This was my last full day in Fiesole. I had signed up for a cooking class with Silvia. After breakfast and my morning walk, we got started with the cooking class at 11am. She invited me into her kitchen and had a table ready with the ingredients. We would be preparing a spinach ricotta ravioli in a butter sage sauce. She would also be showing me how to make tagliatelle with the left over dough.
The dough is a very simple recipe of 200 grams Durham wheat and 2 eggs, with only a pinch of salt. You drop the eggs into the center of the dough and begin to blend and work into the dough. After a year of sourdough bread baking, this feel very straightforward. We then let the dough rest while we worked on the filling – a very simple spinach and ricotta blend.
She had me pour oil into the pan and I was modest with how much I poured, Silvia said, ‘More, more, you are not on a diet!’ I laughed and poured more generously. To that I added a single garlic clove that had just 2 small incisions with a knife. I place that into the pan with the oil to infuse the oil with the garlic aroma. She said you didn’t want it too strong an you would eventually toss the garlic clove.
She then had me sauté they spinach and add an equally amount of salt, pepper, and fresh ground nutmeg to taste. She said you want it balanced but powerful as it will have to bring the flavor to the ravioli which really has a mild taste. Also the ricotta is very mild. After the spinach was sautéed, we removed the garlic clove and she had me put the spinach on a cutting board and chop it up with a half-moon slicer. She said you don’t want it puréed, just chopped. I then added it to the ricotta to blend. After that, we again seasoned it with the salt, pepper and nutmeg.
We used a pasta press to transform the dough into long thin sheets to make the ravioli – from 0 to 7 on the machine in thinness. We then worked together to prepare the raviolis with the filling, remove the air in the pocket, cut with the ravioli cutter and then seal with the edge of a fork. The process went more quickly than I would have expected and soon awe had all the ravioli I would ever want and more for lunch portion.
She then showed me how to use the machine to make the tagliatelle with the left over dough. It was a 0-6 process of thinning and I was thrilled when I saw the how easily the tagliatelle spun out of the machine into my left hand as my right hand cranked the pasta press. It was as thrilling as it was when I was a little kid playing with play dough and you did something fancy with your new play dough set.
We then went to her garden to pick fresh sage – about 2-3 handfuls. We melted about 3-4 tablespoons of butter in the pan and once it was melted, added the sage leaves whole to get them crispy. While that was happening, the water was boiling for the ravioli and it really only took 1-2 minutes for the ravioli to be ready. It just had to float to the top of the rolling boil and it was done. As they were done, I scooped them out like gold fish with a mesh wire basket and added them to the bowl in layers between the butter sage sauce. I tossed it all together and we added grated cheese.
Silvia then set a table outside for me on this beautiful sunny day, overlooking the hills, and also brought over a bottle of a wonderful organic Chianti. I enjoyed the ravioli and that wine and the view so much. It was a perfect little moment under the Tuscan sun. A great way to end my last full day in Fiesole.
I spent the rest of the afternoon writing – working on my book and blogging, and then did a little packing for the next day. Silvia told me to come back to her kitchen at 8pm and we would boil the tagliatelle for my dinner and she did just that and added a pesto. I had a pasta on pasta day and I was perfectly happy about that. I went back to my room and enjoyed dinner with some more of that bottle of wine.
Tomorrow I would be heading out to go pick up Heidi and Jeff in central Florence. I’m cringing about thinking about driving there on a Saturday at high noon. But, once that hurdle is behind me, we will head to the Val D’Orcia where the farm is and about 1:45 from Florence. I feel much more comfortable out there on the roads and I am so excited to get back and see everyone again. Buona Notte.