day 9 :

monday, 22 may

We awoke to the sound of the resident cuckoo, whom we heard frequently during our stay at the villa. He chimed one-hundred-o'clock, or so. We lost count after a while.

We have fond memories of enjoying breakfast in the second-floor loggia at Villa Giona from our previous trip. This morning's breakfast was just like we remembered, complete with a view of the villa grounds. Instead of a lush expanse of lawn, though, the view now included the beautiful new gardens that had been installed over the winter. Eric wasn't a coffee drinker during our first visit, but this time around he made sure to enjoy a cappuccino each morning, made with beans from Caffe del Doge in Venice. Eric was feeling better after a good night's rest, so decided he was ready to join the group.

Our cooking class field trip this morning was to the world-renowned Pieropan winery, located in the town of Soave in the Veneto region, home of (you guessed it) Soave wine. Andrea, one of the owners' sons, gave us a tour of the facility and explained how Soave is made. In order for a Soave wine to receive the D.O.C. label, it must contain at least 70% garganega grapes, and any remaining amount must be made from trebbiano, pinot grigio, or chardonnay grapes. We tasted a flight of Pieropan wines: two were blends (Soave Classico D.O.C. and Calvarino Soave Classico), one was made from 100% garganega grapes (La Rocca Soave Classico), and the last was Le Colombare Recioto di Soave — an aged, oaked dessert wine. The last was so impressive and not overly sweet that we purchased a couple of bottles to bring home.

After a rough morning of wine tasting, it was time for lunch! We were starving, and the food at Dai Tomasi, a typical Veneto trattoria, hit the spot. Eric finally got a chance to meet most of our classmates, since he missed the opening dinner the night before.

We had a couple of hours to rest up before starting our first cooking class of the week. We met outside donned in aprons, and Giuliano described the menu we'd be cooking:

Monday Dinner

• Carciofi alla Romana - artichokes, Roman-style
• Gnocchi di patate al pesto - potato gnocchi with pesto
• Lombo di maiale al radicchio - pork with radicchio
• Torte di mandorle - almond tart

Giuliano shared a number of helpful tips as we were preparing the meal this evening:

• Gnocchi di patate al pesto
  • Gnocchi comes out better if you make it right after the potatoes are done.
  • Gnocchi is fluffier if you pass the potatoes through a food mill on medium grind, rather than a potato ricer; this is because the food mill grates the potatoes, whereas the ricer squashes it flat.
• Lombo di maiale
  • To minimize the number of pans you use for the pork dish, you can brown the meat first, and then remove it and sauté the onion in the same pan.
  • When you first put meat into a hot pan, don't move it right away, otherwise some of it will stick and you'll pull the meat apart.
  • Use white wine when cooking radicchio to allow the vegetable's flavor to come through; red wine would overpower the dish and dominate the flavors.
  • Don't let the pork cook too slowly, or you'll end up steaming it and you'll lose a lot of the flavor.
• Torte di mandorle
  • Grind the almonds with the flour in the food processor, otherwise the almonds will turn into a paste.
  • Don't put salt on top of baking powder, or the salt will inhibit the powder's leavening action; instead, put the salt on a different side of your bowl when mixing it in.

The evenings of cooking tend to go into the late hours. Since dinner isn't served until 10 or 11 PM, every evening includes a snack and wine lesson midway through. Usually, Marilisa presents the wines, but since she was out of town on business until Friday, her colleague Paola was there in her absence. Paola presented a flight of Altesino winery's Brunello di Montalcino wines (all made from 100% Sangiovese grapes), and we enjoyed a snack of:

Monday Snack

• Shimoudin - a northern Lombardy cheese made from 70% cow's milk and 30% goat's milk, similar to camembert
• Tomme rossa - a cheese from Pedemont
• Carne salate - salted and air-cured Angus beef