Normally when we visit a new city, we visit the museums and tourist attractions. This was our honeymoon though, and I was determined that we wouldn’t spend all of our days inside museums. I wanted to have more exciting memories and adventures to remember on our honeymoon. So, for Florence, I picked 2 full day tours that we wouldn’t normally do. Today was a culinary adventure in Tuscany. Tomorrow was a surprise for Nisheet. 

The culinary tour started off at Mercato Centrale to buy the ingredients that we would be using later for our dinner. Our guide showed us all the fresh produce, and we talked about how important it is to use ingredients that are in-season. We stopped by bread stalls and sampled the Tuscan bread. And, btw, it is extremely bland. They don’t use any salt because of heavy salt taxes in the Middle Ages, and the recipe has just stuck around. We stopped by the butcher and picked up bags of pork for a traditional pork and potato dish. And, lastly, we loaded up on ground beef for ragu.

After the market tour, we all loaded up on a bus and headed out into the countryside. The kitchen that our class was held at overlooked the rolling hills and had its own immaculately kept garden full of herbs and vegetables. It was absolutely gorgeous. The kitchen itself was beautiful too with shiny cooking ranges and utensils. Best of all, it had a huge room filled to the brim with wine. Every time my glass looked even remotely low on wine, someone swooped by to fill it back up. 

The class size was largish, maybe 20 people, but it was easy to participate. Someone was always chopping vegetables, creating sauces, or preparing meat. Nisheet got to add the wine to pasta sauce! Our hilarious Italian chef kept singing, “more wine, more wine!” She was such a hoot. She barely spoke any english (we had a guide to translate for us) and she danced and sang around the kitchen all day long. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire day, but the highlight of the class was when we actually got to make pasta. It was such a simple recipe. Just flour and egg. You mix the two together gradually with a fork, knead the dough, roll it out, and then cut it out into strips. It is such an easy recipe that it really makes me realize how lazy I am for buying boxed, dried pasta in the grocery store. And, I’ll admit, I’m still guilty of buying pasta instead of making my own. At least I know that I can make it now. 

By this point in the day, we had made balsamic dipping sauce for freshly made bread, bruschetta, 2 types of pasta, pesto sauce, ragu, an oven crisped potato dish, and a roasted pork platter. I thought we were done. But, nope! We had 1 last dish to prepare. Tiramisu! It is high up on my list of desserts, so needly to say, I was pretty excited that we were getting to make it. I helped mix up all the ingredients, and then everyone got to make their own individual bowl. 

And, finally, after a long but fun day, we got to reap the benefits of all our hard work and eat a gigantic feast. We sat down at long tables and enjoyed the dinner family style. My favorite was the pesto pasta. Surprise, surprise… Nisheet loved the bruschetta. Of course, everything was absolutely scrumptious, especially since we helped with the preparation. I can’t recommend going on a tour like this enough. Definitely one of the highlights of our honeymoon.