
One of the great joys of living in Italy is of course, the food!
Learning to use local ingredients and prepare authentic cuisine increases your intimacy with your host country, as well as allow you to take a bit home with you when we all eventually leave Italy. (Sadly, I'll never get my hands on such great Campania-grown tomatoes!)
Several weeks ago I joined a fun group of women for a cooking class out on Monte di Procida. Mariella - fantastic Italian chef and friend to all - opens her family-run restaurant La Taverna dei Sapori to private week-day cooking classes for either small or large groups, depending on your needs.
Have some Italian specialties you are dying to duplicate in your home kitchen? Or just love all foods Italian? (Like me.) Either way, you can't go wrong at La Taverna's classes. Mariella will suggest a list of dishes for you, or you can customize the class, as we did.
We chose to focus on antipasti or appetizers, with loads of "stuffing" involved:
Ricotta-stuffed fresh zucchini blossoms
Grilled, rolled and stuffed eggplants with fresh tomato sauce
Beef-stuffed zucchini "boats"
......and my favorite: zeppolini!
The group was larger than normal (so I hear) but Mariella kept us moving and cooking, with lulls only to eat, share a few laughs, and sip our glasses of wine.
Mariella is organized, which helps keep us focused, promotes learning, and leaves you feeling like you can truly duplicate the recipes. Of course, she's Italian, so nothing is rushed and it's all about "getting a little dirty in the kitchen" as she said to me, meaning, relax, have fun. Bonus: she actually walks you through the recipes beforehand, providing paper and pen, and gives you measurements, handy tips and cooking temperatures.
The kitchen is newly renovated (or has been since my last visit to the restaurant last winter), and for me personally, I loved the clean, professional cooking environment with stainless steel preparation counters, restaurant-quality tools and built-in fryers.
The stuffed and fried zucchini blossoms were a favorite, the delicate early-summer bloom that is both beautiful and delicious. "Gentile" Mariella warned us, showing us how to clean and remove the pistil, found deep inside the flower. Seasoned Ricotta cheese is then placed within, to squish-out warm and soft after fried with a delicate batter.

Italian ricotta cheese, by the way, is nothing like the American-style goopy stuff bought in the States, I'm sorry to say. It comes in several forms, and is so delicious here it would probably make a slice of cardboard taste yummy!

Are you hungry yet? After preparing and cooking, we all had worked up an appetite. First out of the kitchen were baskets of fried dough balls speckled with shredded zucchini flowers which we passed about and greedily gobbled up, licking the leftover salt off our fingers. The local favorite zeppollini is typically studded with fresh seaweed. However, as Mariella explained, seaweed is only good when the waters are calm, otherwise, it's too dirty and not worth the hassle.
So, want to know what is really the best part about cooking class? Eating!
After all the cooking was complete, the "stuffing" theme continued. The entire group sat down to one large table on the front patio to consume the finished products. Mariella and her happy-faced husband Pepe graciously served us - with perfectly grilled bruschetta thrown it as well - and kept the local Falanghina white wine flowing.
La dolce vita! The sweet life! For certain!

Gratzie mille Carrie for arranging a fun day. Can't wait to do it again this fall when the kids are all in school, the weather has cooled, and bathing-suit season is over. ☺