Relaxation and Food near Lucca

This 3 night stay outside of Lucca at Albergo Villa Cassanova was much needed for both of us. The time spent in Rome, Venice, Florence, Siena and Pisa was a constant flourish of activity, so we have really relished in our downtime. We would both highly recommend this hotel to anyone and will keep it on our list to return to one day. The owner was here during our stay and she visited with us throughout the days and was always making sure we had a great time.

Yesterday we took part in the cooking class I had booked before we came here. Chef Paulo Monti was great - his knowledge and skill are both extensive, and he had a great sense of humor to keep the class engaged. There were ten people in the class and over the 5 1/2 hours we were there, we made fresh white, green, red, black and chocolate pasta. I had heard about the black pasta but it was very cool to see the small amount of squid ink it took to make the pasta entirely a rich black. With this pasta, we made ravioli, fettuccine, spaghetti, and a mixture of any leftover pieces of pasta from the rest. This was then served with fresh tomato sauce and fresh Parmesan. The mixture of colors was extraordinary and the dish very easy.

While cooking, it was funny to hear Chef Paulo say "just a dash of olive oil" and then pour in over a half bottle of the stuff! He definitely did not skimp out on any ingredients while cooking with us! As I try very hard to live by the Eat Clean philosophy in cooking, I was very happy to see that all the pasta and sauces were made with easily found, high-quality, natural products.

We also made gnocchi, which, it turns out, is incredibly easy and you don't even need any special equipment. So, yep, we'll be making gnocchi when we get home! (Chef Paulo had an assistant, Angie, who he would ring a bell for to get her attention, and who assembled ingredients and kept the dishes and work areas clean for him. Bryan has agreed to be my Angie when I cook for him at home!)

For sauces, we made fresh tomato sauce, cherry tomato sauce, a spicy yet creamy tomato sauce, mushroom Masala sauce, porcini mushroom and tomato sauce, spaghetti alla carbonara, and a curry and chicken sauce for the gnocchi. We also made a simple bruschetta with olive oil, diced tomatoes, garlic-olive oil paste and chopped basil. It's super easy and very tasty!

The chocolate pasta was made into ravioli for dessert with caramelized peaches inside, with a caramelized orange-strawberry topping. Our dinner ravioli were filled with a ricotta-spinach mixture, and salmon was used in the black ravioli.

The class was great and we both will bring home new ideas and recipes to try. Bryan now wants us to get a little bistro table for our deck to put a red checker tablecloth on so we can eat our bruschetta and pasta out there, just like in Italy!

The one downside to the class was that we probably made enough food for about 40 people and we all speculated the leftovers (and there were a lot!) would just be thrown out. All in all, this class was awesome and well worth the money!

The weather has been incredibly hot the past three days so we finally took a couple of hours and laid by the pool yesterday afternoon. This morning, we spent another three hours enjoying the sunshine and the coolness of the water. One thermometer said it was 40 degrees outside!

This afternoon, we took a trip into Lucca. It's a nice, small city, but there really isn't a lot to do or visit, unless you haven't already seen a hundred churches or if you're into Puccini. We walked the old fort walls, a 4km bike path that the city had built on top of these walls, and enjoyed the peacefulness of the town. It really is beautiful with the hills on either side. I love sitting out at night and seeing all the twinkling lights among the trees for miles.

View of outside the walls into the hills around Lucca.

View from walls of Lucca city.

A portion of the fortress walls still visible.

Bryan walking along the wall pathway.

 

There is a unique piazza, Piazza Anfiteatro, in Lucca that is oval shaped, with all the buildings touching and oriented towards the middle. We ate dinner there and laughed at kids chasing pigeons and birds trying to sneak food off our plates. One little bird was determined to take Bryan's leftover focaccia but I think the piece was too heavy for him!

 

Piazza Anfiteatro

Little bird (very middle) trying to steal our bread.

Lucca is definitely worth visiting, as it's beautiful countryside and friendly people, but it's somewhere great when you need to get away from the crowds and tourist gimmicks and just relax and eat great food.