Join Us in Tuscany This September
Across the world’s longest living communities, one essential thread ties them together and it’s not simply genetics or access to healthcare, it’s conviviality. The joy of shared meals, conversation, and meaningful connection.
At the Sourdough School, we believe that nourishment extends far beyond nutrition. It’s about understanding, community, fermentation, and the microbes that connect us to our food, our health, and each other.
Our Bread & Longevity Tuscan Retreat, held this September 2025 at the Castello di Potentino, is an immersive week of sourdough baking, nutritional science, and soulful living. There are still a few places available and we would love to welcome you to the table.
Inside the Retreat: What You’ll Learn and Experience
This is an opportunity to step into the Tuscan hills and explore how sourdough can nourish both body and mind. Throughout the week, we combine evidence-based teaching with immersive, hands-on experiences, making complex nutritional science accessible and meaningful in daily life.
You’ll:
- Learn delicious long-fermentation techniques that support digestibility and a diverse gut microbiome. Bake nourishing breads including the humble tin loaf, classic boule, pillowy focaccia and more!
- Share meals crafted from seasonal produce from the area, rich in fibre and fermented foods that reflect the Mediterranean approach to life. Including delicious olive oil from the castle’s own groves and grapes from the surrounding vineyards, a real Tuscan treat.
- Join workshops that explore the link between the gut and mental health; from the local stone ground mill, bread baking, pasta to cheese making and wine tasting.
- Gain insight from medical professionals, nutritionists, and bakers alike. Whether you’re looking to apply this understanding personally or professionally
- Take time to pause, connect, and reflect. Surrounded by vineyard views, like-minded people, and nourishing food
Whether you’re looking to deepen your understanding of food and health, enhance your clinical perspective, or simply reconnect with what truly nourishes you, this retreat offers something special.
Spaces Are Limited, Book Now
This is our most intimate retreat of the year, and places are filling quickly. If you feel the pull to join us in beautiful Tuscany and the promise of a slower, more nourishing way to live, then we recommend booking your place now.
(Includes full itinerary, pricing, and FAQs)
A Taste of What Awaits: Tuscan Sourdough Pasta Recipe
To celebrate the retreat and share a little of its flavour, we’re offering a free Tuscan Sourdough Pasta Recipe. This is one of the many recipes we enjoy during the retreat. It’s simple, delicious, and captures the essence of the week. Gathering fresh herbs from the garden, sipping Charlotte, the winemakers wine, and sharing meals around a long table with people who, by the end, feel like family.
Though it’s pasta, not bread, it’s made with sourdough, and that matters. Fermentation improves digestibility, breaks down gluten, and supports the gut microbiome, making it a truly nourishing dish. And most of all, it brings people together. We hope you enjoy!
Tuscan Lemon & Courgette Fresh Sourdough Pasta
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
- 200g organic white flour (13% protein), plus extra to sprinkle at the end
- 100g Botanical Blend No.2 – Meadow blend, or any stoneground wholegrain flour
- 2g fine sea salt
- 70g sourdough starter
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 10g water
- 5–10ml olive oil, for your hands
Steps:
- Mix the flours and salt together. Tip this mixture out on to the work surface and make a well in the centre. Pour the sourdough starter and eggs into the well and slowly begin to mix them into the flour. Until most of the flour has been incorporated.
- Start working with your hands, using a little oil on your hands to stop the dough from sticking to them. Working the remaining flour into the dough.
- Add the water, a little at a time. Until it comes together.
- Knead the dough, form into a ball and wrap in wax paper. Leave your dough somewhere warm for 7 hours, then place it in the fridge overnight.
- The following morning, remove the pasta from the fridge. It will have doubled in size. Leave the dough to rest for about half an hour.
- The pasta in now ready to roll out and cut into shape.
- Cook the pasta in a large pan of salted boiling water until it is al dente, usually between 1-5 minutes depending on the thickness of your pasta. Drain and use immediately.
Courgette and Lemon Topping
Ingredients:
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra if needed
- 2 medium courgettes, finely chopped into small ribbons
- Zest of 2 lemons
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 1–2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- Sea salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- A few sprigs of fresh herbs, finely chopped (rosemary, tarragon, or sage)
- Fresh Parmesan, generously sliced for serving
Method:
- Sauté the onions in olive oil until soft and golden.
- Chop the courgettes into small ribbons or dicing them finely.
- Add the chopped courgettes and garlic to the pan. Stir gently to coat everything in the olive oil. Cook for another 5 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper, Add the zest of 1 lemon to the pan. Continue cooking for another couple of minutes.
- Once the courgettes are soft and fragrant, turn off the heat. Add the juice of 2 lemons and the remaining lemon zest, stirring gently to combine.
- Add any fresh herbs you like, finely chopped to the dish.
- Toss the courgette and lemon mixture through freshly cooked pasta, making sure everything is well coated.
- Top with slices of fresh Parmesan and enjoy immediatley.
Join Us, Limited Spaces Remaining
Want a week filled with baking, sharing, learning, and laughter? then join us on this years retreat. It’s our third year, and honestly, it’s everything I dreamed of when I began this journey. Bread, Tuscany, and everything good about life in one unforgettable week.
We hope to welcome you to Tuscany,
Vanessa & The Sourdough School Team
Bread and War
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