Meet Giovanna at her apartment and then walk together for 10 minutes to tour the Mercato di Mezzo - the city’s first covered market filled with stalls selling vegetables, fruits, pasta, meat, bread and cheese. Here you can shop for fresh, seasonal produce or eat at one of counters selling food and wine. In your one hour tour of this market, Giovanna will take you to her favorite vendors so that you can see the local produce and buy a few ingredients for your cooking class.
In your Italian cooking class in Bologna you will learn to cook authentic Bolognese dishes with your host Giovanna, in her home kitchen. In your 2-hour hands-on Bologna cooking experience, learn to make crostini with vegetables and local cheese, risotto with seasonal vegetables such as pumpkin or asparagus, and tenerina and a moist chocolate cake. Or you can learn to make tagliatelle al ragù or gramigna with sausage and tiramisu. Giovanna will share her family recipes, tips on how to perfect each dish and stories of growing up in the countryside. After cooking, share the meal you helped prepare in her beautiful, green terrace, only during the spring and summer months when the weather is good.
Giovanna lives in a beautiful apartment in downtown Bologna, in the historical center, with her friendly Jack Russel named Nemo. She is excited to share with you a home-cooked Italian meal, dishes she often cooks for her family and friends. Giovanna can also prepare a traditional vegetarian or vegan Bolognese meal if you don't eat meat or seafood, so please let her know your preference while booking the experience online. Her recipes are simple and made with high quality, fresh and seasonal ingredients. She will not only share her delicious food but also the traditions around food and hopes to make you fall in love with Bologna! A few traditional Italian dishes that you might try at Giovanna’s table are chickpea with radish and rocket salad, crostini with stracchino and mushrooms (toast with cheese and mushroom) and risotto with seasonal vegetables and parmigiano. You will end your meal with a dessert such as seasonal fruits or red fruit crostata (fruit tart) or tenerina (chocolate cake).
Giovanna can accommodate lactose free, gluten free, vegetarian and vegan diets on request. Please let her know in advance if you have any dietary restrictions or allergies, while booking your Bologna cooking class online.
This is just a sample menu to give you an idea of the types of dishes the host cooks. Your menu will vary according to seasonal availability.
Please choose ONE menu from the below options: Menu A: Chickpeas salad with radish and rocket salad + Crostini with stracchino and mushrooms + Risotto with seasonal vegetables and parmigiano + Seasonal fruits or red fruit crostataMenu B: Mortadella di Bologna (Italian sausage), Prosciutto di Parma (Italian ham), Squacquerone (Italian cheese) + Verdure grigliate miste (grilled vegetables) with parmigiano + Tagliatelle al ragù or Gramigna with sausage + TiramisuGiovanna is a retired teacher, she taught Italian, Philosophy and History to high school students. Currently she collaborates with the 'Love Italian Project' to offer history and Italian lessons to foreign students. Giovanna loves speaking to new people, getting to know different cultures, wandering in the historic city center and on the hills of Bologna, reading novels and visiting art museums. Another passion of hers is cooking and she has always loved cooking for family and friends - holding dinner parties at her terrace is her favorite thing to do. Giovanna learned to cook from her mother in the countryside of Mantua and then she enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen to create her own recipes. She is now excited to meet new people and share with them her passion for history, cooking and good Italian food and wine!
"We loved going to the market with Giovanna. She told us about Bologna’s history as a medieval city. Filled with groceries, we returned to her house, where we began some meal preparations. We enjoyed antipasto, , official meat tortellini and vegetable made broth, and a delicious risotto with asparagus. She prepared us a simple baked tomato dish, and finally, the delicious tiramisu.. We enjoyed a choice of wines. Great talk, great company and wonderful food in Giovanna’s lovely home. She is a gem."
"We had such a wonderful time at this Italian home cooking experience with Giovanna! She was incredibly kind, friendly, and made us feel so welcome — like we were old friends visiting her home. Her warmth and hospitality created such a relaxed and inviting atmosphere, and her cooking was absolutely fantastic. Every dish was full of authentic Italian flavor, and it was such a joy to learn from her. This was truly a special and memorable experience, and we’re so happy we did it. Thank you, Giovanna, for such a beautiful evening — we’ll never forget it!"
"Let me start by saying how moved and taken away we were by our experience. Gio is an Italian treasure and we absolutely adored our experience with her. She is kind and knowledgeable and patient. The finished product of whatever yummy meal you cook with her guidance will reflect that. Absolutely strongly recommend a cooking class with her.
Only disclaimer is I advice you make sure whatever third party company you use to book gives you her contact info upfront. We had a hard time reaching out to the company but as soon as they gave me her contact she responded immediately and was so kind and so helpful. We made a risotto amongst other delicious dishes, I will never forget it. I can’t recommend this experience enough, book a cooking class with Gio you will not regret it! Also she has the cutest Jack Russell named Nemo and I miss him already!"
