You're awesome. Let's eat!
Hi friends!
I am excited to share this gift with you.
In Fall 2022, I had an amazing opportunity to live in Italy for a month.
While I was there I I took a cooking class in the Tuscan hillside and learned to make a local pasta called pici (pronounced peachy), which is what I made for you.
Also if you look closely you can see our menu for the day on the chalkboard:
- Bruschetta con canollini
- Pici al Ragu
- Pollo alla cacciatora
- Panna cotta e cioccolata
The setting was an open-air kitchen in the tiny Italian town of Certaldo. The views were breathtaking. The family built a cottage overlooking their olive grove (not to be confused with olive garden) and their grape vineyard.
I later learned some of the family lives in this villa in the left side of the picture. Yes please.
The whole family is involved in this business and the matriarch, Guiseppina always steals the show. Warm, welcoming, hilarious, and an excellent cook. She shared one of her cooking secrets - always always more olio d'oliva. Olive oil.
The family makes their own wine, olive oil, tomato sauce, and magic. This rustic kitchen showed off their beautiful range of Tuscan red wine reds. They grown their own olives and make their own olive oil. No wonder this is the "secret" to all of their recipes. Bright red tomato sauce from the last tomatoes of the season added the punch to our ragu.
One of the major lessons I learned in Italy is "Less. But better."
Quality ingredients, shared with good company, in a beautiful place.
If you want something to serve with your pasta, we made Pici Al Ragu, which Guiseppina shares on her blog.
My new friend, Ann, photobombing me by accident and realizing it mid-pic. (Or mid pici)
I wish you could have been there with me. I am excited to bring these stories and ingredients back to share with you.
As soon as I got back to the states, I bought the same type of flour we used in Tuscany. I made each batch by hand, rolled it, dried it, and packaged it up just for you.
Here's how to make it:
To cook your pasta, bring salted water to a slow boil. Add the pasta and start checking it around 7 minutes. When it is al dente, slightly chewy, remove it with tongs or a spaghetti claw and add it to your sauce to finish cooking.
Ingredients:
The only ingredients are “00 flour” - a very finely milled flour from Italy, olive oil, and egg. I hope you enjoy! (P.S. this type of flour is low in gluten and high in protein!)
Thank you for being a wonderful part of my life and letting me cook for you.
As they say in Italy, "a presto" - see you soon!
Much love,
Sarah