Florence Day 24: Italian Cooking Lesson

Ciao Ragazzi! 


Side Note: This blogpost is going to be MUCH shorter than my last entry. 


GASP! 


So, today (oggi) I would like to tell you about what I did on Wednesday night. On Wednesday night I got a free meal, but guess what...???


Are you guessing?
Probably not. 
I bet you're skipping this bit. 
But if you are actually reading this--don't you love the suspense I'm building?

I cooked this meal! And it wasn't at home. I went with a fairly large group of other students to this nifty little place called "IN TAVOLA," which is a fabulous restaurant where these hilarious, gorgeous, amazing Italian chefs help you cook a meal that you eventually get to eat in the end. 
All the measurements were already set up--all we had to do was chop various veggies, crush things, and stir things. Here is what we made:

1. Eggplant Caprese (Caprese di Melanzane)
2. Potato Gnocchi 
3. Tomato & Garlic Pasta Sauce (Sugo all'Aglione)
4. Meat Sauce Bolognese (Ragu' alla Bolognese)
5. Sweet "Salami" (Salame Dolce)

Too bad you can't see his eyes. :(

The guy that directed our group was ridiculously cute! He was the youngest of all the chefs, definitely way closer to our ages. (This sentence is specifically for Muriah) Oh my goodness... *sigh* and he had these great chocolate brown Italian eyes that can simply unstitch a person. He kept saying "my love" to each and everyone of us, which totally got distracting. He kept calling me Signoria Biondi, which basically means Miss Blondie. I thought that was hilarious. I don't remember his name. I don't even remember him telling us his name, but oh man... do I remember those eyes.


 Ok *coughs into fist* back to business.


So the first thing we fixed up was the dessert. The Sweet Salami, which I realize sounds disgusting--I mean who eats meat for dessert? Gross. Well, don't judge so quickly! Yes, the title has Salami in it, but it is only called that because when it is done it sort of looks like salami. What we did was crushed up a bunch of animal-like crackers, mixed this with sugar, egg yolk, butter, coco powder, and Marsala. I did the mixing by the way and I had a blast doing this too by the way. I never realized how much I liked to mix things. It was a strange epiphany I had. After getting this all stirred up we rolled in up into tin foil and then placed it into the refrigerator. 

Next we chopped up things like tomatoes and potatoes. I don't really remember much about this other than I've never actually peeled a potato before and I was worried I was going to cut myself because that's what I do (NO! That's not what I meant! I don't cut myself. I'm just always find ways of injuring myself. Accidentally, of course! Remember the doctor's office is like my second home? Like? It is.).

Then we mashed these potatoes up and then mixed them up with the ingredients they gave us. Oh! So, Harry, one of the AIFS coordinators, was video tapping the whole event and as we poured the species and flour onto the mashed potatoes I said: It looks like mac and cheese. Well, Harry, misunderstood me, turned off his camera, and then told me he thought I said: It looks like meth and cheese. 
Yeah. I didn't say "meth and cheese." I said "mac and cheese." To be honest, I don't even know what meth looks like. 

Don't you just love my apron? 

So, anyhow. We rolled out our little ropes of smashed up potatoes and then cut them into these cute little squares that looked like delicious fluffy edible pillows. Yum. Yum. Yum. After these were cut up, we tossed them into the boiling water. 


Then we followed our handsome Italian man down these incredibly steep stairs to where we would be eating. A cool (literally cool, it was chilly down there) cellar where tons of wine (vino) bottles were stored. 

Making Potato Gnocchi. 

Then the food came out. And goodness gracious was it delicious!!! So, so, so, so good. The meat sauce with potato gnocchi was out of this world delicious. So fluffy. Such great flavor! Oh man... my mouth is watering again. Great. I could really do without the droll spilling out of my mouth onto the keyboard. 


Then came the eggplant with the the oregano, tomatoes, and mozzarella. I don't know if you knew this about me, but I kind of have this thing for mozzarella... I LOVE IT!!! Absolutely LOVE it!!! So, needless to say the eggplant and mozzarella was absolutely delicious!!! (Man, I'm just loading this paragraph with exclamation marks. Haha.)

Oh man, and after that came the sweet salami! Yum. Yum. Yum. (Total understatement here, by the way.) It looked like thick chocolaty pieces of salami. It was amazing. I basically inhaled those things and then when I got stuffed, I just put about 10 pieces into a napkin to take home. Haha. 


Well, that's about it for this post. I know... I'm weirded out by its shortness too. 

Oh wait! Let me share the recipes with you. My mom and my friend's mom requested this. So, of course I will share them with you. I will only write the full details of my favorite one and then just the ingredients of everything else. 


Let's start with my favorite.
Sweet "Salami" (Salame Dolce)
100 g. sugar
2 egg yolk
150 g. butter
2 teaspoons bitter cocoa powder (cacoa bitter)
1/3 cup sweet liquor (Marsala)


Procedure:
Heat the butter in a double saucepan until it is melted but not hot.
Mix the sugar and the egg yolks until the mixture has become a soft cream; add the melted butter, cocoa powder, liquor, and the ground biscuits. Mixing well until the dough has become rather firm. 
Shape into the form of a salami and wrap in aluminum foil; chill in the refrigerator for several hours. 
Serve well chilled, cut into slices as you would real salami. 
Conserve in refrigerator. 
Yield: 4-6 servings. 


Potato Gnocchi:
1 kg. of white potatoes 
90 g. of flour (all purpose)
40 g. cornstarch
30 g. durum-wheat flour
1 egg yolk
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste 


Tomato and Garlic Pasta Sauce (Sugo all'Aglione)
800 g. fresh tomatoes
Extra virgin olive oil
5 whole cloves of garlic 
4 small peperoncino (small dried chili pepers - optional)
5-6 whole basil leaves 
Salt and pepper to taste 


Meat Sauce Bolognese (Ragu' alla Bolognese)
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, minced
1-2 carrots, minced
1-2 celery, minced
250 g. ground beef
1/2 red wine
500 g. fresh or canned tomatoes, peeled
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste


Eggplant Caprese (Caprese di Melanzane)
1 eggplant
Flour as needed
1 large Mozzarella cheese, sliced
2 fresh tomatoes
Basil as needed, chopped
Sunflower oil as needed for frying
Breadcrumbs as needed
Salt & pepper to taste

Whew! That was a lot of typing to do. 
Till next time! 
Arrivederci! 


~Amanda