Today, in Siena...

Today we took a true Tuscan cooking lesson from a truly Tuscan woman (well, close enough - she said she was from the South originally, but lets not split hairs here) with the truly Tuscan name of Elizabetta. She was lovely. And the food!! So fabulous, simple ingredients, delicious, yummy, fabulous. Here's to cooking, it was amazing!

Here we are about to enter her abode and be schooled in the ancient arts of pasta n stuff. We were dubious, unconvinced, skeptical, generally not stoked on the whole thing. I mean, fresh pasta and wine? Is that really a good combination??

WE MADE RAVIOLI!!!! She gave us a great simple recipe for filling, and we just ate it with butter and sage - INcredible! 

Here is Chris making fresh pasta for the first time! I feel truly honoured to have witnessed this moment, as I know it will be the first of many many delicious Pasta Creations by Chris to come!

Our little raviolis ready for the boiling water!

And then we got to eat!! We also made (but didn't photograph!) eggplant parmigiano (spelling?) and fabulous crunchy almond dessert biscuit things, very much like biscotti, but a Tuscan specialty version thereof that is meant for dunking in Vin Santo, a local dessert wine that is to die for. 

And we got to eat it ALL, with great local wines and lessons in local heritage and Italian culture / language history from the vast knowledge of Elizabetta. 

It was radness, pure and simple.