It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows Louise, mom and me that we LOVE food. We love cooking it. We love eating it. We love serving it. We love talking about it. And we LOOOOVE learning how to cook new things. So when we began to plan this trip, an Italian cooking class was a high priority for us.

Thanks to arrangements made by our hostess, Lucia, we spent an amazing day on Thursday learning how to make three traditional Tuscan dishes: vegetable soup, Chianti- stewed pork and almond biscuits. Or as they say in Tuscany, “Ribollita,” “Maiale Ubriaco” and “Biscottini con Vinsanto.”

Cecilia and her husband, Massimo, run the Osteria La Gramola in Tavernelle, a restaurant which offers traditional Tuscan cuisine made from local ingredients. And when I say “local”, I mean it: Cecilia told us that she only serves foods from produce which is in season, they only purchase local meats and dairy, and the wines and olive oils they offer are all from nearby producers. Guess that’s an easy rule to follow when you live in an area with such bounty.

We began our lesson with a quick orientation by Massimo, who told us that the soup we were going to make today was a dish that was traditionally made in a large batch by housewives/farmer’s wives in the autumn and winter, and added to on subsequent days to create different dishes.

For example, the vegetable soup would be made on Monday and served as “Minestrone,” reheated on Tuesday and slightly thickened with slices of day-old bread, when it would be called “Zuppa di Pane” (bread soup), and on the third day, the soup — along with the disintegrated bread slices, would be reheated and served as “Ribollita” (re-boiled).

Over the course of the three days, the soup would transform from a liquid broth with large chunks of winter vegetables like carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic and potatoes in a tomato broth into a wonderfully thick stew. And the flavor would ripen and intensify, as well.

Then we headed back into the kitchen with Cecilia to don our official aprons, wash our hands and get started on the Ribollita.

After chopping our vegetables and stirring in a bunch of extra virgin olive oil to coat them, we put the pot on the stove and started on the pork.

This dish is made from either pork shoulder or pork butt — something with lots of marbling which will break down as the pork stews.

After cutting the pork into large chunks, we added garlic cloves and roughly chopped parsley, then we browned off the pork in a hot pot (no olive oil).

Then we added Chianti. A whole bottle of Chianti.

We put a lid on the pot, stirred the Ribollita, and adjourned to the dining room for a wine lesson with Massimo (who is also a certified sommelier).  What made this lesson different from the ones at the wineries we visited is that we also learned about Vernaccia, the white wine produced in nearby San Gimignano. We sniffed, we swirled, Louise and mom tasted, then it was back to the kitchen to finish off the soup, check on the pork, and get the biscotti started.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of the biscotti-making, since it was “all hands on deck” for that recipe. But we started with local eggs, sugar and butter, then added flour, baking powder and vanilla powder. Finally, we added whole almonds. After everything was mixed and kneeded, we cut the lump of dough into about 6 pieces, then formed it into long rolls and baked it for about 25 minutes.

Oh, and I forgot about the white canelli beans. When we first arrived in the kitchen, Cecilia showed us a pot of white beans that she had soaked over night, and was now simmering in water with a bunch of sage and some whole garlic cloves. The beans had been cooking the entire time we were preparing our items. When the biscotti went into the oven, Cecilia scooped out about half of the cooked beans out of the cooking liquid and used a food mill to mash them. The mashed beans were stirred into the Ribollita to help thicken the broth, then the remaining whole beans and some of the broth from the beans went into the pot.

After a quick check on the pork — which smelled AMAZING!!!! — we arranged a layer of sliced stale bread onto the bottom of a shallow serving dish, then ladled the soup over top. Another layer of bread, another layer of soup, then the serving dish went into the warmer and we headed back into the dining room, this time for an olive oil lesson.

Finally, it was time to eat!

We started with some antipasti: local Tuscan sausage (with fennel, YUM!) and grilled bread upon which we rubbed a clove of garlic, sprinkled a bit of salt and drizzled with local olive oil.

Then our soup (the one on the right is the batch we made, and on the left was a batch from two days ago). Sorry for the photo quality — the lighting in the restaurant was a bit stark. But we were able to see and taste the difference between the Zuppa di Pane and the Ribollita.

I will be honest. At this point I was thinking we’d go directly to the biscotti. But I had forgotten all about that pork…

Cecilia served it with some of the white beans and some sauteed fresh spinach. Was the pork as good as it smelled? Let’s just say…I know what I’m making for Thanksgiving this year. Maiale Ubriaco. Wow.

Finally, Cecilia brought in a large cutting board and knife and sliced up our biscotti.

Massimo returned to pour small glasses of dessert wine (Vinsanto) to dip the biscotti in. Best of all, since the restaurant was open for business, we got to observe the locals come in for their lunch. I have to say, everything that came out of that kitchen looked AMAZING.

At that point, we were full.

And happy. Then something REALLY cool happened: Massimo and Cecilia presented us with certificates of completion for our course. I was totally blown away.

I don’t think I’ve been that happy since I got my certificate of completion after radiation in August!

It was a wonderful day. We loved the opportunity to learn about local cuisine and food products, and to get to know two very interesting and welcoming people.

Best of all, we’ll be going back to have lunch there on Sunday. Whatever I end up ordering, I know it will be AMAZING. Ciao!