What’s the one keepsake—other than fond memories of mounds of pasta—you need to take home from Rome? That’s right, it’s how to make those mounds of pasta in your own kitchen. However, the only true way to do that is when you learn from a real Italian grandmother, nonna. Now the only remaining question is: where do you find a nonna to teach you to cook when in Rome?

Eating Italy solves that quandary.

What to Expect:

With a few hand-selected nonne in their arsenal, Eating Italy provides an authentic cooking class in a Roman apartment. There you will spend four hours with a true Italian grandmother and learn her personal cooking tips and techniques of cucina romana. (This is something that can only be passed down, not read in a book.) After cooking you will sit down and feast on the fruits of your labor with your new friends over local wines.

On the Menu:

Seasonal Roman pasta and gnocchi (traditionally eaten on Thursdays) which you will learn to make by hand. The savory saltimbocca, veal cutlet topped with thinly sliced proscuitto and sage leaves, is a regular secondi (second course) on rotation as well as Italian basics like polpettine (meatballs) or pollo peperoni (chicken with peppers and wine). Under the guidance of your adopted nonna you’ll also prepare contorni (vegetable side dishes) and end on a sweet note with a classic Italian dolce— tiramisu or crostata di ricotta, a few likely candidates.

Each class varies, but if you’re lucky, and in Rome during the height of the artichoke season, you may learn to prepare carciofi alla romana—stuffed with a garlic mixture and sautéed in plenty of olive oil and white wine. While in summer cross your fingers that zucchini blossoms are in nonna’s kitchen.

The Basics:

Cost: €98, includes cooking class, recipes, 4-course meal and local wines
Date: Temporarily unavailable (check website for new dates)
Length: 4-4.5 hours
Start Time: Classes are held at 4:30pm

What you gain in addition to the tips, laughs, storytelling and secret ricette (recipes) is an experience you’ll never forget. So be sure to check this off your bucket list next time in Rome.