Cooking in Tuscany with Chicca

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Cooking in Tuscany with Chicca

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Join us online or in my kitchen, sharing recipes and fun with us! Enjoy!
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• Authentic cooking classes in my home kitchen in since 2001 🇮🇹
• English-speaking Italian Cooking Club live from Tuscany, since 2020 🌎
• Whether you're at my table or in your own kitchen, let's cook together! Welcome to the official page for Cooking in Tuscany, a culinary-gastronomic association based in a traditional tuscan house close to Castagneto Carducci. Our mission is to experiment the old traditional italian and the typical-Tuscan cuisine, to use fresh and local ingredients, to promote the culture and the tradition of a place through the knowledge of its products.

09/10/2026

Cooking. Laughing. Tasting.

Today was all about gnocchi: rolling, shaping, and sharing a delicious meal together at home.

Days like this, filled with good food and warm conversations around the table, are what these moments in Tuscany are all about.

08/10/2026

Free recipe & full class replay for you this week!

Try my Creamy Butternut Squash Soup with Homemade Herbed Croutons.

Each month, I share seasonal Italian dishes and simple cooking inspiration from our Cooking Club library, which includes more than 120 member-favorite recipes.

Today I’m sharing a free replay of a class from the library, an easy, delicious dish you can cook right at home.

I hope it brings a little inspiration to your table this week!

This month, for October, I chose a recipe that feels just right as the days begin to get cooler: Creamy Butternut Squash Soup with Homemade Herbed Croutons.

It’s a simple soup, but full of flavor. Butternut squash and potato give it a naturally creamy texture, a little nutmeg adds warmth, and we finish it with crispy homemade croutons, pumpkin seeds, and a touch of paprika.

For one week, until October 14, you can access the complete class FREE.

How to get your free class

Click on this link to get the full printable recipe: https://cookingintuscany.cc/register/february-3-creamy-butternut-squash-soup-class

Sign up and use the coupon code FREE1WEEK at checkout for a 100% discount (click on « Have a coupon? » to apply it).

When you sign up, you’ll get:
The detailed recipe and shopping list to print and keep
The one-hour replay of our live class, where I cook the recipe with you step by step

Buon appetito!

06/10/2026

Last Saturday, I started our live class with a bit of excitement in the air, as we were getting ready for Sunday’s olive harvest at my farmhouse in Tuscany 🇮🇹

Then, we settled into the kitchen and cooked a hearty minestrone soup all together for Class 123!

Beyond the recipe, what I love most about hosting these live sessions is seeing how a shared passion for cooking brings people together, no matter the distance.

Just look at the beautiful bowls of minestrone made by our wonderful community across the world.

03/10/2026

Today, we'll be live in the kitchen cooking minestrone together with our Cooking Club members for our 123rd online class.

And tomorrow, our minds turn straight to the olive trees.

Sunday will be a very special day at the farmhouse: our 2026 olive harvest. With about thirty trees on the property, it all happens in just one single, beautiful day.

Every year when October arrives, this is one of the moments we cherish the most.

Friends are coming over to help us, moving from tree to tree in the crisp autumn air, laying down the nets, and filling these colorful crates one by one.

At lunchtime, we will all sit down together at a long table in the garden. Cooking for friends after a morning of hard work in the groves is one of life’s simplest pleasures, so I am making a big batch of fresh pasta for everyone to share.

A beautiful Sunday ahead in Tuscany, surrounded by friendship, warm laughter, and the land that feeds us.

01/10/2026

This Saturday we’re making one of those dishes that every Italian knows, but that is never exactly the same from one kitchen to another: minestrone.

There isn’t just one recipe for minestrone. It changes with the season, with where you are in Italy and, very often, with what you have in the kitchen.

For mine, we’ll start with a proper soffritto, then add seasonal vegetables and beans and let everything cook together slowly. And I’ll show you one of my favorite little tricks: adding a Parmigiano rind to the pot while the soup cooks.

We’ll make the whole thing together, live from my kitchen in Bolgheri.

This will be our 123rd live class since we started cooking together online in 2020!

📅 Saturday, October 3
🇺🇸 10:30am PT / 1:30pm ET / 🇮🇹 7:30pm Italy
📍 Live from my kitchen in Tuscany via Zoom (Link in BIO or here https://cookingintuscany.cc/register/october-3-classic-italian-minestrone-soup-class/ )

This isn’t a cooking video you just watch. We cook together.

I’ll make the Minestrone Soup from my kitchen in Bolgheri while you make yours at home. You can ask questions as we go, see every step up close, and by the end of class we’ll all have our we’ll have your whole house smelling so good.

You’ll receive the recipe and shopping list before class, and you’ll also have lifetime access to the replay, so if you can’t be there live, you can cook it whenever you have time.

I’d love to have you in my kitchen this Saturday!

Love from Tuscany,

Chicca

29/09/2026

There is a quiet rhythm in our kitchen when the weather starts to cool down: chopping carrots, celery, and onions for a soffritto, and letting a big pot of minestrone slowly cook on the stove.

In Italy, minestrone is considered the king of soups. Every family has their own way of making it, but the secret is always the same: patience with the vegetables and dropping a Parmigiano cheese rind into the pot while it simmers. It adds a wonderful depth to the broth that you just cannot get any other way.

If you would like to cook this comforting soup together in your own kitchen, our next live online class is coming up on Saturday, October 3rd.

We cook together in real time on Zoom from our farmhouse in Tuscany. I guide you through every step, answer your questions as we go, and share a few simple kitchen tips I have learned over the years.

If you cannot make it live, you will get lifetime access to the replay video to enjoy whenever you like.

I would love to welcome you into my kitchen. You can sign up here: https://cookingintuscany.cc/register/october-3-classic-italian-minestrone-soup-class/

28/09/2026

When the class is followed by dinner, we take everything we’ve made outside.

We set the table right in the middle of the vegetable garden. Arnaud works his magic with the lights.

Our three big cypress trees stand tall against the night sky, the flowers become little patches of color in the darkness, and in the distance we can see the lights of Castagneto Carducci glowing on the hill.

And our ceiling is the sky.

25/09/2026

My cooking classes start in the kitchen. We put on our red aprons and get our hands into the food: making gnocchi, mixing fresh pasta dough, rolling it through the pasta machine and turning it into long sheets of pasta.

There’s always lots of chatting and laughing while we cook, and I love having all these voices in my kitchen!

Then we head out to the vegetable garden to see what’s in season and what we can bring back into the kitchen. At this time of year, there are still tomatoes, eggplants, and plenty of herbs, but the garden is slowly beginning to change.

This month I welcomed my dear friend Colleen, her husband Howard, and another Women’s Quest group. I’ve known Colleen for more than 25 years. She met my daughter Elsa when she was only three years old, so when Colleen comes back to Tuscany, it really does feel like seeing family again.

19/09/2026

Before summer completely disappears, I wanted to share one of the highlights of these past few months.

We’ve had so many friends come through our door, including many of our Cooking Club members: Angela and Spiro, Christine and Kevin, David, Miriam, Kristin, MaryAnne, Nora, and so many others.

After years of cooking together live on Zoom, opening the farmhouse door and seeing them standing there in real life is always emotional. Some stayed in our apartments, others cooked with me or stopped by while traveling through Tuscany. Online classes have truly turned into real friendships.

Now we’re getting ready to welcome our October Food and W**e Trip group. Everything is set: the wineries, the cooking, the restaurants, and the local producers we love.

Since a trip like this takes some planning, we’re already looking ahead to 2027. Our first trip will be April 13–17, when the countryside is green and the days are getting longer.

Two Cooking Club members have already signed up, but you don’t need to be a member to join us. Some guests we’ve known for years; others we meet for the first time when they arrive.

For five days and four nights, we’ll cook together in my farmhouse kitchen, visit local wineries, explore the coast, and spend plenty of time around the table. Check the link here to learn more: https://cookingintuscany.cc/food-wine-trip/

If you’d like to join us in April, we can set up a quick Zoom call to answer your questions and see if it’s the right fit for you.

Maybe next spring it will be you standing at our door.

A presto, Chicca

Indirizzo

Località Vallone, 194
Castagneto
57022

Telefono

+39 333 4234217

Sito Web

http://www.cookingintuscany.cc/

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