Cesarine: Marknadstur och matlagningskurs på Local's Home i Bologna

Rosa was the warmest, lovely hostess. She made us feel welcome and taught us how to make several wonderful Bologna dishes. We had a great time.

We did a market tour and cooking class with our host Paola. What an enjoyable experience. Paola was very knowledgeable and although we had already done a walking tour, she had a lot of new information to tell us! We then went to Paola’s house which was a short walk out of the city wall and she taught us to make tagliatelle, piadena and tiramisu. We were then invited to sit in her lovely garden and enjoy the food we made, along with additional food that Paola had prepared. Great experience, thank you!

Excellent food prepared by us with excellent instruction by our chef Mauricio! It’s not only great food. It’s great companionship great conversation. We only wish we had more time to spend.

All I can say is, Oriana is Bologna’s hidden gem. Smart, genuine, skillful, wonderful teacher. I could have chilled with her all day. Also, finders keepers!

Maurizio was awesome! We loved the local market he took us to. The piadina was delicious, will definitely try that at home. Tagliatelle with porcini sauce from mushrooms foraged by his dad was memorable, finished it off with a lemon tart!

Rosa is fantastic. She adapted the menu on the fly around my likes and dislikes and to meet my experience/skill level. She had me do all the cooking, which is so much better than watching someone else. And she topped it off by recommending a number of different restaurants, enotecas, cafes, and gelato shops that I can easily walk to. She is also very friendly and speaks English very well.

This was one of the most enjoyable and valuable experiences I have ever had in all my travels. My adult daughter and I met Paola in the city center and she took us on a tour of the Mercato delle Erbe, a public market with food stalls and places to eat and drink. We then continued on to her lovely home for the cooking lesson. Paola had everything set out and pre-measured in her spacious, well-appointed kitchen. She provided us with all the recipes for safe-keeping in advance of the lesson. We then learned to make piedine, garganelli, and tiramisù. Paola explained everything clearly and made sure we both got turns to work on all aspects of the preparation of each dish. Her directions were not only clear and easy to follow, but were filled with explanations, culinary history and tradition, and many helpful hints to ensure the best results. While we kneaded, rolled dough, and made garganelli, we also engaged in conversation about ourselves. Paola is a delightful and very interesting, warm person and she was wonderful to get to know. Once the food was prepared she served us our lunch in her dining room where she had set a beautiful table. She provided a choice of wines, and we chose a very tasty Lambrusco to accompany the garganelli al ragù. She had prepared several other antipasti to add to our meal, and everything was delicious! Added to the meal was more stimulating conversation and by the time we were done eating, we felt we had made a new friend. We had so much fun during this lesson, but also learned a lot. Even though we are both experienced cooks (for example, we had both made tiramisù many times before), we learned new tricks and techniques to increase our expertise. Rolling garganelli was so enjoyable that we followed Paola’s advice and bought a riga gnocchi on the walk back home to be able to make these pasta shapes again when we return home. We are happy to be able to provide the highest recommendation possible for this experience with Cesarina Paola. We made some wonderful food, warm mother-daughter memories, and a lovely new friend.

How do I begin to describe this cooking class. This was absolutely the best part of our entire trip. I cannot say that enough. This was more than a cooking class, it was a look into the life of a true bologian. Learning about the local markets, stopping to say hello along the streets to venders, business owners and friends. The cooking portion of this experience was excellent and so much fun but this experience was much more than just a cooking class. Oriana welcomed us into her home as strangers and we left as friends. We decided as we left that if we every come back to Italy we definitely have to go to Bologna.

Then we had the pleasure of visiting an Italian home and making Fafalle and got briefly shown tortelloni. Plus a dessert from Bologna. Our babysitter Alfred (Alfredo) was both deified and spoiled!

My wife and I were matched with Paola and we are so happy that this happened! We met her by the Fontana del Nettuno (Neptune Fountain) in downtown Bologna and asked her to show us the city market more frequented by locals (versus the more touristy one) and so she did. We went and bought a few ingredients together and she explained everything around the market. We then all chatted on our way to her beautiful home, where she led us through preparing a three-course meal of Piadina, Tortelloni, and Tiramisu. We ate the food we made at her table and she made us feel at home. It was honestly an amazing value because we can now go home and make this on our own. It’s not out of our reach, and that was her intention. She is kind, super intelligent, fun, and a great teacher. A Bolognese local! Ask for Paola and I hope you get her as a guide.