Later, we had the third (and possibly final) cooking lesson with Rita. Again, we made some of the best food I've had in Italy. Cooking in someone's home, preparing food with the freshest ingredients, and having Rita there to show us how it is all done is fantastic and makes for the absolutely most delicious, to-die-for food ever.
We started with some fried vegetables, which were wonderful and which I couldn't stop snacking on. Fried vegetables in Italy, fritti misti, are light and almost delicate. Thoroughly salted and crispy, these are the perfect pre dinner snack. We made three types: fried sage leaves, fried artichokes, and fried broccoli. These were all so good! I loved the flavor and texture of the fried sage, seems like it would be a fun thing to top a dish with, or even a soup.
Next, we had a soup with beans, leeks, and farro (an Italian cereal product much like barley). This was filling and delicious. The soup itself wasn't salted, which was interesting, but instead just got the salt from grated pecorino which we put on top. The flavors were subtle and worked great together.
For secondi, we had sea bass, cooked in the oven whole. I helped scale and clean them...fun. Here is a before picture, a picture of what we ate, and an after picture.
These were served with some potatoes and onions which were simply roasted. The onions they often use here are these mild, fresh, little spring onions. I've started using them all the time when I cook since they have great flavor that isn't overpowering.
For dessert, we had tiramisu. We made some without chocolate for me, which was wonderful since usually I never get to try tiramisu since I don't like chocolate. Thought it isn't the real thing without chocolate, it was creamy and rich and so, so good. It's topped with crushed hazelnuts here, instead of dark chocolate.
