However, the main eating event of the day took place with Rita, who teaches the cooking lessons. They've now divided us into three groups that go on different days so that we have more of a chance to cook. We began by learning about Italian food history, food culture, etiquette, and so on. I thought that this was extremely interesting (even though she "inspected" our place setting we made). I could sit all day and talk food with Rita. We sat and talked with her for a while after dinner, and it turns out the way she learned how to cook is because she came from a big family with lots of brothers, and so she was always helping her mom cook for everyone. She now teaches cooking lessons at her home in Bologna, and also has a restaurant in Sardegna (which I definitely want to check out). She's really fun to work with, a great instructor and makes the absolutely most DELICIOUS food ever.
Ok, so we started with two types of pasta. First, pasta alla ricotta, a simple and fantastic pasta dish of linguine pasta, ricotta, parmigiano, pasta water, olive oil, lemon zest, salt and pepper. That is it. She first put the ricotta through a sieve to make it more creamy, and then everything just gets mixed together. I had to have a second serving.
Then, pasta con sugo fresco. This had tomato, toasted pinenuts, garlic and zucchini and parmigiano. Molto, molto buono! The pinenuts in this were amazing, and everything just tasted so fresh.
For the secondi (main course) we had veal with prosciutto and cheese baked in white wine, as well as some mashed potatoes. The veal is first cooked in a skillet (here is Nick flipping them):
Then rolled up like this and baked with white wine:
And then eaten, like this:
I cannot tell you how good the veal was. I know all I do on this blog is rant about how delicious everything is, but this was one of those dishes that I just couldn't get over. So simple and yet out-of-this-world good. The creamy cheese melting with the salty prosciutto and the sauce that the white wine makes when they are baked is perfect. All these different textures and flavors going on. I'm making this all the time. In fact, she gave me some leftovers to take home, so I'm eating it for dinner again soon. Also, here is a picture of some delicious Italian and German bread she bought as well.
Then for dessert, apple pie, Italian style. Best apple pie ever. Why, you ask? Because instead of making a separate crust (nothing wrong with that), you just pour a mixture of milk, eggs, sugar and butter over the apples and it all bakes together. Here it is before it went in the oven:
Think of a light bread pudding of apples (she added banana, chocolate, and amaretto cookies to this one too, luckily made some without chocolate for me). Creamy and delicious. I think those are my theme words for the day. Also, incredibly easy to make. Post a comment if you want the recipe and I'll put it up.
Then, as if that weren't enough, we made a breakfast bread with lemon and raisins to take home for the next morning.
This was another wonderful cooking class, Rita is so great to be with and we all had a ton of fun, and a ton of food. The best part? We still have two more left, at least. Those will be in the next 2 or 3 weeks, so get ready for more adventures with Rita.
Until tomorrow,
Will
