A Cooking Holiday: Finally Picking Leaves From A Tuscan Garden

A Cooking Holiday; a secret dream I had always harboured. I watched every Italian chef on television enthusing about the local markets and producers in Tuscany and even curled up in bed with my latest treasure (a book, you understand!) and dozed off to an imagined scents of a culinary paradise.

There’s something about the smell of fresh basil, crushed slightly and pressed to the nose that allows me to mentally exit my current northern life. I am immediately transported and can imagine tearing this evocative herb over freshly made pasta, drizzling extra virgin olive oil, adding a twist of lemon and fresh black pepper then settling down to lunch with a glass of wine, after a hard morning’s work on my imagined Cooking Holiday.

Yes, I know, an oxymoron perhaps; how could a Cooking Holiday possibly be hard work? But you know what I mean, intense concentration, the slight competition as you surreptitiously peer over the rim of your glasses to see just how other people are coping, rolling and shaping their pasta, that kind of hard work!

My love affair with Italian cooking began years ago when I started collecting cookery books after working in the kitchen department of Debenhams in Oxford St., London. I began with Elizabeth David’s Italian Food and was incredibly excited to find a copy of Leaves From Our Tuscan Kitchen by Janet Ross, a book written way back in 1901. The texts were simply magical and had the capacity to send me to Italy wherever I happened to be as I read. Perhaps Jamie’s no-nonsense,’ chuck it in, squeeze a lemon with your hands approach’ made me feel slightly less intimidated, but having been fiddling with all things Italian for years(!) it seemed right to finally consider booking myself a Cooking Holiday; the problem was, making a choice between Tuscany, Sicily, Puglia or Umbria..hmnn decision, decisions.

Meanwhile I read The Food of Love, Anthony Capella, Under The Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes and Extra Virgin: Amongst The Olive Groves of Liguria by Annie Hawes and between pages I would be greedily nipping out to make myself a delicate Italian snack until I decided enough was enough. Fed up with being a voyeur it was time to strike out on my very own Cooking Holiday sojourn and that, dear readers is exactly what I did, dreaming that I might meet Antonio Carluccio at the airport. Alas that aspect of the fantasy remains unfulfilled but everything else far exceeded my expectations of what a Cooking Holiday might offer.

From the moment I arrived, I knew my hunch had been correct; it was my spiritual home. Once I donned my green apron, poured jewelled local olive oil into my pasta and began to mix by hand, I was in heaven, never mind a Cooking Holiday. The trays of ravioli filled with delicious treats were like tiny pockets of treasure and I knew all the students felt the same; it’s extraordinary how something so seemingly ordinary takes on the love, aroma and passion of the Italian countryside just by being made under the Tuscan sun in a stunning villa.

I shall never forget the experience; my Cooking Holiday was a blend of relaxation, fun and hands-on learning, complete with my very own chef, Antonio. Ok I lie, I shared him with seven other students, two of whom have become close friends, but still, I picked up a tremendous number of tips and adored visiting the suppliers who pay so much attention to quality, infusing everything with their passion and skill.

Yes, I am still addicted to Italian recipe books but my Cooking Holiday has added another dimension and if I close my eyes I can still sniff that Tuscan kitchen and taste the heady flavours of Italy. I may well do it all over again another year.

Cooking course in Sicily? Eureka – Syracuse!

If the historic architecture in Syracuse doesn’t make your jaw drop, the food certainly will. A Mediterranean hub of commerce and culture for 2700 years, Siracusa – as the Italians call it – has two of Italy’s must-sees: the Greek amphitheatre; and the old town centre, Ortygia (Ortigia in the Italian spelling), with its vibrant fruit, veg and fish market.

Morning is the best time to see both, before the tourist rush. In the magnificent amphitheatre, open from 9am every day except Monday, the letters of the alphabet marking the seat rows – a custom still used in theatres now – are clearly visible. One of the best-preserved in the world, it’s still regularly used for productions today.

It was the centre of Siracusan life in 300-200BC, in the city’s Greek heyday. Local man Archimedes, the great scientist, was a regular – though we presume he came decently clothed. That wasn’t the case when, the legend goes, he got so excited on solving a problem in the bath that he jumped out and ran naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting ‘Eureka’ – ‘I’ve found it!’.

For lovers of Italian cuisine, whether studying cookery lessons or simply on holiday, the discovery of the daily market is their Eureka moment. Ortygia, almost an island over a bridge from the main town, is Syracuse’s historic centre. Left from the entrance is the market: a vibrant, intense, vividly-coloured assault on the senses.

The central part, on and around Via de Benedictis, is devoted to fresh local produce: deep red tomatoes, piles of citrus, strawberries, beans, courgettes, spices, nuts, cheeses, hams, snails... and all kinds of sweet Sicilian specialities such as cassata, an irresistible sponge cake with ricotta and candied fruit.

For a snack, try grilled artichoke eaten out of paper wrapping – for vegans, perhaps the nearest they’ll get to the taste of a fine cheese!

The fish market section bustles too, with everything from prawns to anchovies to tuna to swordfish. Get there before breakfast though – the Italians are canny buyers, and the best bargains soon go. (See YouTube video)

Afterwards, wander Ortygia’s tangle of lanes and streets. The extraordinary historic buildings here range from the 2500-year-old Temple of Apollo to sumptuous Baroque palaces, some splendidly restored, some grandly crumbling, some plain bizarre (such as the Palazzo Impellizzeri, lined with faces). When you’re hungry, an inexpensive and delicious local trattoria or pizzeria is always just round the corner from that picturesque square. (See Flickr photos of Ortygia)

And if you do finally relax with a bath, by all means get inspiration for tomorrow’s meal planning – but try not to emulate Archimedes too closely.

Florence: The Uffizi

Our Favourite Art Musuem

For painting holidays in Italy, visiting Florence is an absolute must. The capital of Tuscany and Italy’s hub of Renaissance art, few cities in the world have such a rich and well-preserved artistic heritage as Florence.

Here, generations-worth of Italy’s great artists, from the forefathers of the Renaissance - such as Giotto, Donatello and Brunelleschi - to the leaders of high-Renaissance art in Italy - Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci - have all been immortalised in one of the densest collections of art galleries on the planet; absolute heaven for anyone on a painting holiday in Italy.

More concentrated than any other city in Italy, Florence has over 60 world-class museums and art galleries to choose from, all packed with incomparable artworks, such as the Renaissance sculptures at the Bargello; paintings of the Golden Ages at the Palatina; Fra Angelioc’s work at the Museum of San Marco; the mosaics at the Florence Baptistery; the Cathedral frescoes; The Gallery of Modern Art… the list goes on. But there’s one gallery in Italy that will be on everyone’s list and, despite being a bit of a cliché, is our overriding favourite…

The Uffizi art museum is one of the oldest and most famous galleries in the world and no painting holiday in Italy would be complete without a visit. The building itself dates back to 1560 and began life as the offices for the Florentine magistrates of the Cosimo I de’Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany - Uffizi means offices in Italian.

Throughout its lifespan, the palace has been used to display some of Italy’s most prestigious masterpieces, with the Medici setting aside rooms to house the finest works. As time as passed, more and more areas of the building have evolved into art-space. But, as you’ll discover on a painting holiday here, even the building itself is a work of art; every aspect of the Uffizi has been remarked upon for its form, composure and artistic expression and once attracted artists such as da Vinci and Michelangelo who would come here to study and marvel at the works and seek inspiration. It’s oldest exhibition space, the Tribuna, is an elaborately decorated, domed hall hung with Bronzino portraits and, outside the main galleries, its corridors are adorned with fascinating frescoes; its central courtyard has views through to the river Arno and the cafe terrace overlooks a breath-taking Florentine skyline - painting holidays in Italy don’t get much better than this!

The Uffizi gallery has been made available to visitors by request, since the sixteenth century, and in 1765 it officially opened its doors to the public, welcoming tourists from Italy and across the globe. Today, the museum displays works from the 13th to 18th century and is most famous for its Renaissance collections, housing some of Italy’s classic artworks such as da Vinci’s The Annunciation and The Adoration of the Magi; Botticelli’s Primavera and The Birth of Venus; Michelangelo’s The Doni Tondo; Raphael’s Madonna of the Goldfinch.

The second most important museum in Italy after the Vatican museum in Rome, and referenced countless times in popular literature, it’s not to see why painting holidays in Italy will undoubtedly lead you here. The Uffizi is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Florence and, in the peak summer months, waiting times can be up to five hours. To avoid the longer queues, advance booking is advisable, as pre-booked ticket holders are given fast-track access via a priority queuing system. The other option is to arrive before opening time, avoiding both the booking fee and long queues, but with the drawback of an early start!

Ticket reservations can be made online or in the reception halls of the New Uffizi. The booking office is usually open from 8:30 till 19:00, Tuesday to Sunday

Our favourite pasta sauce – Carbonara

A classic family meal in Italy and one of the most popular dishes to create in a cooking class, Pasta alla carbonara was created in Italy the mid 20th century and introduced to cookery books and cooking classes in England in the 1950s.

Most British and US versions feature cream as a key ingredient, but in any genuine Italian cooking class, the chef will tell you that cream is not an ingredient of classic carbonara.

The true origins of the source are uncertain Italy; many believe that the dish was first made for Italy’s charcoal workers, as the word carbonaro means 'charcoal burner' in Italy; whilst other believe it’s merely the charcoal-like flecks of black pepper that have given one of Italy’s favourite dishes its name.

The beauty of carbonara is its simplicity, and you don’t need a cooking class in Italy to handle to basics. Simply take seven key ingredients:

· Bacon - chopped
· Garlic
· Olive oil
· Eggs - beaten
· Parmesan
· Spaghetti
· Black pepper

Sauté the bacon and garlic in the olive oil, then add freshly cooked spaghetti to the pan and swirl around in the grease. Remove from the heat and add raw eggs, coating the pasta thoroughly. Finally, grate fresh parmesan into the dish and season with plenty of black pepper and a little salt.

But to refine this dish, guidance from an authentic Italian chef in a cooking class, plus fresh ingredients from Italy will transform your carbonara from delicious to delizioso.

A decent cooking class in Italy will start with an upgrade of ingredients; rather than use simple breakfast bacon, a genuine Italian cooking class will advise using guanciale – unsmoked Italian bacon made using pig’s cheek; or pancetta – a salt-cured and seasoned bacon made from pork belly. Whilst some chefs in Italy will argue that guanciale is the true meat of a traditional carbonara, others say that a fifty-fifty split of pancetta and guanciale was traditionally used in Italy. Either way, these delicious meats provide a far more subtle and deeper taste than standard bacon.

The cheese is the next upgrade. Traditionally, two of Italy's great hard cheeses can be used: pecorino Romano and Parmigiano-Reggiano. The less-expensive and sharper flavoured pecorino cheese is often attributed to the most authentic carbonaras, although others prefer to used Parmigiano-Reggiano, or a combination of both. Again, Italy’s chefs argue over authenticity here, so you may be taught slight variations in a cooking class.

A cooking class in Italy will also help you to master techniques such as classic seasoning, consistency, sauce to pasta ratios, and the tricky technique of adding eggs over heat without scrambling them – a classic carbonara faux-par.

So there you have it. Carbonara: our favourite pasta sauce here at Flavours Holidays. Who would have thought that eggs and bacon could be so refined?

Cooking courses in Sicily: Greek theatre at Syracuse in summer 2012

In ancient Sicily, food was as central to everyday life as it is now. We know plenty about their cuisine thanks to the detailed references that abound in Greek comedies, such as those of Aristophanes, who once cooked up a 180-letter word to describe one particularly complex dish. Anyone doing a cooking course here would do well to add a theatre trip to their timetable.

Going to a performance in Syracuse’s Greek amphitheatre today is about the closest we can get to time travel. Nearly 2500 years ago, ordinary citizens were queueing up just like us, looking for their ticket’s row letter and seat number, and settling down in the evening sun amid the excited pre-performance chatter to enjoy the latest tragedy from Euripides or Aeschylus, or biting political satire by Aristophanes.

The teatro greco di Siracusa is one of the best surviving examples of an ancient outdoor theatre. Diehard theatre fans say the open-air productions here are as good as anywhere in Italy, indeed the world, even rivalling Ephesus. Summer 2012 offers three productions of ancient classics, performed in Italian on various dates through May and June.

Aeschylus’s Prometheus (in Italian, Prometeo, di Eschilo) is a typically involved tale of gods, mortals, jealousy and punishment. The Titan Prometheus, portrayed as something of a shyster, has been dealing in stolen goods: namely, fire, which he has passed from gods to humans, thwarting Zeus’s plans to destroy mankind. In revenge, he is chained to a rock – where he stays for most of the play, making the action easy to follow.

This being a tragedy, things end up even worse for the unfortunate Prometheus. Scholars query whether Aeschylus really was the author – his playwright son Euphorion may have been involved – but the appearance of scenes from it on ancient vases, and a sly reference to it in Aristophanes’s The Birds, suggest it was a big hit of its day.

Euripides didn’t live to see the success of his Bacchae (Baccanti, di Euripide) – it was premiered after his death, following a long and successful career: he wrote 90-odd plays, three of which (Bacchae being the last) won a prize in the City Dionysia, the ancient Greek equivalent of an Oscar.

The play portrays – often in gruesome detail – the story of King Pentheus of Thebes and his mother, and their punishment by the god Dionysus (Pentheus's cousin) for refusing to worship him. Among many modern takes on this tale of politics, religion and power, Joe Orton’s 1966 Erpingham Camp relocated the action to a Butlin’s style holiday village where revolution is afoot.

For comic relief, Aristophanes’s joke-filled satires still have audiences hooting with laughter (if the translator is adept enough to convey the dazzling puns, wordplay and topical references). The Birds (Uccelli, di Aristofane) – only a second-prize winner at the Dionysia! – is the work that gave us ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’. Pisthetaerus, a middle-aged Athenian bloke fed up with bickering politicians, persuades the birds to set up their own republic, forming a control zone in the sky between humans and gods.

The gags – and bird impressions – come as thick and lavishly as Sicilian ice cream. This being a comedy, there’s a happy ending, with the gods and politicians reluctantly brought into line, and theordinary citizen ending up on top. If only it could always be like that...

Single Supplements - Take One A Year!

Isn’t it disappointing when you get excited about a holiday, read all the details and then find the single supplement slapped on is almost prohibitive? Singles holidays, has anyone really tapped into this market? I was beginning to wonder. It seems so unfair to penalise single travellers but that still seems to be the dominant pricing structure amongst some tourist holiday companies.

This is odd really because it’s obvious the way people choose to live their lives is so different from when tourists first made the trip, en masse to the Costa del Sol in Spain during the 1960s. I was one of the originals, how old does that make me? We all posed at the back of the aircraft and had our photos taken dressed in our finery, then picked up the souvenir photos on our way home; how quaint is that?

How things have changed; no longer do we pack a suitcase full of brand new clothes, we go away because we need a break, to re-charge the batteries to learn a new skill and we want to travel alone if that’s our choice. Singles holidays are definitely the way forward.

What could be better than to leave the family behind and treat yourself to a week’s Pilates, or an Italian Cooking Course or even Painting in Tuscany. People’s understanding about what a holiday should be is completely different. If you want a singles holiday, for whatever the reason, why aren’t more companies catering for this demand?

It’s lucky therefore that I can let you into a secret, not so secret I suppose as these holidays were featured on the BBC Holiday programme, but for the sake of drama, let me whisper in your ear: Flavours Holidays. I have discovered this is a switched on company who positively promotes singles holidays! You no longer feel like the fairy that wasn’t invited to the christening, there are opportunities to pursue a passion, be alone if necessary but join in the fun with like-minded souls if that’s what you need.

Imagine the joy of waking up and throwing back the shutters, breathing in the warm air knowing today is all about you and you alone. So much for singles holidays I guess anyone who has heard one too many, ‘No, I don’t really fancy doing that.’ kind of comment will relish the opportunity to do their own thing, mooch around eateries in Florence, hike in the hills in Tuscany or pursue a Pilates course just to name three possible options.

I love the concept of travelling alone but having a group of people around should you want to share ideas, enthusiasms, expertise and conversation. I know life-long friends can be formed this way and the idea of sitting around a long table on a balmy Italian evening talking late into the night is certainly so attractive; I can hear the cicadas now as I write.

So don’t let single status be a barrier to enjoying a well-earned break. Let your spirit of adventure flourish on a singles holiday in Italy. Whatever your choice, whether that’s a cooking, pilates or painting retreat, the single holiday market has never looked quite so enticing.

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Our post today comes from our guest blogger Vivian N.

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A taste of Montalbano

Follow in the footsteps of Italy’s most famous fictional foodie and discover the dishes that make Sicily a gastronomic paradise.

Do you regard a delicious meal as an almost spiritual experience, see talented cooks as the recipients of divine inspiration, and consume good food in reverential silence? If you do, you have a lot in common with Salvo Montalbano, hero of Andrea Camilleri’s best-selling novels. Camilleri came late to writing, having spent his career in film and stage direction, and his first forays into historical fiction went largely unheralded. It was only with the publication of La forma dell'Acqua (The Shape of Water) in 1994 that Camilleri, Montalbano and the fictional town of Vigàta shot to fame. The novels have since sold in their tens of millions, both in Italy and abroad, and the television adaptation was broadcast on BBC4 in 2011, with a second series currently on air.

Although he now lives in Rome, Camilleri was born in Porto Empedocle, a coastal town in southern Sicily, which provided the inspiration for Vigatà – indeed, the town has taken the extraordinary step of renaming itself Porto Empedocle Vigatà as a tribute to its fictional counterpart and from an understandable desire to cash in on the popularity of the series. Montalbano himself was named in homage to the the Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, whose fictional private detective Pepe Carvalho shares with Camilleri’s character a deep and abiding passion for food.

Montalbano’s next meal is never far from his mind. Even in the heat of a case, he will sample ricotta and chocolate-filled cannoli from a box left on the desk of his pathologist colleague; eagerly open his refrigerator to discover what fresh delights have been left for him by his housekeeper Adelina; wrangle an invitation to dinner at the home of his commissioner, whose wife Signore Elisa can work miracles in the kitchen; or drop in at the Trattoria San Calogero, which will open its doors to the detective regardless of the lateness of the hour. It is easy to understand the inspector’s obsession with Sicilian food: the region’s cuisine is all about the freshest ingredients, simply prepared and perfectly presented.

Take pasta ’ncasciata, which Montalbano describes as “a dish worthy of Olympus”. It’s a simple combination of macaroni with minced beef in tomato sauce, with hard-boiled eggs, pecorino cheese, fried aubergine and garlic, formed into a dome and baked until the outside is crisp. Simple, rustic cooking, yet imbued with the kind of stick-to-the-ribs comfort that elevates a dish to cult status. Or there’s cold pasta with tomatoes basil and olives – what could be simpler, yet according to Montalbano the dish has “an aroma to wake the dead”. Many of Camilleri’s descriptions of food are almost cursory – pasta with garlic and oil followed by shrimp with oil and lemon – yet the flavours sing from the page.

Vigàta is a seaside town, and so fish and shellfish feature prominently in Montalbano’s diet. Striped mullet – which we know as grey mullet in the UK – is served fried or as a casserole with potatoes by the chef at Trattoria San Calogero. Fresh anchovies are simply accompanied by onions and vinegar, or used to make a sauce for hake. Turbot is served with roast with oregano and caramelised lemon; bass is stuffed and accompanied by a saffron sauce; sardines prepared alla beccafico – stuffed with breadcrumbs, garlic and parmesan and deep-fried.

Not all the dishes described by Camilleri read quite as mouthwateringly. No doubt native Sicilians delight in spaghetti with sea urchin pulp, dense black squid sauce with a hint of oregano, attuppateddri – little snails that secrete a substance which seals the shell, or boiled lamb entrails sprinkled with caciocavallo cheese, but they aren’t exactly the sort of things most visitors to the region will be eager to taste.

Fortunately Monalvano has a sweet tooth, and if you are eager to sample his favourite desserts you can treat yourself to bitter chocolate timbale in orange sauce, the pistachio and almond nougat known as torroncini, spicy chocolate mostaccioli biscuits served with mulled wine, or Adelina’s lemon ice, made to a strict formula of one part leon juice, two parts sugar, four parts water. That sounds like the perfect way to cleanse your palate before you set off on the trail of the mafia!

To follow in Montalbano's footsteps and delight in Sicilian dishes, why not join Flavours on a Cooking Holiday in Sicily this year?