One-Day Cooking Classes at Poggio Etrusco

If you are staying at Poggio Etrusco, or will be in the area, it is possible to book a culinary workshop for a small group. You can choose from the topics below (when available), or request your own subject to focus on. The price, €195/person, includes the lesson (with printed recipes in English), lunch and wine. There is a 2-person minimum. Group prices available for groups of 10 or more. To reserve a space in a one-day workshop, please feel free to contact us by using our convenient contact form, or telephone at (39) 0578 798 370.

Some popular classes include:

Cucina Povera
10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Learn the classic peasant cuisine of Tuscany featured in Pamela's recent book, Cucina Povera, and hear stories of how Tuscans managed in harder times. As we munch on some tasty appetizers, we'll bake a loaf of the local bread that features in many of those recipes (using Pamela's starter made from fermenting grapes). The bread will be used to make a seasonal dish for our first course (panzanella, ribollita, or pappa al pomodoro, for example). We'll learn techniques for making tender delicious main courses from lean meats, such as Peposo, beef braised in red wine and peppercorns...and finish with an amazing dessert featuring chestnuts and chestnut flour.

Artisanal Italian Pantry
10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Your cooking is only as good as your ingredients! Spend the morning with cookbook author Pamela Sheldon Johns as she explores the Italian artisanal pantry, with explanations and tastings of olive oils, vinegars (including 30-year-old traditional balsamic vinegar), capers, pasta, rice, and little-known ingredients such as fennel flowers. Lunch is a hands-on cooking class utilizing the artisanal ingredients with Italian regional dishes such as Modenese gnocco fritto with a prosciutto tasting, Piemontese risotto with seasonal vegetables, Porchetta from our neighbor's oven with grilled vegetables, and pistachio gelato. After lunch we will take a visit to an antique frantoio, an olive pressing mill, for a demonstration and tasting of oils.

The Farmers’ Market/ Ribollita with a Tuscan Home Cook
(only on Wednesdays and Thursdays)
8:30 am – 3:00 pm
We arrive early to the colorful local farmers' market to buy the fresh ingredients we need to make the classic local dishes. After the market we will return for hands-on cooking class to make Bruschette, Crostini Fegatini, and fried leaves and flowers. Depending on the season, we may make Ribollita, a vegetable/bread soup...or a variety of dishes using summer vegetables. You will love our neighbor's grilled sausages, and for dessert, Crostata di Fichi (a jam tart made with our own organic figs).

Fresh Pasta
10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Today we learn the fine art of fresh pasta, including handrolled pici, the local pasta specialty, and ravioli filled with fresh sheeps' milk ricotta and greens. To accompany the pasta, we'll make aglione, the traditional spicy tomato sauce, and a classic ragù. Our protein will be a tender pork loin braised in white wine, and dessert will be olive oil cake and a seasonal homemade gelato.

Gluten-free Tuscan dishes

Zucchini flowers battered in rice flour and fried
White Bean-Rosemary Crostini on gluten-free toasts
Frittata Rustica
Gnudi (Spinach and Ricotta Dumplings) with spicy tomato sauce
Pollo Arrosto al Vin Santo,, roasted Chicken with Vin Santo Sauce
Virio’s Figs, baked fresh or dried figs stuffed with walnut and cheese
Marsala gelato

Tuscan Vegetarian (please specify if you are vegan)
Recipes from Pamela's book, Williams-Sonoma Vegetarian for All Seasons:

Fried green tomatoes
Rice croquettes
Caprese with buffalo mozzarella and garden tomatoes
Chickpea and Cannellini bean (soup or salad, depending on the season)
Pasta al Forno with seasonal vegetables (mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini)
Biscotto al Prato and seasonal gelato

Request your own subject
Interested in a focus on pasta sauces, appetizers, or a menu from other regions of Italy? Let Pamela know, and she will be happy to discuss this with you.

Food lovers
Let us arrange visits to our nearby historic villages: Montepulciano, Montalcino, Pienza, Cortona. Here you will find artisans specialized in ceramics, copper kitchenware, leather, shoemakers, and our local traditional products: Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Brunello, Pecorino di Pienza, and more.