October 9, 2017-Monday Evening, Arezzo

October 9, 2017-Monday Evening, Arezzo

Andréa, our driver, picked us up in the van and drove us across town to Chef Lalla’s cooking studio. Little did we know how fabulous this would be. She greeted us with stuzzichini – a delicious bruschetta, cheese with clementine jam and an aperitivo of  prosecco.

After donning our aprons, we mixed the flour and eggs together for the pasta, and we began to roll the dough.

Here is the pile of noodles made by the six of us. We all got busy with food prep while Chef Lalla gave advice and worked at the stove top.

The Tagliatelle “au coltello” Con Ragú di Salciccia e Timo, the primo or first course was ready. Tagliatelle refers to the type of noodle. Since we cut all sizes of noodles for practice, our version isn’t just tagliatelle. Ragú di salciccia e timo means it is a sausage meat sauce with thyme. It was delicious,hearty and savory.

Chef Lalla ate a small portion, but then returned to her cooking station, a five burner gas range, to complete the preparation of the Segundo, or second course, escalloped Italian zucchini and potato. She also prepared the chicken fillets, cooked in vinasanto, a sweet white wine. It is customary for Italians to eat all of these courses in a slow hearty meal. While we enjoyed eating the segundo, she prepared the dessert – sliced apples also cooked in the vinsanto and topped with ricotta mousse and pine nuts. For the official Italian, see the menu below.

Our cooking adventure has begun, and we have 3 more of these extravagant lessons ahead of us.