Second Day at Anna Tasca Lanza: Cheese Day

Breakfast at Fillippo's 

Cheese ripening 

Making Ricotta

The Church in Vallelunga

Chheese tasting

Lunch: Chicken salad, green and fennel

Sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and artichoke

Lentil Soup

Fava, Greens and Cheese

Our Cassatine

My cassatine and biscotti regina

One Wednesday morning, we gathered before breakfast to get on a small bus and drove about 15 minutes to a nearby cheese maker who is friends with Fabrizia Lanza (who owns the school). Cheesemaking typically happens in the morning so we had to be on his time line. Basically, Filippo (cheese maker) did his regular thing while Francesca narrated and helped us ask questions. It was really interesting to see how sheep’s milk can be come so many types of cheeses with minimal waste. He made some cheese that will become primo sale and then used the whey (liquid) to make ricotta in another large vat. He let some of us try moving ricotta out of the vat into the cheese molds and we had quite a laugh because he was critical of everyone’s technique and eventually couldn’t take it anymore. While we were at Filippo’s, we had a picnic breakfast in a barn like space with old cheesemaking tools. 

After we got back from the cheesemaker, we had free time. Mom started to tell Francesca about our cousin’s cousin has family in the town nearby and we asked one of the ladies who works in the kitchen if she knew him (GianCarlo). She did and Francesca, also knew him and his caffe. She suggested we get in her car and try to find him, so off we went towards Vallelunga. When we walked in, it was clear that Mom and I were foreign to the caffe regulars. Francesca started to explain who we were and he interrupted her to go “Beth?” Clearly, our cousin Anthony had been communicating with GianCarlo and told us we might be coming by. It was great to meet him (even though we needed Francesca to communicate) and such a great coincidence that we picked a cooking school next to this town of all the small towns in Sicily. 

Once getting back to the Casa Vecchie, we had a little free time but then had a cheese tasting with Kyle and Mia. (Mia is a cheesemaker in addition to a gardener and bee keeper). We got to taste different cheeses from Sicily. I think Ragusano is my favorite, probably because it’s similar in flavor to Romano. After cheese tasting, we had a delicious “light lunch” of chicken salad, chicory and fennel. The fennel was roasted with anchovy, breadcrumbs and cheese and it was SO good. We ended with a pastry that was like a donut and topped with sweetened ricotta. 

We had a lot of free time after lunch and it was raining so a lot of our group went into nap mode while Mom and I hung out in the library where the internet is better. 

We reconvened around 530pm for a mini baking lesson with Enza (one of the kitchen ladies). We made dough (pasta frolla) for sesame biscotti (Biscotti Regina) and then she taught us how to make Cassata Cake. We each got to make our own small one. Cassata cake uses pre-made sponge cake, marzipan, and sweetened ricotta formed in a small mold. Limoncello is added to the cake pieces and then after removing the cake from the mold, it’s topped with a glaze and candied fruits. We had them after our dinner and they were so sweet most of us didn’t quite finish them and focused on the sesame cookies that we had finished after setting our cakes. 

Dinner was lentil soup, fava beans, salad, and cheese- and of course wine. By the time dinner was over we were all very ready for bed. Thursday we have another cooking lesson and some free time. The weather should be better so we are hoping to have more outdoor time. 

First Full Day at Anna Tasca Lanza

Food prepped for our lesson

Stirring Biancomangiare

The chickens

English garden

Stirring Panelle batter with Chef Kyle

Assembling meat rolls

Making Busiate

Eating the Panelle

The Busiate with Pesto

Meat roll with Salad

Biancomangiare

Artichoke

Library/sitting room at Winery

Wine tasting

View from the winery

Appertivo - fresh fava beans, cheese and sausage

Pork, Potatoes with parmesan & anchovies, greens and peas

Biscotti Regina with quince paste

Our first full day at Anna Tasca Lanza began with breakfast. We had cake, coffee, tea, yogurt made on the farm and a fruit called lowquats. 

After breakfast, we went for a garden tour with Mia, who is a gardener and beekeeper (although the farm has its own bee keeper). She showed us the different trees and plants in the English Tea garden, and then the vegetable raised beds along the pool. (After lunch, we got a tour of the full vegetable garden behind the villa). You can tell that our group’s love of food extends to plants and gardening and we all had a great time. 

After the garden tour, we started our cooking lesson with Kyle. We started making pasta dough with durum flour and water (no eggs). My dough came together quickly but wasn’t the right consistency for a while. While the pasta dough was resting, we made a chickpea flour batter for Panelle. After the batter was cooked on the stove briefly, we spread it on plates to dry. From there, we started our dessert. We mixed milk, sugar, bitter almonds,  lemon zest and cornstarch in a pot and mixed it until it boiled very briefly, strained it then poured it into wine glasses with bitter orange marmalade to set. I was stirring for a while but I had practice from all the jam making. The last dish we prepared were stuffed beef rolls. We made a mixture of cheese, bread crumbs, onions, etc and rolled the mixture into very thinly sliced beef like little burritos or blintzes. We put the beef rolls on skewers with onion petals, bay leaves, and sliced bread. The skewers were then dunked in olive oil and then breadcrumbs before being baked. We then returned to rolling pasta dough into a corkscrew shape which took a while so we also made some orichette which is a bit faster. Kyle then removed the chickpea paste from the plates, cut into triangles and fried them in oil. We sat in the courtyard with wine eating the panelle (chickpea fritters) while the ladies in the kitchen cooked everything. It was all SO good. 

After lunch we used our free time for a garden tour with Kyle and then at 4, we got a ride up the hill to the winery owned by the family for a tour. Our guide, Cornado was very enthusiastic and had been with the company for a very long time. He had studied to be a lawyer but wine was his passion. He brought us through the processing plant and to see the various sized wine barrels where the wine was aging. We of course finished with a wine tasting. 

After the tasting, we all walked back down the hill to the main house for aperitivo and then dinner. We had cheese and a sausage made by the farm using a pig they had raided for the cook the farm program (Thanks Carmen). For dinner, we had pork, potatoes roasted with cheese & breadcrumbs, fresh peas and spinach. We finished dinner with sesame cookies. After 4 rounds of drinking and eating, we were all ready for bed. Our group is getting along really well which is good because we are only 11 plus Luisa & Francesca. 

Travel to Cooking School

Veal Chop

Pork Tenderloin with Mushrooms

Greens 

The dining table 

Fava Bean Soup

Frittata 

Frozen Yogurt w/ Olive Oil and salt

The entrance to the main villa 

Monday morning we started our trek to central Sicily after breakfast. Because Sicily is so mountainous, and there are only so many highways, it is hard to get far fast. Knowing it was a long ride and we weren’t expected at Anna Tasca Lanza until after 3, our tour company prepared to have us stop at Villa Romana de Casale. 

Villa Romana de Casale is ruins of a very elaborate and ornate Roman house that was covered in mosaics and frescos and the mosaics were well preserved due to a mudslide that happened centuries ago. It’s not clear who the house belonged to, but they were obviously a wealthy family. Our tour guide took us through the various parts of the villa and showed up the mosaics. She showed us how in the servants quarters, they used geometric designs but in the public chambers and rooms for the family they had elaborate mosaics that told stories of the Greek gods or the trade routes of the time. It was really interesting. I have SO many pictures. 

After the villa, we stopped for a quick lunch at a restaurant just outside the villa. It was the first time we had seen a meat forward menu since getting to Sicily. We had veal and pork tenderloin. After lunch we drove the rest of the way to the cooking school. It was probably about 4 hours of driving total. The cooking school is in the middle of nowhere and is beautiful.

We settled into our room after meeting the hospitality guides Francesca and Luisa. At dinner, we met the other 9 guests that will be staying here this week. A lot of us are American but we have others as well. We had a great dinner of fava bean soup, salad, frittata and then a yogurt ice cream with olive oil for dessert. The family also owns vineyards and this property is their primary vineyard and where they make the wines so we had a lot of wine as well as great food. 

Garden tour and first cooking class today.