Amoré Cucina

Just like bread and butter pudding only better… This class will be sweetly packed with great ideas for the festive season. Some to eat alone and some to share with friends.

Panettone, the traditional sweet Italian bread can be used fresh or toasted with butter. For a light dessert, panettone can be made into a classic Australian old favourite with a creamy egg custard and baked.

Biscotti come in all shapes and sizes, served with a morning caffe latte or at morning and afternoon tea. Learn to make your own with or without fruit and nuts and package them up ready as special “home made” gifts for that special someone who has everything else. The same biscotti can be used to make that extra special dessert, Tiramisu.

Whether you have a sweet tooth or no teeth at all, there will be something in this class for everyone.

Please contact us if you have a group of 4-6 to do this class on the date of your choice.

Made in July and ready to slice at Christmas!

Capocollo is cured pork. The cut is from the top of the shoulder which is cured in salt, then wrapped in a protective skin and hung to dry for several months.

In this class participants prepare their own Capocollo to take home and nurture to be enjoyed at Christmas time.

Capocollo can be sliced like prosciutto and served as part of an antipasto platter. It teams especially well with cheese, olives, a glass of wine and some good company.

22nd July closed
29th July closed

All our cooking classes are available as an interesting and different gift idea. Combine a day out at a great venue with food and laughter, unique ingredients and recipes, stories and passionate cooking. Afterward, your gift will go on through the joy of sharing recipes and meals made with fresh, seasonal and local produce. Stirred with love.

PUT IN TOGETHER
You and your friends decide the cost of the gift certificate and the recipient can decide on the cooking class of choice. Just give us a call or send an email and we will put the certificate in the post to you or the recipient.

Make Fresh Pasta: the annual Amore Cucina pasta event. Everybody loves fresh made pasta to add a sense of occasion and to really celebrate your own special pasta recipes.
Make Fresh pasta – $80.00 1 day, 3hrs at Warrandyte. Using a proven no-fail recipe we can show you how to make and enjoy this staple yourself using manual techniques or a pasta machine.

Wine & Food Experience at Panton Hill Winery: a slice of Tuscany just around the corner from Eltham. One of the Yarra Valley’s best kept secrets, the buildings are hand-built from stone quarried on the property and recycled treasures from some of Melbourne’s historic buildings and local landmarks. Panton Hill Winery is the perfect backdrop for a cooking class filled with all the flavours of the Mediterranean. Meet the winemakers and share a day with food, wine and friends and then take home some recipes to share. Amoré Cucina Wine & Food Experience at Panton Hill Winery – $160.00 1 day, 3hrs at Panton Hill Winery.

Food Hamper: make up your own gift pack or picnic basket or choose one from our favourites.

In 2010 our cooking classes will start on 5th February to celebrate St Agata’s Feast day. Every Friday there will be a cooking class with traditional Italian recipes.
All classes are hands on making light work of a 3 course meal. The team will enjoy the meal together with wine followed by dessert and coffee while discussing and solving life’s little problems.
All classes will begin 10.30am so there is plenty of time to take the kids to school and we finish at 2.30pm, back in time to pick up kids and do some shopping to prepare some home cooking at the weekend.

Italian Baking Workshop: Sweets 5th February – closed
No occasion required for Italian type cake, desserts, biscuits including chocolate bread pudding and to celebrate this feast day Virgin’s Breasts!

Autumn Flavours of Milan 12th February – closed
Risotto, Sfogliata di Ricotta, and for dessert baked peaches with amaretti biscotti.

Tuscan Home Cooking 19th February – closed
Tortino di Riso (Saffron, Rice Cake), agnello cacciatori (lamb) and for dessert Crostata di Fichi (fresh fig tart).

Tuscan Harvest 26th February – closed
Tuscan Bean Soup, Garlic Sausages with Grapes, Schiacciata di Uva (Tuscan grape bread).

Country Italian Cooking 12th March – closed
Stuffed vegetables, Tripe, and Lingua della Suocera (Mother-in-law Tongue) for dessert.

Funghi: A Feast of Mushrooms 19th March – closed
Crepes with mushrooms, stuffed and baked mushrooms and St Joseph’s Fritters of Rice and Rum.

Northern Italian Autumn menu 26th March – closed
Seasonal Vegetables with alioli, Osso Buco, Polenta, and a heart warming Zuppa Ingelese (trifle).

Southern Italian Sauces 16th April – closed
Learn to make your own pasta or pizza sauces to bottle and preserve then use during the year.

Recipes from Nonna’s Kitchen 23rd April – closed
Favourite Southern Italian recipes made with slow traditional methods finishing with a rich, moist Capri Chocolate cake.

$80.00 per person per class

Book in for 4 classes and get the 5th class half price.
(Total $360.00 for any 5 classes)

Book in 4 friends and the fifth person pays half price.
(Total $360.00 for 5 people)

Great gift idea for someone who has an Italian soul.

Amoré Cucina Cooking Class
Be one of the few to discover a part of Melbourne fresh from the Tuscan hills and blossoming in the Shire of Nillumbik. The vineyard is at Panton Hill, on the edge of the Yarra Valley closest to Melbourne – food and wine capital of Australia. This winery is the perfect backdrop for a cooking class with all the flavours of the Mediterranean in the food and wine to match the venue.
Enjoy a cooking class followed by a full wine tasting. All food and recipes provided. (Menu example here)
Your day starts at 10.00am where you will assist in preparing a meal to remember .

29th May (closed)
10th July (closed)
24th July (closed)
31st July (closed)
9th October (closed)
30th October (closed)

PRIVATE TAPAS FUNCTION
Please contact us to organise a date for your group to have a Tapas Workshop on a THURSDAY or FRIDAY at the Panton Hill Winery.
Minimum number 6, maximum number 8 for everyone to have hands-on.
Larger groups can be catered for with a demonstration type cooking class, limited participation.

Make & Preserve Your Own Home-Made Italian Sausages

A fun hands-on class!

Winter, June, July and early August is the best time to use pork and make Calabrese salami.

In the spring evening classes you will learn to make Italian style pork sausages to eat fresh on the barby or freeze.

Need to bond with a few mates? Get a group of 6 people together! Ordinary sausages (not salami) can be made to eat fresh and/or freeze at any time of the year. Learn to make sausages using lamb or beef with various combinations of herbs, spices, wine and honey.
For a great team building day please contact us to organise a date for you (6 adults special price $500.00).

Learn to make fresh pasta by hand. That’s right, no machines!
This is an easy and fun way of making ‘maccheroni’ the traditional way.
Take home what you make to share with your loved ones.

Select a date below or please contact us to organise a private function for your group (4-6).

Learn to make fresh pasta by hand and with a machine. BYO appetite!

Select a date below or just contact us to organise a private function for your group of 4 or more on a preferred date.

“I never met a Lasagne I didn’t like.” Garfield

From the classic Lasagne Bolognese with meat to a versatile vegetarian.

Various recipes depending on season and availability.

Also see Feed Your Italian Heart

In April 2010 this class will be devoted to pasta and pizza sauces to bottle and preserve for use throughout the year. It takes a good base tomato sauce (also known as passata) to make a great pasta sauce. The best time of the year to use fresh tomatoes for pasta sauce is late summer, early autumn.

In this fantastic hands on class learn to make your own pasta or pizza sauces to bottle and preserve then use during the year. We will teach you some basic tips for cooking pasta with sauces to match and have lots of tastings as we go.

A true Paella from the heart, as legend has it, is that a young man first made it “for her”, his fiance. Not many men used to cook back then! The word also means “pan” so the origin of this famous Spanish favourite is not clear. What is clear is that it started with all the left overs in the larder and anything else that was available, from cheese to snails.
In this class we will make an easy vegetarian version and a meat/seafood version to impress the visitors!

Contact us to organise a private function for your preferred date.

‘Slow Medicine’

The hot weather may not be over but the leaves are falling and little fat grapes will soon be squished into fountains of luscious red or cool white wine. Imagine harvest time and you have visions of big pumpkins and huge pies – not in this household… we have Italian focaccia, rich red tomatoes, roasted with garlic and honey, succulent pork cooked to perfection. All this to end with sweet melon soaked in the flavours of an aromatic dessert wine rich with spices.

A variety of meat, cheese, eggs and vegetables with at least 10 tapas to eat and lots of ideas to take home and share. And what goes better with this Spanish “small plate” feast? Sangria!

The “Wise King” of Castille and Leon, Alfonso X was ill when his chef decided that a succession of small dishes, each helped along with a small glass of wine, was sure to make him feel better. His recovery was so remarkable that the old king spread the news: eat little and often, he commanded, and you will live longer. And so became the tradition of Tapas.

In a Tapas Class, learn to prepare a variety of delicious dishes each with its own colour, texture and aroma providing an assortment of flavours without eating too much of one thing. Ideal for both vegetarians and meat-eaters.

Please contact us to organise a date for your group (min 4). Special price of $50.00 per person for a group of 6 or more if you book before end December 2010.