Day 23 - In fair Verona where we lay our scene...

I went to Verona today with Reni and Lauren! Its about one and a half hours by train from Bologna. Though it wasn't the best weather, I absolutely loved this city and we had a really fun time. The vibrant red and yellow buildings, the churches, the Piazza delle Erbe with its vendors and statues, the shopping, and the really cool historical monuments (there was a castle with a legit moat!) were all wonderful.


Oh, and the food. At the recommendation of Alessandra we went to Osteria Giulietta e Romeo (Corso S. Anastasia, 27, Verona; 045 8009177) for lunch. This place was fantastic - I literally wanted to order everything on the menu. The way it worked was you got a primi and a secondi for a very reasonable set price. Alessandra told us that we had to order the pasta with donkey sauce (I know, poor Eeyore). It sounds strange, but this pasta was absolutely delectable - every bite. The donkey meat is actually very mild, and the pasta was hand made and very fresh, with a nice chewy bite. I have to go back to Verona just to have this again.


As a secondi, I had eggplant with tomato and mozzarella. I know this looks like a very Italian-American dish, but it was better than anything I've had like this in the U.S. For one, the mozzarella was clearly of a higher quality, and everything was just well cooked.


Reni ordered polenta with snails as a second. Here it is:


So after lunch we were completely stuffed and couldn't eat another bite. That is until we were walking around and saw these. They are apple fritters and are so, so, so, so delicious - thin slices of apple battered and fried and covered in sugar. How could that possibly not be amazing? We got one slice and split it among the three of us... the perfect bite!


Later that night, I cooked with Alessandra. We made spaghetti with zucchini and mozzarella. Yum!

Day 22

After class today we went and found a falafel place, which also, of course, made pizza. I got a falafel piadina (basically a wrap). They made the bread right there which was good, but nothing amazing. Also, we waited about 20 minutes for these things, which should take about 20 seconds.


Then, Alessandra was adorable and brought me some pastries from Gamberini Pasticceria (Via Ugo Bassi, 12), which has to be one of the best in the city. These were absolutely delicious - not to mention incredibly good looking! See those tiny strawberries? Those are the sweetest strawberries I've ever had. Thanks Alessandra!


For dinner, went to eat with the Forni girls. Reni made some great crepes, and then we had a random selection of things to put in them. I went all out and just put everything in for a tasty sweet-savory combination. This had Italian plum jam, provolone cheese, arugula, a fried egg, and olive oil. Yummy!


Tomorrow I go to Verona. Yeah, the one Romeo and Juliet are from. Get ready for more eating adventures!

A domani!

Will

Day 21 - The Buffet Way

Today, ended up having a buffet for lunch and dinner. So for lunch we went to Cafe Zamboni (Via Zamboni, 6). They have a pretty-darn-good all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. Here is my giant plate of food - I was starving! Includes bresola, potatoes, arugula, chicken in tomato sauce, saffron risotto (really more like rice), veggie fritters, breaded veggies (I feel extremely unhealthy typing this right now), etc... For dessert, pear torta.


Quick snack with some bread, mozzarella, and tomato sauce from the pasta I made a few nights ago.


We then went to MAMbo (il Museo dell'Arte Moderna, Bologna) that the interns from ECCo took us to where we saw some some cool art (well, not according to everyone, but you know, can't win them all...). Then had aperitivi (and as it turned out, dinner) at the very hip, to-see-and-be-seen restaurant attached to the museum (Via Don Minzoni, 14). This place is really cool, and packed, and also a great deal. You buy any drink (as low as 2 Euros) and get unlimited access to their delicious apertivi buffet which had some really delicious food. The only issue is they only have these tiny cups to hold the food in, but as long as you get enough, it's great for dinner. They just kept bringing more and more delicious food. Here is some tasty polenta they had, as well as pasta with ragu, and a really good chickpea and lentil dish. They also had pizza, pesto pasta, tortas, chicken wings, etc... I'm definitely coming back here, and its only a few blocks away from where we live.




Here is an interior shot of the place from their website, but imagine it completely packed.

Day 20

So, began the day with yogurt. For lunch, back to Il Giusto Punto (the place with the arancini and frizelle). Forgot my camera, Solveig has the pictures so I'll try and post those later, but nothing you haven't seen (though great as always). Also stopped at a pasticceria and got some amazing deserts. Pictures to come.

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

Day 19

Pasta, pasta, pasta today. But all of it delicious. We found a cute little cafe near ECCo for lunch called Caffè Opera e Tulipani (Via Alessandrini, 7; 39-051-245-122). They had a nice selection of food, reasonable prices and a really nice, relaxing atmosphere. There was a big grand piano and microphones in there too, so judging by the name of the place I wouldn't be surprised if there was live music (opera, perhaps?) at night or something. I'll have to check it out. Also, probably the coolest aspect of this place is that it overlooks one of the cities open canals. Yeah, I didn't know it either, but Bologna is built on a series of canals. A great article on Bologna from the New York Times explains (http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/travel/23hours.html):

Few visitors realize that underneath the city's cobblestone streets lies a medieval network of canals originally used for trade and transport.

Pretty cool. Here's a picture. There is a small porch outside with nice tables that overlook the canal, but unfortunately it was too cold and rainy today to sit outside. I'll have to go back when its warmer.


I had fusilli with sausage in a cream sauce, which was some of the best pasta I've had here. The pasta was perfectly cooked, the sauce creamy but light.


Leah and Solveig both got the tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms. Oh.So.Good.


For dinner, made some great pasta with Mark and his roommates. Used some of the leftover broccoli with peppers and garlic from last night with some chicken, penne pasta, parmigiano and chili flakes.


Tomorrow? Another cooking class, so get excited. Very, very excited.

Day 18

So this morning in class we went on a field trip into the hills surrounding Bologna (totally picturesque and only 15 minutes outside of the center of town) and saw a memorial from the Italian Resistance during WWII. After standing in the freezing cold rain for about an hour (it hasn't been sunny in Bologna except for one day - its just been rain, rain, and more rain), of course we were fed and served hot tea. Would the Italians have it any other way? I think not. Just some cookies and bread, but still...


For lunch, back to Osteria dell'Orsa. This place is great I wish I could just bring the whole place with me back to the U.S. and have them open up shop down the street from me. I ordered one of the daily pasta specials, this was strozzaprete (a twisted pasta literally meaning "the strangled priest") with sausage, prosciutto and mushrooms in a cream sauce. Yummy!


For dinner, made some chicken sandwiches with toasted bread, mayo, arugula, tomato and some lemon chicken that I just seared in a pan. Pretty delicious. Nice to have chicken for a change since we don't seem to eat it often here. The chicken they sell here, and I just picked this up at the little supermercato down the street, is really flavorful - much better than the average chicken back home. Also made one of my favorite Italian (or at least I've heard it is) broccoli preparations, with garlic, red pepper and lemon. Simple and really good.

Day 17

It was a Sunday - and though I didn't have a traditional Italian Sunday feast, I still managed to eat pretty well. Started off the day with a fried egg and mortadella on toast with a little mayo (gotta have it) and a splash of red wine vinegar. Good stuff. Also, notice the juice behind it. It's blood-orange juice, which I've discovered here, and its so good! It's everything normal orange-juice should be: sweet and tart and pink. What more could you need to wake you up in the morning?


Went out to coffee and found this adorable little tart that I just had to have. It's called torta della nonna and it has pinenuts, strawberry jam, and some sweet squash-like filling. It was the perfect coffee snack!


For dinner, you guessed it, pasta. I just don't ever get sick of it here. Made it tonight with a simple tomato sauce of onion, garlic, oregano, this good canned tomato purree, and panna, a popular ingredient in Italy which is basically packaged cream and which basically makes anything you put it in that much more delicious. I plan on bringing tons of this stuff back to the U.S. Everyone here uses it all the time and yet you can't find it anywhere in the States. Oh, Italy.

Day 16

We went to Ravenna today, a city on the coast about one and a half hours by train east of Bologna. Really a beautiful city, we saw Dante's tomb, some cool churches, and of course, ate some delicious food. Went to a well known restaurant in the city called Ca'de Ven (24 Via Corrado Ricci, Ravenna; 0544-30163). Beautiful old building with big long tables and high ceilings. Here are some shots of the inside:



This restaurant, and Ravenna in general, is known for its piadine, like an Italian version of a tortilla. These are made with lard and are chewy and oh-so-good. Normally they are stuffed with prosciutto, cheese, vegetable and the like. I got a great vegetable soup and a side of rosemary piadine, here it is:



Nick got some ravioli with tomoato sauce, and Marc got pasta with sausage, peas and cream sauce... how delicious does that look?


For dinner, Forni girls came over and we just had some pasta with vegetables and parmigiano cheese.

Day 15

Today after class got out, some of us went to Eataly (I describe this place in more detail in an earlier post) where we had some fabulous panini. They served them to us beautifully presented in this baseket:
Here is a closeup of mine. It had prosciutto cotto, mushrooms and tallegio cheese on this great bread. So tasty.


Then for dinner, Alessandra and I made some lasagna for everyone! Snacked on a little croustini of tomato and mortadella:


Alessandra had the excellent idea of doing a sausage and zucchini with bechamel sauce, mozzarella and provolone (which here is delicious and not rubbery like in the US) lasagna. Here is a picture of the meat - which if you are thinking "that looks ridiculously delicious" you would be correct - we mixed sausage with pancetta and the ragu sauce from last week - best thing ever. Below is a piece of the lasagna.


We made some spinach, eggplant, mushroom and bechamel, mozzarella and provolone lasagna as well. Equally delectable. Here's a picture of the veges before we put them in, followed by a piece.