Editor’s note: Sara Pitzer recently participated in a week of Italian cooking classes through the Tuscan Women Cook program. Here are her observations about the classes, the food and adapting the recipes for an American kitchen in Rowan County.
 
By Sara Pitzer
For The Salisbury Post
During cooking classes in Tuscany I decided that the best cooks come from those places where there’s not always been enough food and that the quality of any finished dish reflects the quality of ingredients that went into it, however simple they may be.
We spent our time in the Tuscan Women Cook classes in restaurant kitchens, but our teachers were local Tuscan women, not chefs of fancy restaurants. We learned about cooking processes, making fresh pasta, sauces, soups, salads and desserts. If we didn’t get something right, the women would whip out a rolling pin or knife or spatula and do it over. They’re perfectionists.
They’re also frugal. After we made a batch of fresh pasta, flour remained on the kneading board with some little egg-flour lumps mixed in. Bruna quickly sifted out the lumps and returned the flour to the bag. I didn’t see it happen, but I imagine she later dropped the lumps into simmering soup to cook like tiny dumplings.
So, frugality was the first lesson. The other was learning to cook with what’s available at the moment. This means that instead of choosing a recipe and going to procure the ingredients for preparing it, one surveys the ingredients in the kitchen and the market, and devises a way to use them. Even traditional recipes vary from one time to the next.
A note on the front of Le Ricette, our little class cookbook, put together by our hosts, Bill and Patty Sutherland, says:
“One of the things you will discover about cooking in Tuscan women’s kitchens is that the recipe varies nearly every time a dish is made. Sometimes ingredients are changed based upon the seasons and other times simply because of what is in the kitchen that day.”
The following recipes are adaptations of Tuscan classics based on what was in my kitchen and the local grocery store when I returned from Italy. Those cooking with me read recipes and then devised our own versions.  
In the spirit of Tuscany, you should, too.
Ben’s Sausage with Onion and Sweet Peppers
1 package Italian sweet sausage links
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 green pepper, cut in strips
1 large onion, sliced
1 handful dried porcini mushrooms
Salt and pepper
 
Simmer the sausages in water until they are cooked through. Remove from the water and slice in half lengthwise. Saute the pepper and onion in the olive oil until soft and soften the dried mushrooms in the sausage water for about 20 minutes. Squeeze as much water out of the mushrooms as you can, then toss them in with the peppers and onions. Add the sausage. Saute everything together for a few minutes, season lightly and serve. Save the sausage-mushroom water to make soup.
Makes about 6 servings. 
Ribalita
“Ribalita” means cooked twice, so you can easily prepare the soup a day or more ahead of time and finish it when ready to eat. Clearly, it was devised some time past as a way to use up stale bread. The better the bread, the better the soup. I like to use a homemade baguette that is half white and half whole wheat flour. You can easily cook the beans ahead of time, overnight in a slow cooker, covered by several inches of water. 
1 loaf stale bread
10 ounces dried white beans
ć C. extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, sliced
2 celery ribs, chopped
3 large leaves of chard (kale is a good substitute)
ć a head of cabbage, slivered
1 large can tomatoes
 
Saute the vegetables slowly in the olive oil in a soup kettle. Add the tomatoes and cook about 15 minutes. Add beans and some of their cooking liquid. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Add the chard and cabbage and cook for an hour longer. Add bean liquid or water as needed.
To serve, arrange slices of bread on the bottom of a serving dish and cover with a layer of the soup. We sprinkled grated cheese on top and baked the soup long enough to melt the cheese. Good hot or at room temperature. Makes a big pot.
Panzanella (Tomato and Bread Salad)
 Another use for stale bread.  Many recipes direct you to soak the bread briefly in water and then squeeze it dry before mixing with the tomatoes. I prefer cutting it into cubes like croutons so it doesn’t get mushy.
 
4-6 C. stale rustic bread
2 spring onions, chopped
ř C. fresh basil leaves, torn into large pieces
2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large cucumber, peeled, peeled and diced
Red wine vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
 Mix all ingredients lightly and set aside for about 30 minutes before serving.
 Makes about 6 servings.
Drew’s Tomato-Basil Bisque
1 shallot, chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large can tomato-basil sauce
Cream or half and half
Sherry
 
Saute the shallot until soft, add the tomato-basil sauce and simmer for a few minutes. Stir in cream and sherry. Simmer briefly to blend flavors. You can adjust the thickness of the bisque with a little water if you think it’s too dense.
 Makes 4-6 servings. 
Pappardelle with Ragu Sauce
 Pappardelle is a wide egg pasta. It’s wonderful freshly made, but the organic dried version made by bionaturae, which I’ve found at Harris Teeter, is excellent. You do need to make your own ragu sauce though. The Italian version differs from what we usually find in restaurants because it contains only a little meat ó enough to flavor the tomatoes but not enough to make the whole dish heavy. I make this often in small quantities, in a shallow pan. Measurements aren’t necessary. Just think of about how much sauce you want to end up with and use a little of all the ingredients to reach that volume. 
Extra virgin olive oil
Chopped onion
Diced carrots
Diced celery
Minced garlic
Chopped flat leave parsley
Ground beef
Canned tomatoes
Tomato sauce
Tomato paste
Red wine
 
Saute the vegetables in the olive oil until golden, adding in the parsley and garlic for the last couple minutes. Add the ground meat and a little red wine. Put the tomatoes through a food mill or puree in a blender. Add them to the meat. Stir in the tomato sauce. Thicken with a spoonful of tomato paste for more intense flavor, if you wish. Pour in a little red wine. Simmer, stirring occasionally and adding wine or water as the sauce cooks, for a couple of hours. It should be fairly thick with a dark, almost burgundy, color. To serve, mix the sauce with freshly cooked pappardelle.
Visit Sara Pitzer’s Web site: www.planetpitzer.com.  
Learn more about the cooking classes at: www.tuscan womencook.com.