brings the full glories of the garden, and menus might include a fig torte with the estate’s millefiore honey glaze; the famous Tuscan panzanella salad and pappa pomodoro; the season’s first zucchini blossoms, stuffed and baked or fried. A favorite combination at Selva is lemons and rosemary – combined with gorgonzola cheese, the result is a gorgeous sauce for pappardelle; combined with chicken which is then topped with a brick (yes! And you can do this at home, too!), you have a succulent crispy lemon chicken, the Selva version of pollo al mattone. A great finish is a sorbetto of apple and basil.

If you’re fortunate enough to arrange your stay in the Autumn, you will hear the vineyard workers laughing and calling across the fields. Menus will include recipes surrounding the vendemmia and olive harvest. The estate grapes, wrested from the hands of the winemaker, make a crunchy “winemaker’s cake" and an unusual fragrant, musty sauce for pasta. A new taste is given to pumpkin with zucca fritta topped with onion mostarda. The estate’s olives lend themselves to herbed green olives served cold, wine-roasted black olives served warm and fragrant olive bread.

Winter has become a favorite time to travel to Tuscany. The winter chill is warmed by the Tuscan sun and the seasonal greetings of the Lucchese, “Tanti Auguri” (many good wishes!) The festively-lit winding streets are uncrowded and you'll enjoy the ease with which one zips through museum ticket lines and shops. Winter also brings its own special culinary flavors, punguent and earthy: braised cinghiale (wild boar), Tuscan beef with balsamico sauce, olive oil from the first gathering (prima raccolta), persimmons sweetened by the frost, selveggiana (pheasants, rabbit and other seasonal game brought in by the hunters). Winter, too, brings the glories of a Tuscan fireside!

To see a sample week for this course, please click here