Tasca Lanza International Cooking School: Take 1!

Case Vecchie

Case Vecchie

Case Vecchie or "old house" as it's translated, is my new home for the next four months! Located in Vallelunga, Case Vecchie is the heart and home of the Anna Tasca Lanza International cooking school where nearly two hundred years of food, culture and Sicilian family tradition coalesce. Fabrizia Lanza, the daughter of Anna Tasca Lanza (And my boss!) has been running the international cooking school for a number of years. Trained as a curator for the arts, she now uses the art of food as a medium to interpret her rich family history and connect people from all over the world by bringing the "old ways" back to life - with a little modern day flare.

Panoramic view of the teaching kitchen

When I first arrived, I asked Fabrizia how long she had been a chef and her answer was both surprising and revealing. She replied poignantly "I'm not really a chef, cooking has always been a part of my family, a part of Sicilian culture. It's not a profession one chooses, it's a lifestyle that becomes part of who you are as a person. These new food trends on "eating local" has been a way of life in Sicily for hundreds of years". And the longer I live in Sicily, the more I realize this truth. It's a part of a world where families still eat together on a regular basis. Food is prepared by hand from sources that are almost always local and seasonal. Every recipe that Fabrizia teaches to her students contains ingredients that have either been grown in the garden (I know, because I help maintain it) or sourced locally from small family owned businesses in Vallelunga.

There are some exceptions. For instance, Himalayan salt. That's not source locally. Also Fabrizia might use fish in a recipe. We obviously don't live on the Agrigento or Trapani coastline, but fish mongers local to Vallelunga or a neighboring village make several fishing trips per week. In other words, the supply chains are about as short as it gets. Fabrizia knows exactly where her ingredients come from. Her heart is in Sicily. Teaching students with ingredients sourced from outside the region, would go against everything she stands for. This is what makes her Sicilian cooking school so special. You can't grow the same quality of tomatoes, lemons or oranges that are specific to this region anywhere else in the world. Not to mention that the estate sits within the Tasca D'Almerita winery, a legacy passed down by Fabrizia's grandfather, Giuseppe, where every glass poured is literally a glass of Sicily. Wines like Amarone, and Valpolicella from northern Italy are fantastic, I love them, but a glass of wine made from grapes from the Regaleali Vineyard is like tasting the sun. 

The Winery which is located just a few kilometers up the road from where we are, produces just over 3.2 million bottles per year and has made a stunning video that describes "The Sound Of Wine", a symphony of melodic notes generated through the strumming, sliding, drumming, bowing and blowing of bottles and wine glasses. The video's production is as magical as the winery itself (I'll tell you about the wine tasting later!).

Needless to say, I've died and gone to heaven being a part of all this. Gratitude is an understatement. Everyday I wake up to the song of a thousand swallows outside my window (punctuated by a roosters long morning call) and think "I don't know what I did in a previous life to deserve this, but thank you!" 

Assortment of vegetables from the garden

 So what do I do here? Well, I work with Giovanni, the head grounds-keeper in maintaining the estates giant kitchen garden! We grow a variety of heirloom fruit trees and vegetables, many of which are wild such as Calendula and Fennel. It feels strange (in a good way) being back in the garden. I've had shake the dust off of my horticulture hat and reacquaint myself with a few Latin names and techniques like plant propagation. The weather has been dramatic lately with rain and hail cutting through the sunny skies at odd hours of the day so when I'm not in the garden, I'm either learning new Sicilian dishes with the cooking students or developing a sustainability framework for the business. 

But I'm not the only non-Italian resident here! I work a girl named Linda, a hip Brooklynite with Greek heritage who is Fabrizia's sous chef. She is a wonderful chef and has a cool blog called The Cheeky Chef  Check it out! She's worked on a lot of different food projects in New York and frequently rubs cutting boards with some of the best chefs in the city. Both Linda and Fabrizia are helping me quit my egregious egg eating habit, which when I left London, was nearing two dozen per week....eek...but gosh they're so good! Anyway, while my American sensibilities tell me that this is perfectly normal, I am reminded that in Sicily, where food is coveted, eggs belong in pastries. I had my first egg-ervention tonight just as dinner was coming to a close. Linda, who I had confided in and purged my deepest darkest egg secrets too, had ratted me out! I thought Greeks were loyal? Then again...she's a Greek from Brooklyn.... I jest....and I protest! They don't understand! I can't possibly eat a traditional Italian breakfast consisting of bread and marmalade (albeit freshly baked bread and best marmalade I've ever tasted) every day? I'm a man in the garden and a man OF the garden needs his eggs! Sigh.... Thus begins a new twelve step program at Case Vecchie where for the first time in a long time...eggs are off the menu - for now...

Alla Matriciana

Anyway, the mouth watering pasta dishes more then make up for the egg drought that I am about to go through. On my second day at Case Vecchie we made a pasta dish for lunch called alla matriciana, a traditional Italian tomato sauce originating from Amatrice, a small town in the mountainous province of Rieti. In in, fresh tomato sauce, pecorino cheese, chilli pepper and guanciale. Sooo good! You wouldn't expect it, but the chili pepper gives it a nice spicy kick!

We complimented our peppery pasta dish with a bottle of Lemuri 2010, one of Tasca D'Almerita's best red wines. The boldness of the grapes brought out the sharp pecorino undertones and blended perfectly with the aromatic of flavors the tomato sauce - Meraviglioso! If you see this bottle at a shop near you, buy it! You won't be disappointed. Actually, if you see any wine produced by the Tasca D'Almerita winery, treat yourself!

On a rainy Tuesday afternoon with the garden over-saturated, I was invited to join one of Fabrizia's cooking classes! Before our first lesson (my first cooking lesson!) we took a short tour of a local farm where the owners are in the business of making Ricotta Cheese! The owner, Filippo, is a fourth generation cheese man.

Filippo removing the Ricotta in the last stage

 

Filippo works long twelve hour days, often seven days per week. You can tell he takes great pride in what he does. Every movement is calculated. He explains (In Italian) which is translated back to the group, that before Ricotta can be called Ricotta, it goes through a series of stages where the goats milk is strained and skimmed several times. The word "Ricotta" means "re-cooked" because the whey which is separated from the tuma curds in the first stage are brought back to a boil and skimmed in the last. When asked how Filipe knows when the Ricotta is done cooking, he answers in typical Sicilian fashion "It's done when it's done...". He's a master. By sight and feel alone he knows when the Ricotta is ready to be lifted from the boiling cauldron.

And because we were there AS Filippo was finishing a fresh batch. We all shared in the warmth of freshly brewed ricotta cheese! Yum!

Fabrizia shows us how to make Arancini

Returning to Case Vecchie with our stomachs full and half asleep, we prepared for our afternoon cooking lesson with Fabrizia. On the menu - Arancini! Fabrizia taught us a new method for making risotto, a key ingredient in forming the arancini ball, which I described in a previous blog posting. We filled our little arancini balls with ragu, lightly battered and fried in olive oil from olives grown on the estate.  Lunch and dinner is always enjoyed at the schools family sized dinning table. Eating together and relishing in the fruits of our labor is paramount to Italian cooking.

For dinner Fabrizia showed us a dish I've always wanted to learn how to make - ravioli!

Using the fresh Ricotta from the farm, we forged two dozen handmade ravioli's. When you have the right equipment, they're not that difficult to make! Having access to a pasta press makes a huge difference. Rolling and stretching out long pieces of ravioli dough by hand without tearing it sounds impossible. Though, I suppose that's how it was done for centuries before modern day kitchen accessories were born. Ching, ching for technology!

This past week we've had Pasta with Cauliflower, Currants and Pine Nuts, Biscotti Regina, Biancomangiare / Blancmange and Pesce Spada Impanato to name just a few. Hats off to chef, Fabrizia and Linda! You two are mavericks.

Well that just about brings you up to speed on my first week at Case Vecchie. The food, people and experiences have been amazing! I feel so very fortunate to have been given this opportunity. I can't wait to see what next week brings. 

Unfortunately, I've come down with a mild case of the manflu, so I'm going to sign off. Buonanotte!