Last week, ISI Florence gave us the opportunity to take a cooking course at a local cooking school, which I jumped on. At only twenty five euros for learning how to make four courses, it was a steal!

The place, inTavola, was located a short walk across the river. It was a very cute set up, with several tables with pre-measured ingredients laid out. The staff was awesome,  so enthusiastic and cheerful. As we worked, there were several people that went around, taking our dirty dishes away and wiping down counter tops for us-I wish I had that every time I cooked!

We learned how to make an appetizer of layered eggplant, tomato, and mozzarella cheese. These are all ingredients that I, as a picky eater, hate but somehow this was absolutely delicious. It was so easy to make too-just pop them all in the oven with a dash of salt and pepper! The second course was some gnocci. We mashed potatoes with flour and corn starched, and then rolled it all into shape. The main course was some pasta with ragu sauce. It was my first time making hand made pasta, and it was so cool! It turned out to be pretty easy with the pasta maker, but we had to work together as a team (my table of five people) to make sure we did it correctly (there were very exact steps we had to take)

The best part of the whole meal, however, was the tiramisu we learned how to make. It’s one of my absolute favorite desserts in the world, and it was surprisingly so easy to make!

This was one of the most fun experiences I’ve had studying abroad so far, for sure. I highly recommend it to everyone else to do as a both an inexpensive (but filling and delicious!) dinner and a bonding experience with your roommates! My mom and sister are visiting me in April, and this is definitely one place I’m taking them.