Basics of Tuscan cooking in a Chianti farmhouse

PANZANO IN CHIANTI, Italy — Deep in the Chianti wine country, I guided a rented Volkswagen over a nearly mile-long dirt road, past vineyards and olive trees and down a steep, narrow and gouged stretch that made the car’s shocks groan.

Maybe the dusty bouncing would have been less severe if I had taken the rutted path a little slower, but that would have required containing my excitement about the destination: a Tuscan inn with cooking classes.

Italy is a beautiful, friendly place with an insane assortment of things to do and see, but when my wife and I spent three weeks there in spring, one of our most exciting activities was eating.

We were blown away by fresh pasta with one-note accompaniments, such as truffle oil or mushrooms. We marveled at the deep flavors of dried meats, pungent cheeses and rich red tomatoes. Things I would not eat at home, such as wild boar and rabbit, became new friends.

One problem, beyond pants that no longer fit, is that if you really like to cook, eating amazing food forces you to reconsider your own kitchen strategies. It’s as if the people in the restaurant are throwing down a gauntlet, saying: “Oh yeah? You think you make some good beef stew? Beat this.”

So the opportunity to take a cooking class — especially in Tuscany, a hilly northern region whose landscape of medieval villages and farms has changed little in centuries — was too good to pass up. Here, we could learn from the masters — get inside the inner sanctum and see how the magic happens.

We discovered the bed-and-breakfast, Fagiolari the same way we found most every place we stayed — on the Internet, with the help of guidebooks and message-board postings from other travelers. Information abounds because so many tourists go to Italy; the Tuscan countryside is a trendy vacation spot, and lots of places offer cooking classes, including multiday sessions.

Our class came on the final night of a three-day stay at Fagiolari, a converted stone farmhouse where rooms started at $100, breakfast included.

Owner Giulietta Giovannoni charges $100 per person for the class, which she has offered since 1995. That includes an apron, a cookbook with about 30 recipes, the dinner that you learn how to cook and generous carafes of the red Chianti wine from grapes grown on the premises.

Because dinner alone at Fagiolari runs about $28 per person, the cooking class essentially costs $72.

Considering that she charges that much for cooking classes, Miss Giovannoni seemed surprisingly humble when I asked about the origins of her culinary wisdom.

“In Italy, the women all cook,” she said with a shrug, smiling.

There is a little more to it: Raised in Florence, 20 miles to the north, she worked in a restaurant and with caterers before buying the Fagiolari farmhouse with its olive groves and vineyards and turning it into a five-room B&B. In Italy, this kind of inn-farm is called agriturismo.

Giulietta’s success with Fagiolari inspired her twin sister, Marinella, to open a lovely agriturismo of her own just outside the Tuscan hill town of Volterra. We stayed at Marinella’s place, Podere San Lorenzo, before coming to Fagiolari and ate a few dishes that blew our minds, including a light but tasty asparagus lasagna and roasted vegetables stuffed with meat. Marinella also offers cooking classes.

During our class in Fagiolari, Giulietta was in the background, turning things over to her young assistant, Stefania Balducci, who also speaks very good English. She sweetly, patiently and ably guided me, my wife, a Dutch couple and two New Zealanders.

Story Continues →