The Beauty of Sorrento

Sorrento is a small town on the Amalfi Coast in Italy known for it’s Limoncello. There are lemons every where, towels, plates, signs, ornaments, you name it and it’s got a lemon on it! When you’re wandering the streets and get off the beaten path a little bit you find these hidden produce sellers selling lemons the size of your head. Every tree is heavy with fruit, and the Mediterranean is sparkling just down the hill. Off the main square, you can see the crystal clear waters, and you can find some breathtaking views from local restaurants.

We went out to dinner at Bellevue Syrene and caught the most breathtaking sunset while we were wined and dined by their incredible chef, Ivan Ruocco. Their wine list was massive, which I always approve of. The service was impeccable, and the food was even better. I had the shrimp risotto, and instead of using a chicken or beef broth they used a shrimp broth and small pieces of shrimp that blended seamlessly into the creamy risotto.

On our first day in Sorentto we got in around 3, and were starving. Italian train station food isn’t fabulous, so we opted to wait until we got checked in to our hotel. Not a lot is open in Italy at 3 pm, but we found a place on the main square still serving food and dug into some killer pizzas. While we were eating, we talked about what we wanted to do the next day. Our options were going to Pompeii, or taking a day trip out to Capri Island. Several buses drove by, one with an advertisement for Chez Barone Cooking School. We looked into it and saw that we would get to make ravioli, beef braciole, leimocello, and tiramisu in one of the old villas on the hill. Sold! We booked our tickets, and spent the morning before our class walking around Sorrento and swimming in the warm, clear waters of the Mediterranean.

I told you the lemons were huge.
So are the wine lists!

Our class started by taking a shuttle up a narrow, windy road to the top of a hill and being dropped off in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, we were quickly picked up by a man in a golf cart who drove us up to Palazzo del Barone. Turns out, he was the owner! As we settled in, we sipped Prosecco and he gave us the history of the Palazzo, which has been in his family since the 1800’s. He and his wife remolded it, with the help of his architect brother, and it now houses 2 rooms and 4 suites for renting out. The cooking class is a recent addition for them, with the goal to share a bit of their history with others. The villa itself has a garden, olive trees, and lemon orchards. Every piece of produce we cooked with came from their gardens or other local sources. We were also introduced to our chefs, Head Chef Luisa and Chef Tiziana. They were so kind and patient as we worked through our lesson! Luisa got us “dressed” in our aprons and fancy hats. Because these are family recipes, I won’t share the exact recipes, I’ll just be talking you through how we made everything. I’ve reached out to Chez Barone, and with their approval I’ll come back and edit to include the exact recipes!

Up first was Beef Braciole, or rolled meat. In thin slices of beef we put garlic, parsley, grated Parmesan and grated Pecorino cheese, raisins, pine nuts, salt, and pepper. Then we rolled the meat tightly and stuck it with toothpicks. We heated olive oil in a large pan, and sauted the onions. When the onions were cooked we added the Braciole and white wine, after a few minutes we added fresh tomato sauce and salt. We bathed the Braciole with the sauce as we turned it. After we added basil, we let it sit and cook for about an hour. The goal was to get the meat super tender.

The Ravioli was easily Sean’s favorite part of the day, and he still talks about them to this day because the filling was so good! Homemade pasta is so easy and satisfying to make. It’s so much fun to eat a pasta and go “I made this!” We created a “volcano” with two different types of flour and in the hole we added hot water and olive oil. We mixed it with our hands until it formed a dough. We cut our dough in half, and rolled them out into 2 thin, flat sheets. In the first sheet we put our amazing cheese mixture, and then placed the second sheet on top. In order to seal them, we pressed around each mound and then used a Ravioli cutter to cut out our Ravioli. When Chef Luisa cooked it, she coated it in a simple tomato sauce with tomatoes from their garden and basil.

After we finished the Ravioli we got to take a break, have some wine, sit by the pool, and wander the gardens. I took my glass of wine and sat by the pool until I remembered I had no sunscreen on my shoulders and decided to grab the camera and walk around the gardens. There were rows and rows of tomato plants, basil, and so many other vegetables. There were olive trees just starting to bud, and lemon trees that were ripe and ready to be picked. The flowers were vibrant and beautiful, and I got so many beautiful photos! I also met my friend, Braciole. He is called Braciole because he only eats the leftover rolled meat from the cooking classes, nothing else. He’s a little spoiled, but super friendly.

When break time was over, we went inside to make individual servings of Limoncello Tiramisu. Luisa was “tired” so Sean whipped egg yolks and sugar, then we whipped whipping cream, and the last thing we whipped was egg whites. To make the cream mixture, carefully mix all the whipped ingredients with Mascarpone cheese and lemon zest. You don’t want to loose the air you whipped in, so you just carefully fold everything. We dipped ladyfingers in a mixture of sugar water and Limoncello and layered them in the dishes with the cream mixture, topped them with zest and let them rest in the freezer until dessert.

The last thing we made was Limoncello, which was so surprisingly easy. We soaked the yellow lemon skins in a high percentage alcohol and stored it for 5 days (obviously not, but we prepared it and then used another groups alcohol mixture). When the alcohol mixture was ready, we combined the alcohol with sugar water, shook it around, and then filtered it into a bottle. Done!

We also made an appetizer, and it was simply fried pizza dough. We mixed flour, water, and yeast and slowly added oil and salt to the mixture until it formed a loose dough. When the dough formed, we kneaded it until it was springy and let it rest for an hour or 2 until it doubled in size. Luisa had some dough that had been rising, so we used that to divide and roll into small balls, that after resting for an hour Luisa fried and topped with tomato sauce and basil.

At this point the class itself was over, and Sean and I got to sit outside and sip more wine (from their vineyards of course) and enjoy the food we made. We loved getting to hang out with Luisa and Tiziana, along with all of the stray cats that showed up as the sun set. The one thing I learned about Italian cooking was simplicity. These Italian dishes we did in this class were incredibly simple, but full of rich flavor which comes from slow grown tomatoes and fresh basil. If you are ever in Sorrento, you need to go up and see Luisa and Tiziana at Chez Barone and let them show you for yourself how simple and elegant Italian cooking is.