Monday, August 27, 2007

Italian Cooking 101


Rather than hiking through the cobbled streets of Rome we spent our day learning the names of Italian foods and drinks and learning how to cook Italian dishes. My favorite word was zucchero ( tsoo-ke-ro) which means sugar. Here is a picture of some of the different words that we learned today. We also learned that in Italian pasta has two different meanings. The first is the traditional US meaning of pasta which includes spaghetti, penne, and fettuccine. The second meaning for pasta is pastry.

Later in the afternoon Shawn graciously lent us his apartment for the cooking lesson and that is were we met our instructor Sabrina. Everyone gathered around Sabrina as she began to demonstrate the basics of Italian cooking. She started by telling us basic differences between cooking in the US and in Italy, such as the measurement of dry ingredients like flour. In the US, we measure in cups, while in Italy they use grams.

Our first dish that we prepared was Pasta a Fragioli. It was composed of Penne pasta with a red sauce made from tomatoes, white wine, white beans, garlic, anchovies, and the "trinity" (carrots, onions, and celery). The sauce took about two hours to prepare and required the use of many students diligently chopping away at the vegetables.



Unfortunately one of Sabrina's cooking lessons came too late. Someone accidentally added mozzarella slices to the Penne sauce and it cooked for over two hours. Few of us knew that you should not cook cheese in a pasta sauce for many hours or it will become rubbery and settle at the bottom of the sauce.



From there we set out to make the crust for our desert tarts. We decided to make three tarts, a nutella tart, a peach tart (with real peaches!), and a cherry tart. Before we could start making the crust we had to learn the different words for flour, sugar, and vanilla. One of the bigger differences from American baking is the type of vanilla. In the US, we buy little bottles of vanilla extract that contain an overwhelming smell if you make the mistake of inhaling too deeply. In Italy, the vanilla comes in little packets that smell wonderful. Sabrina and Lisa rubbed the packets on their wrists. We passed the packets around to smell the wonderful aroma. Here is a picture of Mindy taking a large whiff of a vanilla packet.





Outside the apartment the temperatures were still soaring in the mid 90's and with the stove and oven cooking at high temperatures the apartment soon heated up. Many students found relief in the kiddie pool on Shawn's balcony. Here is a picture of Juneko attempting to cool off other students.




Even our instructors took a break to discuss our trip to Florence and to stay out of our way.



Besides the Pasta a Fagioli, we made Tiella di Spinache, which is a local dish from Gieta (located just south of Rome). It was a dish that reminded me of a spinach calzone. We also made potato gnocchi with a gorgonzola and mushroom sauce. To top the menu off we added a caprese salad and fresh bread.



After four hours of chopping, cooking, and stirring the food was finally done and the students dove in. The food did not last very long especially when it was time for desert. The peach tart was one of the best tarts I have ever had in my entire life. I cannot wait to try to make it when I return to Seattle.

Ciao,
Melissa



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