Syracuse Cooking Classes

My cooking class with Teresa Zimmitti turned out to be a private lesson! Teresa was a wonderful hostess who patiently taught me how to make 3 types of pasta in addition to pumpkin gnocchi, pesto and caponata. Her garden is lovely, a delightful place to cook - and then enjoy the fruit of out labors!

A group of seven of us were on a walking tour of SE Sicily. It happened that one of our group was having a birthday on our last day. As a surprise for her we arranged for all of us to attend a cooking class. From the first contact, Teresa was wonderful. She was very responsive and arranged for transportation to her lovely house. We met in her peaceful garden where she had all the necessary cooking ingredients and utensils laid out. After serving us coffee, we got to work. We cooked caponata (her grandmother's recipe ), made cavatelli from scratch, a pistachio pesto, and a beautiful parmigiana. The gran finale was Teresa helping us to make a classic cannoli filled birthday cake. We delighted in the feast served with chilled white wine. Teresa brought out her home made limoncello as we sang happy birthday. It was a memorable birthday celebration and a highlight of our trip. Grazie mille to our fabulous and talented host, Teresa!!

We met Maurizio at the Apollo Temple and walked through the food market. He shared his philosophy on cooking and we bought some fresh and seasonal food to prepare. Then went back to his beautiful restaurant and cooked lunch. It was so good we are having dinner at his restaurant tonight. Thank you Maurizio!