Culinary Adventures Part 2

I hope you're hungry because I have more pictures of what I have been up to in class recently. This week was midterms so the recipes were slightly more simple but still so delicious! I don't think I have made something I havent loved so far....

Food, Culture, and Society: Last week we made a traditional spring primi piatti course, which would be a starchy first course. We made risotto agli asparigi. So easy, and so fresh and delicious. Then we also made a traditional secondi course, which is a meat preparation. We prepared Cotoletto alla milanese, which was veal milanese. I'm not a big beef person so I didn't have the veal but it looked great!

Cotoletta alla Milanese

Risotto Agli Asparigi

Then, the next week was my midterm so we didn't really have time to prepare a detailed recipe. Instead, we took our exam while our teacher prepared a tasting for us. This tasting consisted of speck, a traditional cured and smoked pork meat similar to prosciutto, salame milano which is a traditional salami from the Lombardy region. And then we tasted two cheeses: a gorgonzola which is made from cow's milk and a cheese called caprino, which is a goat's cheese. All were delicious!

Casual Tasting after a very difficult exam:)

Chocolates: So last week we had an entire workshop that was all about the production of "cremino" which is essentially homemade nutella. This was my absolute favorite day. We learned all about the history of nutella and how in Italy, any chocolate or gelato that is called "gianduja" is nutella flavored. This is what the chocolate was first called when it was first invented in Turin back in the 1800's. The name gianduja comes from a carnivale character and that is what the chocolate hazelnut flavor is still called in many parts of Italy. We made homemade nutella by simply grinding toasted hazelnuts to make a butter and then adding dark chocolate. We made chocolates out of this mixture in molds, and also made little cookies to make nutella sandwiches. We also made a pistachio 'nutella' by using ground pistachios and white chocolate. The color was so vibrant!

Then this week was all about truffles. Our truffles started out by the preparation of a coffee flavored ganache. We first infused the cream with coffee before adding it to dark chocolate for ganache. Then we let the ganache sit while we took our exam. Talk about torture......then after the exam we rolled the ganache into balls and dipped them in melted tempered dark chocolate before covering some of them with chopped hazelnuts and some of them with cocoa powder. Take a look....

Mini Cookies

Cremino with Sea Salt 

Cremino with chopped hazelnuts 

Pistachio and White Chocolate Cremino

Nutella Cookie Sandwich

Coffee Truffles with Chopped Hazelnuts

Coffee Truffles with Cocoa Powder

Pastas: Last week we focused on dried pastas. We made two preparations that are typically found in the Lazio region of Italy, which is where Rome is. We made penne all' Arrabbiata and Spaghetti alla Carbonara. I much preferred the arrabbiata because carbonara is so rich but both were delicious. The arrabbiata started with garlic and olive oil, then crushed tomatoes were added along with crushed pepperoncino which are hot dried peppers, and parsley and basil as well. Then the penne is added and you have the best spicy tomato sauce ever! For the carbonara, you start with pork cheek again like in the Amatriciana recipe. You render the fat from the guanciale and in the meantime mix together egg yolks, parmesan cheese and black pepper. Then you boil the spaghetti and when it is almost cooked you add it to the pan with the guanciale and take it off the heat while you quickly add the egg yolk mixture. The egg yolks get cooked delicately from the warmth of the pasta. This was so rich but oh so good! Then this week we took our exam and afterwards made a very quick and tasty recipe! Spaghetti aglio olio e pepperoncino. This was simply spaghetti cooked and then mixed with a light sauce of garlic infused olive oil, dried pepperoncini, and lots of chopped parsley. Fresh and light!

Penne All' Arrabbiata

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

Spaghetti Aglio Olio e Pepperoncini

Contemporary Cooking: I forgot to mention in my last post that 3 weeks ago our teacher for this class was fired unexpectedly. Definitely something sketchy happened but we heard there may have been an incident with a student. It was a great surprise though because we didn't really care for our old teacher anyway. Now we have this adorable Polish chef who is so brilliant in the kitchen and is so nice! Anyways, last week we learned about two famous chefs who were a father and son duo named Ezio and Mauritzio Santin who opened up a restaurant in Milano called Antico Osteria del Ponte and soon became famous Michelin star winning chefs for their simple, quality, and delicious preparations. We replicated one of their dishes which was called Lasagnetta di Melanzane, Quatirolo e Basilico. This was such a cool preparation and twist on lasagna. It started with fresh egg pasta dough made into sheets. They were filled with a puree of sauteed eggplant, quatirolo (similar to feta) and parmesan cheese, homemade oven-dried tomatoes, and basil. Then they were rolled up and cut into disks and then wrapped individually in plastic wrap for us to steam them. It sounds sort of tedious but really it was so easy! Then we served them over a pureed vegetable sauce and a homemade tomato sauce and shaved parmesan.

Lasagnetta di Melanzane

Another plating

And then this week was all about chef Claudio Sadler who was also from Milano who is known for his modern twists on old Italian classics. His restaurant has 3 Michelin forks and 1 star. For this preparation we made Budino di Limone e mandorle con Salsa di frutti di Bosco. These were little individual lemon cakes made from egg whites, egg yolks, lemons, and ground almonds rather than flour. Then we served them with a raspberry and strawberry sauce and lime slices. So tart and light!

Budino di Limone e Mandorle

I hope I got you salivating again, even I am just writing all about it! Today was my last midterm exam, I had my Italian exam this morning and now all I do is sit and wait for my family to arrive on Sunday! I cannot believe how lucky I am to spend time with them for 2 whole weeks. We are doing a vespa tour of Tuscany on Monday, going to Cinque Terra on Tuesday and Wednesday and then I will be joining my parents in Rome for Easter weekend! So much to look forward to right now, I couldn't be happier! Thank you for all of my dedicated readers...stay tuned as I'm sure there will be many more exciting posts.

Con amore,
Alli