Daughter L went on a 2 week vacation to Italy recently with one of her very best girlfriends. This girlfriend had suggested this trip as a part of her goal to do some of the things on her bucket list now rather than later, with life being so short and unpredictable. They both are foodies and decided to do a one week cooking course at a resort outside of Bologna in the Tuscan hills. They would spend their 2nd week in Florence doing sightseeing out of that city. Both girls carefully planned their holiday in detail and it was a resounding success in large part because of that. L shared her photos with me and I thought you would enjoy hearing about her experiences over my next few posts (as I did vicariously).
The girls rented a car to get to the cooking school/resort and to get around the small town outside of Bologna that week. They were very happy with their accommodations which included a large swimming pool and beautiful mountain views. They were provided with a traditional bolognese dinner at the start of the course:
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| traditional Bolognese dinner |
On the first day of cooking the class of 5 made their own tagliatelli pasta using large rolling pins. Daughter L said the Italian recipes are all very simple. Pasta is made from just flour and egg, two ingredients.
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| tagliatelli |
Here is their tagliatelli with the bolognese meat sauce they also made:
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| bolognese meat sauce |
For dessert they baked a simple custard:
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| Simple Custard |
On the 2nd day, they learned to fold and make these tortolonis:
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| Tortoloni |
Here are the tortolonis with a simple sage/butter sauce:
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| Sage/butter sauce |
They had made a couple of friends, 2 girls of about the same age from the Netherlands. They had all spent a day in Medieval Bologna on one of the free days, had dinners together most nights and all too soon it was time for L and her friend to say goodbye and return their rental car and depart for their week in Florence where they would not need a car.
Stay tuned for part 2 of this trip!
