If truth be told I didn’t learn a thing. I didn’t absorb a single word that our rotund little chef said, nor did I engage in any of the pasta rolling exercise or anything else that our little group was instructed. I was too busy taking photos. And eager for lunch.

An early morning visit to the Arnaldo-Caprai winery in the Montefalco region of Umbria was all part of the International Wine Tourism Conference and culminated in a visit to the kitchen and then a rather lengthy, indulgent and tasty lunch. One of the better types with various courses and differing wines for each. If I was so intent on taking photos for the whole of our visit why did I only return with a solitary photo from the meal, the starter, and not a single snap of the other courses? Hopeless… but it shows the fun we had at the ‘Arnaldo Caprai Cooking School’.

Diane, whose bejewelled hands are featured rolling the pasta, writes on the IWinEtc site that

“his [the chefs] message was clear: if we wanted to eat, we must work. We laughed at our efforts, where some of our noodles were too fat and some too thin. In the end, the Umbricelli pasta was delicious.”

Salvatore, once the respected owner of a restaurant in Foligno, is originally from Sicily and keeps his cooking simple with basic ingredients of the local and freshest kind. We we were supplied with Salvatores recipes for the Umbricelli pasta and pork Ragu which, one-day I’ll endeavour to replicate…