Cooking with Raffaella

If you’ve ever dreamed of living on an Italian fattoria (farm) and cooking in a farm kitchen, then Raffaella’s kitchen is just what you’ve dreamed of.

Located in the Umbrian countryside near Perugia, Raffaella Bucefalo and her husband Roberto run Agriturismo La volpe e l’uva, which has several simple yet charming farmhouse style cottages surrounded by shaded pergolas, beautiful lawns, pots of flowers, and an inviting swimming pool.  Of course there are also olive trees and vines as the farm produces its own wine and olive oil.

The agriturismo is also the location of the cooking school Let’s Cook in Umbria, where Raffaella teaches traditional Umbrian dishes.  The cooking school is what is what drew me to La volpe e l’uva in June.

I spent 3 days cooking with Raffaella and 6 other students in her charming farmhouse. The classes are hands-on, with no more than 8 people in a group, which makes for lots of individual instruction and plenty of opportunities to measure, mix, knead, and shape pasta. As well as make sauces, meats, and cakes in an authentic Umbrian home. 

Our group consisted of my long-time friends Susan and Jim, plus four fun ladies from the US (Gay, Cathy, Vicky, and Kristi) who quickly felt like new friends, and me.  There was a lot of laughter around the farmhouse worktable as we practiced new skills, crafted new dishes, and discovered new must-have kitchen tools. Each day our efforts were rewarded with a 4-course meal in Raffaella’s beautiful dining room or outside in the garden.

The best thing about Let’s Cook in Umbria is Raffaella herself.  She is a wonderful teacher - energetic, fun, with a great sense of humor. She provided encouragement, and occasional cries of “oh no, disastro”, as we learned to make various types of pasta, doing it all by hand.  Even our disasters were fun and by the end of the week “oh no, disastro” became our rallying cry.

Each day we made an appetizer - fabulous little melanzane (eggplant) parmigiana stacks, flat breads stuffed with either prosciutto or arugula and cheese, and a thin focaccia baked with cheese inside.  I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite. All are recipes that I will make at home

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We made a different type of pasta each day.  The first was strangozzi, a typical Umbrian pasta made with semolina flour, salt, water and a touch of olive oil.  As we kneaded it, Raffaella introduced us to the kneading song.  Exactly 2 ½ minutes long, we had to knead “with energy” for the length of the song.  There just may have been some spontaneous dancing too. After kneading and resting the dough, we used a chitarra to cut the pasta.  Chitarra in Italian means guitar and a chitarra has metal wires like the strings of a guitar.  The pasta dough is placed on the strings, rolled to cut the pasta, and then when you strum the strings, out falls the pasta. I think I earned my official Italian Nonna badge using the chitarra. To go with the strangozzi we made a sausage ragu – delicious!

Day two we made tagliatelle, an egg-based pasta which we rolled and cut by hand.  Raffaella taught a method of rolling the dough to the required thinness that was new to us all (no cheating with a pasta machine!) and one I want to try again at home.  A simple zucchini and speck sauce was perfect with the tagliatelle.

Our third pasta dish was gnocchi made with potatoes and flour. Gnocchi can be tricky to make but, with Raffaella’s guidance, ours were soft and delicate. The fresh tomato sauce made it a perfect light dish for a summer meal.

I think we could have made a whole meal out of each of the pastas, but a second course was also on the menu.  Day one we made a delicious chicken with peppers.  Day two, Umbrian special occasion polpette (meatballs).  The ingredients sounded a bit strange to me – they included orange zest and finely chopped raisins, not things I’ve ever seen in polpette recipes before. But the taste was wonderful with just a touch of sweetness from the raisins and a subtle hint of citrus.  They were served in a simple tomato sauce.

The last meat dish was a pan roasted pork tenderloin with grapes, shallots, juniper berries, fresh bay leaves, and white wine. The scent of it cooking was hunger-inducing and the grapes cooked down with the herbs and wine to make a lovely sauce. This would make a perfect special occasion meal.

I arrived the day before the cooking class began, and a piece of cake baked that morning by the previous guests was in my cottage for breakfast. I appreciated their efforts to make this peach cake.

Lastly, a dolce (sweet).  Each day we made a different cake, having a piece for dessert and saving some for breakfast the next morning. 

It’s hard to beat a cup of coffee, a slice of not-too-sweet cake, a seat under a shady portal, bird song, the smell of jasmine in bloom, and a view of an Umbrian hillside as a way to start the day.

Day one, and my personal favorite, was a carrot cake with lemon glaze.  Ground nuts gave the cake a wonderful texture. The lemon glaze kept it light and more tangy than sweet. 

Next up was a chocolate cake with pears.  Tender and not too sweet, it was delicious topped with a little cream.

Lastly, a crostata with ricotta and strawberries.  Ok – maybe this was my favorite.  Can I have more than one favorite? 

After each lunch we had a short rest and then headed off for some fun.  One afternoon we went to Col Santo winery for a tasting, another to Frantoio Decimi for an olive oil tasting and to a ceramics producer in Deruta where we had a demonstration and a chance to try shaping the clay.  

Raffaella is a joy - I miss her already!

As if the cooking and dining together were not enough, our course was one of Let’s Cook in Umbria’s seasonal courses.  In this case the seasonal special event was the Infiorata in Spello.  It took place on the last day of our time with Raffaella and so on that day we went to Spello early in the morning (transportation and a guide included in our cooking program) and cooked in the afternoon for an evening meal. The Infiorata is a truly spectacular event (see post from June 15th). It was a lovely way to end our time in Umbria.

I can’t say enough wonderful things about Let’s Cook in Umbria.  Raffaella is a joy.  I learned new skills and new dishes, ones that I can make at home.  And really, is there anything more satisfying than making perfect pasta by hand?

The shared meals were wonderful.  And leftover cake for breakfast? What a treat.  The small group was a delight.  The extra curricula excursions were fun.  The setting in the Umbrian countryside was beautiful.  It was a delightful and memorable experience.

To find more information or to schedule a class, visit the website for Let’s Cook in Umbria.   www.cookinumbria.it

Raffaella also has a cookbook: Sprinkle with Flour. It is available on Amazon. I can hardly wait for my copy to arrive.

A big thanks to Gay, Cathy, Vicky, Kristi, Jim, and Susan for graciously allowing me to use photos from our work in the kitchen! I would travel with this group anywhere, anytime. They helped make this a fantastic few days of cooking together.