Be Tuscan Once a Day – A Friend Returns to Cavallo Point

Last year Alex, Cass and I had a great time at a cooking class at Cavallo Point taught by Judy Witts Francini who was visiting from Toscana. A few weeks ago when I saw on Judy’s “Over a Tuscan Stove” blog that she would be returning to Cavallo Point, I immediately signed up for the class. Alex and Cass were not able to join me this time, but my friend Kaz, who also loves to cook, agreed to come along to keep me company.

Kaz and I arrived at Cavallo Point a bit early, so we decided to kick the event off with an Anchor Steam Liberty Ale at Cavallo Point's Farley Bar, one of the nicest places in Northern California to pass some time while watching the Golden Gate.

Just before the class’ 4:30PM start time, Kaz and I headed upstairs, past the Gregory Colbert display of elephants, to the cooking school’s facility on the second floor. Judy greeted us at the door together with Jayne Reichert, the cooking school’s director, and Jayne’s colleagues, Rosalyn England and Jennifer Rudd. Happily, we discovered that a couple of friends, Reidun and Angela, were also taking the class.

One of the enjoyable parts of any cooking class is to see the ingredients laid out in preparation at the start. Cooking is like many things in life – sometimes the anticipation is almost as good as – or even better than - the ultimate consummation.

After everyone got settled in the room with glasses of Col Vetoraz Prosecco, Jayne introduced Judy who made a few comments (including how she had just escaped Europe on one of the last flights out before the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic ash cloud closed things down), and away we went.

Our menu for the day was:

~ Antipasto: Tuna with White Beans
~ Primo: Ragu with Pici
~ Secondo: Sicilian Grilled Braciole (stuffed beef rolls)
~ Cortorno: Garmugia (a Spring vegetable stew from Lucca)
~ Dolce: Chocolate Salame

Antipasto: Tonno con Fagioli

While she was making her introductory comments, Judy prepared and served the antipasto course - a Tuscan favorite of tuna with white beans and red onions. Very simple and a great combination. The beans, cooked with sage and garlic, were a dish we had prepared at our earlier class with Judy, and are excellent on their own. The tuna was from the Pacific and packed in olive oil.

After that appetizer, Judy divided us up into groups to tackle the remainder of the dishes.

Primo: Pici con Ragu

Kaz and I were assigned to il primo, with Kaz on pasta and me with the ragu team.

Pici is a Tuscan pasta - about the thickness of a pencil - which had its origins in the area around Siena. Nancy and I first tried it in 2006 when it was served at a wonderful dinner at a small restaurant named Osteria La Porta in the small town of Monticchiello in central Toscana between Montepulciano and Montalcino. We were told by the proprietor that an older woman from the village came in each morning to make it. Most recently we had it at Sociale in Presidio Heights in San Francisco. One thing which distinguishes it from many other types of Italian fresh pasta is that it uses no eggs in the dough – simply flour and warm water.

Here is a collection of pictures illustrating the steps in the preparation (at least a couple of those hands belong to Kaz!). Notwithstanding the good work of the solitary matron of Monticchiello, it is the sort of dish where it certainly helps to have a team effort.


Jayne took the prize for the longest pici of the day – such a showoff. Accordingly to Judy the ability to make long pici is a highly-prized trait among young women (and hopefully today young men too) in the Siena area.

While Kaz was working on the pici, I was over with the group preparing the ragu. If we were in Toscana, the only proper meat sauce for pici would be one with cinghiale – the Italian wild boar which is found throughout Toscana.

However, for our dish, we used ground sirloin with a bit of prosciutto and porcini mushrooms. Not bad, but I always prefer a pork-based sauce. One tip Judy gave us when preparing the soffritto (the minced carrot, onion, celery mixture that forms the base of the ragu) was to let it almost burn in order to caramelize it fully and thereby enhance the flavor.

Secondo: Braciole Siciliane alla Griglia

The braciole were thin slices of beef rolled around a filling of breadcrumbs, garlic, chili flakes, parsley and lemon zest. Another Italian name for braciole is involtini, which is the name for this dish that I had heard before. Once the individuals pieces had been rolled up, we then took three rolls, put three skewers through them, and then cut between the skewers to form individual pieces - a nice trick.

Patrick and I learned to make a similar dish a couple of years back at one of our Sicilian cooking classes at Mezzo Mezzo in San Rafael (in that case named Involtini alla Palermitana) although that version used veal and a much richer filling (including ham, mortadella, cacciocavallo cheese, and pine nuts) and was sauteed in butter and white wine.

I also came across a wonderful post (with excellent photos) on the Lucy’s Kitchen Notebook blog about a class that Judy had taught at the Becchina Estate in western Sicily at which they had prepared an Involtini di Manzo (Stuffed Beef Rolls) dish that was similar to our Mezzo Mezzo dish, although it incorporated a tomato sauce. As Judy pointed out with virtually every dish, once you have the basic concept down there are many directions in which you can take it.

Contorno: Garmugia

Judy explained that this Spring vegetable dish – or at least its name - originated from the beautiful walled city of Lucca a bit west of Firenze in Toscana.

The group working on it was at the far end of the room so I did not see much of the preparation. However, the ingredients included sliced baby artichokes, fava beans, asparagus, peas, young garlic and pancetta.

Dolce: Salame Dolce

This was an interesting dish – one I had never heard of before but which is apparently well-known to every Italian child. Despite its name it is meat-less. Its ingredients included pieces of cookies to imitate chunks of fat (Petit Beurre cookies), sugar, butter, egg yolks, cocoa and grappa.

After forming a salame shaped log, the dish was wrapped in foil and put in the freezer to firm up.
Once all the prep work was done the cooking proceed pretty quickly.


The pici were boiled in salted water (per Judy, add the salt AFTER the water is boiling to avoid staining your pot) in batches, then added with ladles of the ragu to a separate pot until all were done.

Once everything was ready, the dishes were turned out, the salame dolce was sliced, we took our seats and were served.

In addition to the Prosecco we were served at the beginning of the class, during our meal we enjoyed a white 2008 Falanghina dei Feudi di San Gregorio and a red 2007 Langhe Nebbiolo from Parusso. Both excellent pairs.

Judy also had with her some copies of her new cookbook – “Secrets From My Tuscan Kitchen” – which includes recipes for the dishes we prepared, and which I was happy to see carries the "Tuscan Husband Seal of Approval" - è buono! = it is good! I picked up a copy.

It was another fun day at Cavallo Point thanks to Judy and the hard working Cavallo Point staff (from the left in the below photo: Judy with Jayne, Rosalyn, and Jen), and Kaz and I certainly had a good time.

Plus, where else can you walk out of class and be able to see night falling over one of the world’s most beautiful bridges?

I am looking forward to our next visit to Cavallo Point, not to mention Toscana!

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Fagioli alla Salvia ed Aglio (Tuscan White Beans with Sage and Garlic)

This was one of the side dishes that we prepared during a February 2009 cooking class at Cavallo Point led by Judy Witts Francini. Judy has a description of this dish, and the use of beans in general in Tuscan cuisine, on her Divina Cucina website. Here is an extract:

"Florentines are known in Italy as bean eaters. Beans are an important part of their diet, forming a perfect protein with spelt or farro, an ancient wheat
grain used by the Egyptians and Romans. Beans form the base of quite a few well-known dishes--Tonno e fagioli (tuna and bean salad), Minestrone (vegetable soup), Fagoli all'uccelleto (beans in tomato and sage sauce), Zuppa di gran farro (bean and spelt soup), Fettunta bianca (toasted garlic
bread with beans, new oil and pepper) and Zuppa Lombarda (beans and their broth served with garlic toast)."

The dish we made at the class was was really tasty and I had been wanting to try it for some time. Finally tonight I gave it a try based on the recipe copied furthest below that Judy gave us at our class.

For the beans I used some dried “Italian Butter Beans” that I had purchased from the folks from Iacopi Farms (Half Moon Bay-based farmers) at the Sunday San Rafael Farmers Market (one pound for $5). I soaked the full one pound of beans overnight, which resulted in 6 ½ cups of soaked beans.

I then followed Judy’s below Cavallo Point recipe almost to the letter, using six cups of water and a full head of garlic, plus two additional crushed cloves. I ended up cooking the beans in the oven just under 2 ½ hours, adding some water along the way. You just have to taste them along the way to see if they are ready.

I served drained, drizzled with some olive oil and with a bit of fresh black pepper. If you like garlic (as I do!), as Judy indicates below the softened cloves from the head of garlic are great squeezed out and spread on toast – in effect the Zuppa Lombarda dish Judy mentions in the above extract.

The dish really turned out well and was a great accompaniment to some roast chicken Nancy prepared. The quantity would easily have been sufficient for 8 servings, and probably closer to 10 (some left for tomorrow - I'm going to try some bruschetta with cavolo nero and the beans). Although we ended up discarding the broth, as Judy indicates below it would be great as a starting point for a soup.

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The following recipe (click to enlarge) was provided by Judy Witts Francini at her cooking class at Cavallo Point – 21 February 2009

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Tuscany in Sausalito – At Cavallo Point with Judy Witts Francini

It's funny where some things lead. In this case it started with my favorite olive.

Last month I was working on a post on Castelvetrano olives when I came across another cuisine blog recounting a cooking class conducted by Judy Witts Francini at the Becchina estate, Antica Tenuta dei Principi Pignatelli, on the outskirts of Castelvetrano. Although I had been a regular visitor to Judy’s Divina Cucina website, I was prompted to subscribe to her blog, Over a Tuscan Stove.

A couple of days later I received an email with Judy’s latest blog post which indicated she was going to be here in the Bay Area in February and would be giving a cooking class at Cavallo Point featuring some Tuscan favorites. The Cavallo Point resort (officially “Cavallo Point – The Lodge at the Golden Gate”) just opened last year in Fort Baker at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Although we had stopped by the resort’s Farley Bar (named after the late Phil Frank's comic strip character Farley) one afternoon last Fall for a drink and enjoyed the view from their deck, we had never taken advantage of the resort’s other resources, including the Murray Circle restaurant (awarded a Michelin star at the beginning of this year) or their cooking school headed by Kelsie Kerr who carries major Bay Area cuisine cred with stints in the kitchens of both Chez Panisse and Cafe Rouge and a contribution to Alice Waters’ recent book “The Art of Simple Food.”

Judy’s program looked great and, since distance was hardly a factor (Cavallo Point being about a 4-minute drive from our home in Sausalito), after a family consultation I contacted Jayne Reichert, the Cooking School’s manager, and signed Alex, Cass and me up.

The program was scheduled to run from 4PM to 8PM yesterday, and Alex, Cass and I arrived at Cavallo Point’s Building just before the appointed hour. Upon our arrival we were greeted by Judy together with Kelsie Kerr, Jayne Reichert and the rest of the Cooking School crew. We also met Judy’s nephew, Benjamin, who is a professional photographer living here in the Bay Area and who came along with Judy to take some pictures of the class that evening.

The Cooking School is in a large, pleasant room on the second floor of the resort’s “Building 602” (a bit of a sterile designation, but together with the original structures, resort seeks to preserve the ambiance of the historic Fort Baker).

When we arrived, the ingredients for the evening’s adventure were already laid out beautifully in the cooking area.

We were poured a glass of Col Vetoraz Prosecco from the Valdobbiadene area of the Veneto – one of my favorites – and enjoyed some appetizers, including some burrata from Gioia Cheese in Southern California (not buffalo milk but nevertheless not bad) and CASTELVETRANO OLIVES warmed in oil which somehow, given the background of how we got there, seemed most fitting.

Kelsie started off the evening by introducing Judy, and Judy then told us a bit about her background. She has lived in Tuscany since 1984. The bulk of that time was spent in Florence where she ran a cooking school, although she has now closed that school and moved with her husband to the town of Certaldo, to the southwest of Florence near Siena.

Certaldo

We then got down to business. Judy had selected the following as the menu for the evening:

~ Squash Soup, inspired by the “Passato di Zucca” of Fabio Picchi, the owner/chef of Cibreo Restaurant in Florence;

~ Arrosto Fiorentino with a Tuscan Herb Marinade, inspired by Dario Checchini, the famous owner/butcher (and subject of the latter half of Bill Buford's book "Heat") of the Antica Macelleria Cecchini in Panzano, a small town between Florence and Siena [Nancy and I stopped off to visit the Macelleria on our trip through Tuscany in 2006 - for a video that reflects some of Dario's enthusiasm for beef and general showmanship, see here];

~ Oven Roasted Beans Infused with Garlic; and

~ Hot Apple Tart inspired by Giovanni Cappelli, a now-deceased Tuscan character who among other things produced "salsa di mosto,” the Tuscan equivalent of balsamic vinegar, with Gelato and Balsamic Vinegar.

The participants split up and Alex, Cass and I ended up as part of the group working on the Arrosto Fiorentino. The cut we used was an eye-of-round from Marin Sun Farms, a relatively tough cut if over-cooked.

However, according to Judy, that was the point of the technique we would use – a technique which barely cooks the cut and results in a very tender and flavorful dish. We immediately threw the meat into a couple of roasting pans and into the oven. We then got to work on the marinade which included chopping rosemary, sage, garlic, chilies and sea salt into a fine mix and then adding a LOT of olive oil and whisking vigorously.

Hard at Work - Our Team at This End of the Table Preparing Herbs

Work Product - Chopped Herbs, Chili, Garlic, Salt, Prior to Adding Olive Oil

When the meat was just done, it was removed from the oven, the marinade was ladled over it and it was then left to rest under tinfoil for about 10-15 minutes. It was then sliced very thinly, put back in the pan, sloshed around a bit in the marinade, and served.

Judy Ladling on the Tuscan Marinade - the Meat has Just Come out of the Oven

Meanwhile, a lot of other work was going on around the room, including the cooking and caramelization of a soffritto (onion, celery, carrots) that was to form the basis of our soup.

The dinner was great!! Below are photos of our soup, main course and apple tarts.

Of everything we had, the dish which made the biggest impression on me was the oven-roasted beans. Although Judy’s recipe called for cannellini beans, Kelsie had gotten butter beans for us to use. They were meaty and the garlic flavor was great (no worries about any vampires last night!). A whole head of garlic, with the top cut off, was thrown in with the beans and those of us who had a particular fondness for garlic were permitted to squeeze the cooked cloves onto bread!

To accompany the squash soup, Kelsie served us a crisp white 2007 Falanghina produced by Feudi di San Gregorio in the Irpinia region southeast of Naples. For our main course she selected a 2003 Chianti Classico (95% Sangiovese and 5% Merlot) produced by Brancaia, a producer in the Chianti Classico area south of Florence. I had enjoyed Brancaia’s “Super Tuscan” “Il Blu” (a 50% Sangiovese, 45% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon blend) before, but had never had their Chianti. Although I am not in general a big fan of Chianti wines, the Brancaia was great and a perfect match for the Arrosto Fiorentino and the garlicky beans.

The Room Just Prior to Dinner Being Served

Alex and Cass

Our "Elves" - The Cooking School Gang - Jayne on left with Kelsie Next to Her

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