GRAPE HARVEST PHOTO ALBUM CLICK HERE
MAKING PEPPEROCINI SOTT’OLIO PHOTO ALBUM CLICK HERE

The best part about Impruneta, the villa where we will do our cooking school and Veronica, our brava hostess? You can’t read about them in any of the guidebooks. Sweet.

We’ve spent a couple of days with Veronica planning out our cooking school menu and logistics and during that short time she’s shared so much of her passion for the Tuscan way of life, traditions of her family and the seasonal diversity that blesses the hazy hills dotted with silver olive trees, poplars, sage and rosemary bushes up to your hip and vineyards at the peak of the harvest.

Yesterday Mandy, Mariela and I helped Serio, Veronica’s weathered right hand, harvest a few of the best grapes for Veronica to press for the natural grape juice concentrate she’ll use for the rest of the year to mix with water as needed for refreshment and nourishment. The rest of the grapes will be harvested next week and sent away to make wine, but the chatter around tea with Veronica and Sergio, who is close to seeing his 80th grape harvest in Chianti, is that this will be a bad year with a low yield.

Un-phased by the bad news, we found Veronica whipping up these stuffed peppers from her garden to soak in olive oil and later serve with bread “only made at home, of course.”

Pepperocini Sott’olio (stuffed peppers floating in olive oil)

Fresh cherry peppers
Capers from the side of the road
Whole anchovies from a jar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (from last year’s harvest)

Blanch the cherry peppers in boiling white wine and vinegar for 3-5 seconds and dry upside down on a paper towel overnight. Cut off the tops, remove any seeds, and stuff with a couple of capers and some anchovy. Replace the tops. In a decorative jar stack the stuffed peppers carefully but tightly. Fill the jar with good olive oil to the top and cover. Serve within a couple of weeks.

Ciao a tutti!