Vaga-Blog - Volume I - Tuscany (June 7)

WHO NEEDS BARILLA WHEN YOU HAVE DONATELLA

Today Giulio brings the party to us. The timing is perfect, because I think we’re all ready for a day where we don’t drive somewhere. Tuscany is breathtakingly beautiful, but the disadvantage of being up in the hills is that it takes a while to get most places.

Today’s lesson is fresh pasta making, led by Giulio’s cousin Donatella – who doesn’t speak any English. Giulio is kind enough to interpret for both sides. She guides us through making pasta dough, which turns into two parts of a three course lunch. The first is a ricotta, nutmeg and spinach tortelli (like American tortellini) with a butter sage sauce. Giulio teaches us the secret to the sauce – heating up the butter, turning off the heat and adding the sage to seep. Then it sits for a while and just before you add the pasta to toss, you remove the sage leaves to avoid burning them. The next course is a wide flat pasta, pappardelle, which he serves with a fresh tomato/basil sauce that just tastes like Italy.

As we finish cleaning up the lunch dishes, we stumble into a bottle of Prosecco in the fridge that demands our attention. There, as you can imagine, went the afternoon. For dinner, we create an expansive buffet of fresh ingredients and invite everyone to make their own pizzas as we relax on the terrace.

Glasses of Prosecco consumed by moi: 3
Types of fresh sausage included in the pizza toppings: 5
Guests who heard or saw Steve sleepwalking, au naturel: 3