Florentine restaurants
Katie Campbell talk at BM Bookshop 12 May 2012
May 2, 2012 | 
Author 2.5.12
Preparing for Tuscan Garden Tour – 12-18 May 2012
View from La Foce
Katie tells me that when she does Garden Tours for other Travel Businesses she usually does fewer gardens and less activities – so I hope that we don’t rush any one with the very busy schedule that I have planned for these tours – essentially four gardens a day, with one of them also showing us the inside of a historic villa and providing us with a taste of their own wine - that seems to me a worthwhile use of a day?
John Werich, new owner of the BM Bookshop has offered to host our opening talk at 16.00 on Saturday 12th May – Katie is going to give a presentation linking the premiss of her book Paradise of Exiles – Anglo-American gardens of Florence to the gardens we have already visited and also to the excellent Americans in Florence exhibition currently on show at the Strozzi Palace.
We look forward to meeting both Florentines and “Exiles” in Paradise at the newly refurbished bookshop and hope to have some late joiners on the forthcoming tours.
La Foce
Outline of Tuscan Garden tours for 12-18th May 2012
Saturday 12 May - 16.00 - Katie will give a presentation, Q&A and refreshments at the newly and beautifully refurbished BM Bookshop on Borgo Ognissanti.
Monday 14 May
private tour to gardens in and around Fiesole
10.00 Sybil Cutting’s Villa Medici with garden redeveloped by English landscape gardener and architect Cecil Pinsent
11.00 Le Balze - home of American Philosopher Charles Strong
12.30 Vincigliata - visit to castle and gardens + wine and cheese tasting at this extraordinary medieval castle rebuilt by English peer - Sir John Temple Leader. NB This castle is not generally open to the public but used for weddings and conferences so we are very privileged as a small group to be allowed to visit.
Lions at Vincigliata
16.30 Il Palmerino - a glimpse of the home and garden of prolific author Vernon Lee - and maybe a cup of tea while Katie introduces this interesting character!
Cost per head - tour in private Mini-van with professional driver + private professional garden historian guide + entry fee to gardens
=€99
Castle + wine tour + wine and degustation lunch at Vincigliata = €30
Cost for day €129
Tuesday 15 May
09.30 Villa Schifanoia - in San Domenico – one of the many reputed sites of Boccaccio’s Decameron
11.00 La Pietra - a garden stuffed with statues at the home of the Actons
13.00 Lunch near Fiesole - la Casa del Prosciutto
14.00 - Villa Gamberaia - retreat of Romanian Princess Gyka and English Miss Blood
a bathing pool for Princess Gyka
16.30 Villa Maiano - for wine tasting and antipasti - this is another villa redeveloped by Sir John Temple Leader – now used for period films such as A Room with a View and Tea with Mussolini.
17.30 -if we are in time we hope to drop in for a quick visit to the Iris Gardens of Florence – only open in May with the beautiful view of the City under the setting sun.
Cost per head - tour in private Mini-van with professional driver + private professional garden historian guide + entry fee to gardens
=€99
Visit to Villa Maiano + wine tasting and antipasti €15
Cost for day €114
Wednesday 16 May
11.30 Palazzo Picolomini - in Pienza – home of the humanist Pope Pius 11
1.00 lunch in San Quirico d’Orcia – plus a visit to Horta Leonini another small public garden in the village
3.00 La Foce - home of author Iris Origo
Last year's group at La Foce
drive to Montipulicano - trying to follow the route taken by Iris and family when they had to move their school and hospital from La Foce during the Allied attack – we will stop for a glass of wine there before returning to Florence
Cost per head - tour in private Mini-van with professional driver + private professional garden historian guide + entry fee to gardens
=€109
lunch and wine at cost but we have a fixed price menu c€20
Thursday 17 May
a walking tour of gardens in Central Florence
10.00 Boboli Gardens- Grand Duke Cosimo 1 and Eleanor de Toledo’s garden behind the Pitti Palace provided entertainment for their growing family and inspiration for Marie de Medici in Paris
11.30 Bardini gardens - Stefano Bardini - another great collector who sold to the Anglo-American expats – before we visit the gardens we will also visit the other art Exhibition of paintings of Florentine gardens and other works from Grand Tourists and Macchiaioli done in late 19th – early 20th centuries.
12.30 Tuscan lunch in San Niccolo area
14.30 Giardino Corsini
16.00 possibly Giardini dei Torrigiani,
17.00 Optional taxi up to Bellosguardo for a glass of wine at sunset in the gardens of Torre di Bellosguardo - once home of the formidable Lady Paget
Cost professional guide + entrance to Boboli and Bardini gardens and exhibition of paintings at the Bardini €60
Friday 18 May
a day trip to Lucca
11.00 Villa Reale aka Villa Marlia - home of Napoleon’s sister when she was Duchess of Tuscany
12.30 Villa Torrigiani, family of the guy who broke Michaelangelo’s nose – at Camigliano
13.30 lunch in Lucca at Rusticanella 2 - as recommended by Todo
14.30 Palazzo Pfanner a setting for a the Jane Campion film A Portrait of a Lady
16.00 - Gardini Garzoni in Collodi
17.30 return to Florence - arrival about 18.45
Cost per head - tour in private Mini-van with professional driver + private professional garden historian guide + entry fee to gardens
=€109
lunch and wine at cost
NB The Cost fluctuates daily to cover costs for private travel in air-conditioned mini-van and do have garden historian, playwright and author Dr Katie Campbell as our private tour guide.
Posted in 
Trattoria la Garga – difficult to find but worth the effort
Sharon Oddson opened Trattoria Garga in 1979 and since then has developed her own cooking school and writen a book of recipes Once upon a Tuscan Table .
In the past year the restarant has moved from Via dle Moro to Via Santo Zenobi – quite a long walk for those who were sent to the wrong address (I have advised Trip Advisor website!) - but worth the effort to get there – the ambience is strange at first with a huge vaulted ceiling hand painted by Garga ( Babbo of the family!) but the welcome is as exuberant as a Labrador puppy and the food excellent in a slightly off the wall way – with all the famous Tuscan penchant for offal.
I had Taglierini il Magnifico – which Lorenzo would have approved of I’m sure – thin fettuccine with flavours of mint and citrus zest – Yummy!
interior Garga
The Central Market – first port of call before the cooking class
Fresh produce in Mercato Centrale
The venue before the cooking class – whenever we have new students who haven’t seen the market I take there to help choose the produce we are going to cook.
Lisa had everything laid out and ready to go!
One of the key ingredients in Tuscan cookery is “freshness!” – whenever possible we collect our food from the central market and use immediately.
My guests shown above commented on how little of the food on display was packaged – and in fact some of the meat stalls can look a little gruesome – and I thought I’d shown people enough of entrails yesterday!! I am afraid I am not a fan of trippa alla fiorentina!
pretty in the pan - the vegetable mix we caramelise for the Ragu
The vegetables look pretty though – whether artfully displayed on the stand in the market – in the basket prior to cooking – or chopped and in the pan ready to be caramelised for the Ragu! Nota bene - good aluminium pan to conduct the heat!
Gnocchi production line
We seem to be on a roll with the potato gnocchi – (third time in succession!) – but we thought we would go back to fresh pasta Ravioli for next scheduled lesson -to be held in
Da Pinocchio on Wednesday 23rd May.
However if we get requests with enough notice they could be held earlier!!
Looking forward to later in the month – city tours and La Traviata at St Mark’s English Church- and inevitably -more wine tasting!
A la prossima!
Duck Ragù with Orange Scrub!
13.3.12
Tuscan Cookery Class with Lisa Banchieri
Held 12.3.12 at Da Pinocchio , Piazza Mercato Centrale, Firenze
A perfect sized group, we decided in our review above, for our little class yesterday – perhaps a little too much to eat – but we somehow managed it! One of us even struggled through a second dessert without protest!!!
Our menu was: -
Lisa’s Bruscetta , Gnocchi with duck ragù, Arista con carciofi alla Romana, Tiramisù con arancia – all totally yummy!
Let’s have a look at what went into it all!
Lisa had everything laid out and ready to go!
First a simple bruscetta because the other things were fairly complex to do in the time scale – just to keep the wolf from the door as you might say! Toasted bread, a touch of garlic, fresh tomatoes and shredded basil and plenty of evoo (extra virgin olive oil) – simply delicious!
a bruscetta just in case we were peckish
The duck was already divided up, then cleaned with an orange to both kill the bacteria and add flavour – (don’t you love the multi tasking and mutli-usage in one fell sweep?) The duck loves the orange and it also sweetens the taste – by the way – rabbit and chicken prefer lemons!
very important - the duck loves the orange - clean it with orange and it will kill bacteria and absorb the flavour
After browning the duck is left to stew in it’s skin in a carrot, onion and celery mixture for nearly two hours – and naturally some wine was added later!
Meanwhile we made the gnocchi from potatoes boiled – also with their skins on – to keep the vitamins in, then peeled and put through the ricer to keep them light and fluffy.
ricing the potato,
After it has been mixed with an egg and a little flour the gnocchi mix has to be rolled and cut and then made into what Samara described rather aptly as “little hedgehogs” through a creative use of the back of the cheese grater!
gnocchi rolling into hedgehog shape!
duck ragu with gnocchi
A particular breed of artichokes – known as Carciofi la mammola – are best for making Carciofi alla Romana – they have to be stripped of their outside leaves and pared down before cooking.
cleaning the carciofi
Once cleaned and trimmed they are left to sweat in a pan of olive oil, garlic, wine and water for a long time – making sure they don’t catch on the pan but otherwise just stewing in their own juice – (when they get softer you can get the lid on!)until they are soft and delicious.
carciofi alla romana
The Carciofi was made as a contorno (vegetable side dish) to go with Arista – the aristocratic part of a pig – ie the best bit – another simple but suberb classic Tuscan dish – simply coated in olive-oil,herbs, salt and pepper, browned at high heat and roasted for a long time on low heat – melt in the mouth gorgeous.
arista with carciofi romana
And finally we had to find room for a dessert made with biscuits, eggs and mascapone cheese – it was actually the first thing we made as it needed to sit in the fridge for as long as possible – when making at home it is something good to make the day before the dinner party, and then you dont have to worry about it and it will taste even better!
We used a lot of oranges yesterday but it is a good time for them – very tasty at the moment so too good to only use for cleaning up a duck!
orange tiramisu with walnut topping
Just a small helping of orange tiramisù with crushed walnut topping – obvious I can’t divulge which one of us managed to eat two of them!
waiting to eat
So thanks again to Lisa for another inspirational lesson – I am really looking forward to trying the duck ragù out on John – I know he will love it!
Also thanks to Susan for sending me these great photos!
The next lesson is on Wednesday 4th April – please contact me if you would like to join us!
penny.howard1@ntlworld.com
International Women’s Day – party time with added mimosa!
8.3.12
International Women’s Day
Yesterday in Florence entrance to all museums was free - for women! One of the perks of celebrating International Women’s day in Italy. In additions some restaurants offered discounts to women dining without men – another good perk when you are in Florence and your husband is in London and you get to go out with the girls!
Thanks to Trattoria Osteria Da que’Ganzi in Via Ghibellina – great food – fun evening – 20% off the price!
It seemed to me that in Italy there seems to be considerably more celebrating of women on their special day than I have ever seen in London – as I walked home across the City bearing my obligatory bunch of mimosa -the streets were full of chattering ladies – all brandishing bunches of tiny yellow cotton buds. Mimosa doesn’t have a great taste but is used in animal fodder and frequently forms part of medicinal compounds – so that blows my theory that every thing yellow in nature is dangerous!
So why do we celebrate women on 8th March? The moment began in 1909 when the first national Women’s Day was held on 28 February 1909 in the USA – the date however moved to March after 1911 the tragic ‘Triangle Fire’ in New York City when 140 working women were trapped and died in their place of employment. Perhaps it is because most of them were Italian or Jewish immigrants that there is such a strong movement to celebrate International Women’s day in Italy.
Out of this disastrous event came the need to pay greater attention to working conditions and labour legislation that subsequently became the focus of many International Women’s Day events.
This year in addition there is also a lot of attention paid to the paucity of women’s rights in Africa and the Middle East - and steps being taken to improve their situation.
Amen to that!
Tuscan Cookery Class -15th February – Da Pinocchio – Yummy!
15.2.12
Menu del Giorno
- Fresh Tagliatelle with Ragu of Tuscan sausage and fennel seeds
- Artichoke flan
- Etruscan chicken with red onions, raisins and pine nuts
- Chocolate cake
- Chianti
- a very much needed – double expresso!
Lisa in the cooking lesson area of Da Pinocchio
This week it is freezing cold in Florence – the seagulls are slithering in a perplexed sort of way across the ice that has formed over the Arno – and the people are walking about in puffer jackets with their arms folded and trying not to look like Michelin men!
Seagulls on the Arno
Nonetheless the sun is shining brightly and so we are all still sporting our sunglasses!
Frozen fountain in Santa Spirito
So after a short shopping trip to the central market in Florence for our meat my little group hid ourselves away in the cellar of the restaurant of Da Pinocchio and cooked up some of our own heat with Lisa Banchieri.
Lisa demonstrates the first stage of pasta making
Our menu as above was a miracle of planning by Lisa, involving as it did so much complex timing but we started cooking at 10 and were ready to sit down and eat promptly by 13.00 – and the eating ,drinking and enjoying the fruits of our labours part continued comfortably until after 14.30!!
Taking notes and hoping it tastes as good as it smells!
Adding a glass of wine to your pasta makes it extra stretchy
Above our team took their lessons very seriously this morning – but we all agreed that adding a glass of wine to the pasta mix to make it more “stretchy” was inspirational!
Next lessons are planned for March 7th and April 11th – we will make classic Tuscan seasonal recipes as usual with something special for Easter in April – perhaps a dove shaped bread known as a Colomba?
All lessons are held in central Florence and start at 09.30 with an optional trip to the Central Market .
Aprons, pens and recipe notes are provided to use and to keep.
After the lesson we eat the food…………..so don’t plan a large supper!!
Total cost for the lesson, meal, wine and extras – €69
If you are interested in joining us please contact me through leaving a comment below, or by email on penny.howard1@ntlworld.com
A presto!
Tuscan Cookery lesson with Lisa Banchieri – Wednesday 15 February -10-14.30
20.1.12
I can hardly believe that a whole year has passed since Lisa Banchieri and I held our first cookery class together in Paulo’s restaurant , now called Da Pinocchio, in Piazza Mercato Centrale, 46/r – A lot of very good meals have been eaten since then!
As last year we have agreed to do at least one class a month – and in addition – a week long lesson in July for people who really want to get down to some serious Tuscan cooking.
In February, whilst Lisa prepares the room I will start our session with a trip to the central market to give students a chance to see the fresh produce laid out so beautifully and make a few last purchases!
Tuscan cookery is all about freshness, and each month’s menu has been devised to suit the produce of that season- however if there is a recipe that you are yearning to discover please do let us know – Lisa has a reputation for slipping in new secrets as we go along – and chances are we can include it on the day!
Lisa with pasta stretched and ready to make ravioli
The cost for the classes – which includes sitting down afterwards and eating the 4 course meal we have prepared, plus printed copies of all the recipes and your commemorative apron – is €69
The dates we have provisionally fixed for future classes this year are as follows:-
Wednesday 7th March 10-14.30 – Da Pinocchio
Wednesday 11th April 10-14.30 – Da Pinocchio
Wednesday 23rd May 10-14.30 – Da Pinocchio
Thursday 14th June 10-14.30 – Da Pinocchio
Monday 2nd July 10- 14.30, Tues 3rd 5-21. 30 Wed 4th 10-14.30, Thurs 5th 10-14.30 Friday 6th July – final supper – non cooking partners welcome! Classes held in Via di Serragli
Thursday 14th July 10-14.30 – Da Pinocchio
August – 3 days of classes in London - dates to be agreed later
A toast to Lisa - Cheers
Thursday 23rd August - provisional
Wednesday 19th September – 10-14.30 -Da Pinocchio
Thursday 25th October – 10-14.30 – Da Pinocchio
Thursday 15th November – 10-14.30 – Da Pinocchio
Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd December – London – 11- 18.00
Now what on earth can I make with this?
If you are coming to Florence outside of these dates and would like a cookery lesson do please get in touch as it might be possible to arrange separately.
Also please note if you are with a group who all want to have a cookery class together we can set something up – or if you in a villa in the countryside we can even come out to you!
Making pasta
In summary – these are the dates which I will be promoting now but I am sure there will be plenty of others!
We look forward to your participation in these classes and all sharing the meal – washed down with a nice chianti – when all the hard work is over!
Eating our efforts! Yum Yum
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