|
New York Post
October 19, 1999, page 56:
Highlights from "Making
Gnocchi"
by Bobbie Leigh:
Although once dubbed by an Italian
magazine as "the least expensive cooking school in Italy,"
Toscana Saporita
has an aura of elegance and sophistication from its location - a
17th-century estate about a 30-minute drive north of Pisa and close to
the port town of Viareggio - and its cast of characters. They are right
out of a Fellini movie - a contessa, a baron, a marquesa and endearing
master teachers. "I want everybody who comes to our school to love
Tuscany, to love the food and to be able to cook whatever we do here at
home," says the ebullient Sandra Lotti.
During my week at their cooking school
last summer, our class of eight bonded quickly and relished the
easy-going classes where presentation was stressed as much as
preparation. We learned to make radish roses and create vegetable
centerpieces worthy of the outstanding dishes at our al fresco lunches
in the villa's garden.
[The people:]
Lotti, with her American-born cousin,
Anne Bianchi, runs a cooking school like no other. They have been
cooking together since they were bambini and recently collaborated on "Dolci
Toscani, the Book of Tuscan Desserts."
The cooking school cast of characters are
so simpatico and the setting amid 10,000 olive trees so restorative that
students often extend their stay.
The tour leader is Betty, who cooks in
her mother's restaurant at night, heads up the local tourist office and
is an earnest instructor on the glories of Tuscany.
When the group returns, usually around 7
p.m., the handsome Claudio, a movie projectionist in the nearby port
town of Viareggio, whisks her off, blond hair streaming behind her, on
his motorbike.
[The food:]
After the cooking sessions, a long table
is set in the garden and the morning's efforts - perhaps a carrot bisque
with porcini mushrooms, gnocchi, grilled veggies, warm pear and arugula
salad and cappucino gelato (made with heavy cream and egg yolks) crowned
with bittersweet chocolate sauce - are served along with two or three
wines.
At dinner we sat at a long table in a
high-ceilinged room with the original terracotta decorated with
18th-century, six-foot-high family portraits of severe looking Tuscans
in costumes right out of Romeo and Juliet.
This was a gala affair with several wines
and stellar dishes - porcini mushroom risotto, grilled calamari salad,
tomato and basil tarts, eggplant parmesan, and a sensational sea bass
and vegetables in parchment.
Desserts ranged from panna cotta,
puddings, and cakes to tira misu, apple tart, carmelized pears and
almond and orange biscotti - followed by chocolate coconut truffles,
grappa, brandy, and limoncello (pure alcohol, sugar, and lemons) which
the contessa makes with organically grown lemons from her garden. |
