Our Country Cooking offers week long cooking classes that focus on traditional Italian cuisine. Students learn to make Italian specialties such as radicchio and ricotta ravioli and gnocchi with cinghiale to name a few.
Class takes place 2-3 days a week at La Vecchia Quercia restaurant in Selci Sabina and 2 days are spent learning to cooking in the homes of local Italians. Students learn first hand how Italians prepare their two meals of the day Il Pranzo, lunch and La Cena, dinner. Fresh, local ingredients are featured and many vegetables are taken directly from the garden to create the specialty of the day.
Afternoons are spent touring the region with the emphasis on activities that a tourist would normally not see. The class will visit a local cheese farm, an olive orchard and then experience olive oil tasting, a working farm, a winery followed by a wine tasting and a day is spent in Rome visiting local outdoor markets. Evenings are spent dining in local restaurants with the focus always on authenticity. The students always dine where the locals dine.
Our Country Cooking resides in La Vecchia Quercia restaurant in Selci Sabina. La Vecchia Quercia is owned by Guiseppe and Anna Oliviera. Anna works diligently in the kitchen preparing fresh and seasonal Italian cuisine using many ingredients directly from their farm and garden. Early in the morning Anna adds oak to the simmering coals of the wood burning oven and when the temperature is just right she bakes her loaves of bread. Later in the day she will cook her antipasti and meats and at the end of the night before she retires she bakes her delicacies cakes in the same wood burning oven.
Anna and her helpers make homemade gnocchi, ravioli and an assortment of other types of pastas. Fillings for the ravioli range from typical ricotta cheese to spinach and sometimes wild boar. Her sauces are simple, yet robust and flavorful. One of her many secrets is the olive oil produced from her own olives.
* Our Cooking Program: The class is 7 days and 7 nights, 5 days of cooking classes with 2 days of tours.
Program Itinerary:
Day 1: Arrival. Pick up at local station and transfer to la Vecchia Quercia. Students check in rooms. Welcome snack and time to rest. Distribution of a course description to the participants & briefing on the area and local gastronomy. Early light dinner.
Day 2: Breakfast. Students will spend their morning preparing “il pranzo” in the home of an Italian family to be followed by a lunch all together. Back at La Vecchia Quercia, free time. Welcome dinner with Anna and Pino, owners of La Vecchia Quercia.
Day 3: Breakfast. Students will learn how to prepare the bread dough, together with the restaurants’ famous 14 antipasti. Afterwards, an introduction to the homemade pasta, preparing fettuccine e pappardelle, along with different sauces to accompany them. Afernoon visit to the local Medieval villages of Casperia, Poggio Cantino and Roccantica. Dinner at La Vecchia Quercia or other local restaurant.
Day 4: Breakfast. Another class on homemade egg pasta, today focused on lasagne and ravioli. This will be followed buy the preparation of wild boar in salmě to be served either as a second, or as a sauce for the pastas. Afternoon visit to local cheese farm to participate in the making of pecorino cheese. Dinner at Il Boschetto in Fianello.
Day 5: Breakfast. Day cooking class at local agriturismo. The menu is focused on cooking with mushrooms and truffles.
Day 6: day drip to Orvieto with visit to an outdoor market followed by lunch at Zeppelin restaurant. Afternoon visit to a local winery for a visit of their ancient cellars and a wine tasting. Dinner at La Vecchia Quercia.
Day 7: Breakfast. Lesson on pizza making and other local specialties. Tour of the fields and bird farm at La Vecchia Quercia. Gathering of fresh herbs and vegetables. Fairwell lunch at La Vecchia Quercia.
* Day Classes Now Available: Day Classes can be arranged to meet your schedule. A class are from 9:00am until 12:30pm and includes the following:
- 9:00am - 12:30pm: 3 hour cooking class. Emphasis on traditional Italian cooking. Homemade breads, pasta and sauces to be featured. Each class will focus on a new item or technique.
- 1:00pm- 2:00pm: freshly prepared Italian lunch, using the items you created in class.
- 2:30pm- 5:00pm: afternoon activity. Visit cheese farms, wineries, olive mills or medieval villages. Activities will vary with the seasons.
Tuition is 1600 Euros per week. Tuition includes:
- 6 nights of accommodations;
- All meals;
- Transportation to and from the train station;
- Daily tours to local wineries, mills, farms and markets;
- Day trip to Orvieto.
Faculty Information:
Faculty consist of local Italians and of course our chef Anna from La Vecchia Quercia restaurant in Selci Sabina.
- Guiseppi, fondly known as Pino is a wonderful host and will make each and every student feel like they are part of his own family.
- Luciana Pancera, owner of Villa Vallerosa, is a legend in these parts and she will guide you into regions and areas that a typical tourist would not experience. Luciana's a dynamo and her enthusiasm for this region is contagious.
- Anne and Bill Disselhorst are two Americans who fell in love with the Italian countryside. The charm of the region and the warmth of its people convinced them to make Italy a big part of their lives. Bill has been in the restaurant business for over 20 years and has a passion for food - Especially Italian food made by Anna.
Other Activities:
Our Country Cooking School is nestled in the Sabina Valley approximately 30 miles north of Rome. The Sabina Valley is anchored by the Sorrate mountain range. The beauty of the Sorrate Mountains has inspired artists and poets over the centuries.
The Sabina Valley is dotted with quaint towns, some medieval some relatively young. The countryside is lush with rolling hills, olive trees and vineyards. Old farmhouses rest in the unspoiled pastures and sheep occasionally stop traffic as they march to the open field for their Italian lunch.
We offer day trips in this region at Cheese farms, Olive orchards and mills, Medieval villages, Wineries, Working farms, Day trips to Orvieto and Rome, Olive oil tasting, Wine tastings.
Facility Information:
Lodging is provided at La Vecchia Quercia restaurant and B&B.
Notes:
We can negotiate on price based on the number of students.
Price includes:
- lodging
- all cooking classes
- activities
- all meals
- transportation from the train station.
Students need to take the train from the local airports. Airfare is not included.
Also see Vacation Schools in:
Cooking schools
Europe
Italy
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