If you like to cook or just love food, we support a cooking class close to Florence due to the great quality, friendliness of the chefs and the incredible response we have had from the people who have attended the classes.

The cooking class is called “Good Tastes of Tuscany“ and the classes are held in the magnificent kitchen of a 14th century castle . The classes involve hands on fresh pasta making , the tricks to the tuscan cooking techniques and a vast menu even for the basic classes from antipasto to desert.

You'll cook together with the Chef and you'll eat what you prepared all together following the class. A full meal is served so you can relax and savour your efforts making new friends , having a laugh over a glass of wine and experiencing the tuscan lifestyle of times gone by.

The classes are run by 2 italian english speaking chefs.
One of the chefs learnt by the most important teachers ; her family. The traditional Italian housewife that takes care of the house was the center of everything in a home and also for entertaining. The chef was taught by her grandmother and mother the skill of true Tuscan cooking and later through many courses and a catering business.

The other chef began as a restaurant owner in Florence and then expanded his knowledge through the most noted italian courses for professionals . They also have a indepth knowledge on the history of Tuscan cuisine, the variety of dishes from each area and seasons.

They are both warm, passionate and friendly people and very eager to please , when I have commented to them about the satisfaction of the attendees they responed “ we just love people and what we do so much that this obviously transmits to the clients”.

You can obtain information about the classes and also costs from the website: www.tuscany-cooking-class.com

Lampredotto
2 Carrots
3 Celery sticks
1 Onion
4 Laurel leaves
2 peeled tomatoes
Salt and pepper

Preparation

Ingredients

A good handful of fresh parsley
300g bread
Teaspoon of wine vinegar
5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
1 anchovy fillet
1 garlic clove
black pepper

In this historical moment made up of uncertainties, doubts, and not enough money to go on vacation, travelling to Tuscany and especially Tuscany may seem like the wrong idea. We'd like to show you another side of the city, one that will thrill you and allow you to live the Italian way without spending the tourist money.

When arriving in Tuscany visitors are offered authentic traditional cuisine and often “bistecca alla fiorentina” will be recommended a huge juicy steak, it is unforgettable and yet can not be considered a light meal, in all senses. Elegant restaurants, antique inns, wine bars, but this region too feels the need to accustom to rhythms that have changed, to life's race, to businessmen that need a quick lunch or students that in between classes and a job need a break. Real typical local foods are found in booths in stalls, it's what we nowadays call street-food, having nothing to do with fast food, but only with tradition that goes hand in hand with life's necessities. Some decades ago this type of eating habit was popular, rich in calories, low in cost and truly convenient.

In Florence the quintessential street food is the lampredotto a panino stuffed with one of the cows stomachs (the abomasum), boiled in a flavoured broth and chopped. The lampredotto, which is very soft, is eaten with salsa piccante (hot, spicy sauce) yet principally with salsa verde, this green sauce gives the panino a really spicy and tasty finish.

These stalls sell other paninos, beware of the one’s that propose other than the traditional lampredotto or “trippa” (tripe), hot-dogs and hamburgers, the real Florentine won’t go near them, the antique tradition is still very popular and does not want to become a mingling of any kind of sandwich or bun.

The San Lorenzo neighbourhood encloses two-thousand years of history with many of the most important sites in the city’s center yet can also give the visitor a fast-low cost food break. During the nineteenth century when Florence was proclaimed Capital the Central Market was born, and the San Lorenzo neighbourhood which hosts the spectacular Medici Chappels also become the heart of convenient, traditional, commerce with its vegetable and meat market.

The neighbourhood was built around the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the first Florentine cathedral.  During the Renaissance it was at the center of power thanks to its illustrious inhabitants, the Medici family who in addition to prestige gave it a series of extraordinary monuments: Palazzo Medici Riccardi, a prototype for every palazzo of the era, the new Basilica rebuilt by Filippo Brunelleschi with later additions by Michelangelo and the Prince's Chapel with the tombs of the Medicean Grand Dukes.

Yet we are focusing on the Central Market built by Giuseppe Mengoni between 1870 and 1874, possibly in part to provide an outlet for those who would be displaced by the renewal of the area around Piazza della Repubblica, which had hosted the city’s major vegetable market, and to give city residents a centrally located place to shop. At the opening it must have been magnificent, with elegant geometric motifs decorating the exterior, and a vast interior space, a cathedral dedicated to commerce, two floors of true, healthy traditional products and numerous stalls where you can stop and taste a variety o typical appetizers and a selection of produce of all kinds.  If you enjoy exploring delicatessens you’ll be ecstatic and you won’t need to spend much either. The best thing to do is simply wander from one level to another and we suggest one final stop; outside- Beatrice Trambusti’s Tripe stand and then for a selection of wines which you can taste glass after glass at the Casa del Vino.  

Tripe Stand at Central Market
Via dell'Ariento & Via San Antonio
In front of the Mercato Centrale

Casa del Vino (wine bar)
Via dell'Ariento, 16R
Near the Mercato di San Lorenzo (Mercato Centrale)
Tel: 055-215-609