TUSCAN HEN PARTY SURPRISE FOR BRIDE TO BE.

A report on a hen party held on 28th April 2007

We had a totally delightful day last Saturday when we hosted a hen party for 11 at the cooking school. All planned in secret, the friends, work colleagues, mum and mum-in-law to be opted for a Tuscan theme for the day and managed to keep it all from Lindsay, the bride to be, until they were actually in Devon on the evening before the event. Luckily she was totally into it and was delighted when she turned up at the school on Saturday morning and found out exactly what we'd be cooking.

Tuscan cooking is all about simple, rustic fair; lots of beans, grilled steaks, baked fish and fresh, seasonal vegetables simple prepared and presented. The area is famous for beef and of course Chianti, so bistecca fiorentina had to be on the menu. This consists of a huge chunk of t-bone steak, 2.5 kilos in this case, rubbed with oil and seasoning and chargrilled on the barbecue.This monster piece of meat got just about 20 minutes on the barbie, which doesn't sound like a lot but the bone takes the heat right into the middle very well. The end result is charred on the outside and still blue in the middle, bloody perfect if you ask me and much appreciated by the group (see photo).Obviously no day of Italian cooking would be complete without making some pasta from scratch. Pasta making is really remarkably easy to do and lots of fun; and no you don't a special pasta making thingy because you can just cut it up by hand. Naturally if you want to make angel hair pasta then a machine is helpful, and they are quite fun to use.

We also made some bread, in this case two Tuscan specialities. First a Tuscan Saltless bread, Pane di Prato. This bread developed because salt was extremely heavily taxed at one point so the average Georgio couldn't afford any. Lack of salt has two consequences for bread; first it tastes of very little although an overnight fermented starter, as we used, can help to impart some flavour. Second, the bread behaves differently because yeast needs a little salt to create the right environment in which to do its best work. So if there is no salt you need to use more yeast and so get a yeasty bread at the end. As it turned out the bread rose well, had a lovely soft finished texture and quite a nice flavour - pretty good all round.

Next we made Schiaciatta (ski-a-chi-aah-tah) which is a festive bread eaten to celebrate the end of the Chianti (sangiovese) grape harvest. Its like a sweet foccaccia bread with added grapes; fresh grapes from this year, raisins from last year and Vin Santo (sweet pudding wine) from years gone by. Absolutely lovely with a spot of dolcelatte.

Some of the cooking took place indoors but we also took advantage of the sunshine and set up an outdoor kitchen on the decking. the crew prepped from 10:00 until 2:30 and then sat down on the terraces to begin the feast, which lasted until about 5:00 - what a great hen party.

The Final Menu:

· Minestrone Estivo con Pane di Prato - Summer Minestrone with Saltless Bread

· Zucchini all Griglia ~ Grilled Courgettes

· Peperoni Ripieni ~ Stuffed peppers

· Pomodori Ripieni con Pesto Pangrattato ~ Tomatoes with Pesto Breadcrumbs

· Carpaccio di Manzo ~ Carpaccio of Beef Fillet

· Fresh Tagliatelli with Vegetarian Al Amatriciana Sauce

· Ravioli di Patate e Rucola ~ Potato and Rocket Ravioli

· Bistecca Fiorentina con Funghi ~ Florentine Style T-Bone Steak with Mushrooms

· Pollo Ripieno con Mascarpone ~ Chicken stuffed with Mascarpone

· Risotto al Funghi ~ Mushroom Risotto

· Canellini al forno ~ Baked Canellini Beans with sage

· Torta al Cioccolato e Zenzero ~ Chocolate and Ginger Torte

· Schiaciatta con L’uva con Dolcelatte – Tuscan Harvest Bread with Dolcelatte

And a final word from the bride to be,

We all had such an amazing time and still can't get over how much yummy food we ate! I can't thank you enough for making my hen weekend so fab!

Thanks and best wishes, Lindsay xx