Cooking classes on Lago Maggiore Italian Style

Today Matt, Gabrielle and I took a hands on cooking class from 9am - 3:30pm where we slaved away on pizza, pana cotta, focacia, and panzonetti.  We used a local cooking school called cooks on the lakes and Francesca was a wonderful teacher!  http://www.cookonthelakes.it/

We had the opportunity to cook in her house above Lago Maggiore in a beautiful old Italian home. 

Getting geared up and ready to cook

making the panzerotti 'insides'

Make a nice olive oil cover for your olive oil bottle.  It is really important to keep the olive oil out of the sunlight.

Another cool tip for those folks who like to eat as naturally as possible, make your own vanilla (you know, the kind you bake with?) at home by filling a bottle with vodka then drop in several vanilla bean pods.  As you use the vanilla beans just throw the bean pods into the bottle and store in the refrigerator and it will keep forever!

Focaccia!

Panzerotti

inside panzerotti

Showing us how to handle the dough

Important tip when making pizza...only add the salt to the tomato sauce after taking the pizza out of the oven.

panna cotta

We graduated!

Domodossola Sacro Monte Hike

Gabrielle, Sasha and I took a hiking trip to the Sacro Monte near Domodossala.  Hiking in Northern Italy is my favorite thing to do.  Yes, the food and culture is great and the art is phenomenal, but the natural beauty of Northern Italy is what makes my heart happy. 

Near the Sacro Monte are many hiking trail options, but we chose the picturesque 'A1' route (who am I kidding, in this area they are all picturesque!).  

pathway through town

town drinking fountain

 Along the side of the mountain we came across this overgrown cemetery. 

cemetary

ancient bread furnace

Sasha made a best friend along the way!

Isola Bella and Stresa Funicolare

Stresa is a cute little holiday day just a 20 minute drive up the lake from us.  From there you can take a Funicolare (a cable car) up the mountain and hike around and also from Stresa you can take a boat across the water to Isola Bella and see the palace.

View from the funicolare

On the boat headed to Isola Bella

Peacocks that live on the island

Piemonte Wine Day in Barolo and Barbaresco

We had a wonderful group of 6 that went to wine country for the day.   We hired a driver and enjoyed a relaxing day showing our friends one of the most famous wine areas of the world.  We started our day at 10am and headed to an Enoteca in Barbaresco for a sampling.

Dan, Stacey, Matt, Brie, and Brian

We had to follow that with a fantastic lunch at Casa Nicolini in Barbaresco (www.casanicolini.com) and check out these views!

Stacey and Dan

Matt and me

Brie and Brian

 

Next we headed to Barolo and did a tasting at Marchesi di Barolo.

We had a few minutes until our tasting and tour started so we killed a little time....

And then we got down to serious business.

And our final tasting was at one of my favorite places with a lady named Chiara (you have seen pictures from here in my previous posts).

After bellies full of wine samplings and great food we made it home to beautiful Arona!