If you can’t stand the heat

Was it a case of 'Too many cooks spoil the broth' at our cooking class in Florence? 

Assolutamente no! For one thing there wasn’t a broth in sight as we made two Italian staples - gnocchi (a potato based pasta) and a traditional Margherita pizza. 
 

And it seemed that the more the merrier was the order of the day as everyone got a chance to try their hand at cooking up these Italian classics. 

We were welcomed into Baldovino by Franco and his team, and we wasted no time tying on our bright white aprons and donning our chef hats. 

So we looked the part, but did we have what it takes to be an Italian chef? Let’s see…

We watched in awe and learnt how to make gnocchi… it’s not that complicated, but muscle power is required for the labour-intensive process of mashing the potatoes, kneading the dough, and finally rolling and cutting the pieces into the bite size gnocchi shape we know and love. Later we got to try them cooked in a fresh tomato and basil sauce - perfetto!

But it didn’t end there! 

It was a bit of a squeeze in the kitchen but we took turns as pizzaioli (pizza chefs!) to stretch out our pizza dough, and then spread the pomodoro (tomato) sauce and rip up the mozzarella. A couple of minutes in the blazing wood fired oven and they were ready to eat! 

Buonissima!!! 

Perfect in its simplicity, the Margherita pizza is an uncomplicated masterpiece, so it should come as no surprise that in Italy about 5 million pizzas are baked every day! Whether we're making them, eating them, or as in this case, both, we're always happy to add to that number!

While during the rest of the program we’ve enjoyed having our (delicious) meals served to us every night, it was fun to be behind the counter for a change, and we were thrilled to make our own dinner.