Italian Cooking
Trip Start
Feb 07, 2008
1
31
35
Trip End
May 03, 2008
Florence,
Italy
Thursday, April 3, 2008
I signed up on my own and on the night of the class walked the 15min over to the Altrarno (the other side/southern side of the Arno river) to find the cooking school - In Tavola. Walking over I realized I was probably not going to know anyone but for once that was alright. I opened the door and was greeted by the chef and a few of the other students. They were middle aged German women here studying the Italian language intensively for the month
Origins of the Sauce
. All of them were very nice and spoke Italian with me until more of the participants arrived - more women from the same program as the others and one family from New York. Then we were given our recipe booklets, we had a choice between English or Italian and while I would have loved to suck it up and take the Italian one I really wanted to be able to make this at some point in the near future!We washed our hands and donned our aprons, I joined the three women I had just met at their station and the chef came around and gave us all of the ingredients to begin our first course - we would be making a total of three. I quickly discovered that not only would this be an Italian meal it would also be an Italian lesson, the chef spoke to us using Italian and the other students spoke to each other using Italian - I did the best I could, it was good practice anyway! Only the New York family abstained from speaking it, clearly set on being loud and argumentative the whole time; they did not however take away from the experience as I found it very interesting to watch the dynamic between them and the chef/the other students.
First we made the dessert, individual chocolate and almond cakes, and as they were whisked away to the ovens in the back kitchen we began making the sauce for our second course and the pasta filling. Ultimately we were hoping to end up with Tortellini Bolognese. The filling and the sauce were relatively simple to make, relative to the time and effort it took to make the pasta dough from scratch and cut all of the tortellini squares
Pasta Filler
. It was a very intensive process and if I could stand to do it again I would love to but I think once will be enough for me! After we cut all of our pieces I proceeded to pipe the filling into the corner of each square and the rest of my table-mates began the Origami-like folding necessary to produce the correct shape. I joined in as the filling finally ran out and it was not easy - I think we ended up with a pasta shape somewhere between tortellini and "balls of filled dough". We were victorious however being the only station to press, cut, fill and fold ALL of our dough. One station attempted a few pieces of tortellini but quickly resorted to cutting linguine.*note: this was not a contest in any way, I am just competitive :)
At some point the chef pulled two of the students away to help prepare the soup - Papa al Pomodoro is a traditional Tuscan soup - so while all of us didn't get to experience the preparation it is extremely simple so there wasn't much to miss. After we finished all the pasta - about 100 pieces in all from my "team" - the chef began to cook everything and construct our dishes while he finished up the soup. We discarded our aprons and took our seat at the long dining table. The sous chef brought out drinks for everyone and about 5 minutes later we were served. I meant to take pictures of everything we had prepared but I was so hungry I completely forgot and only have a picture of the dessert! Everything was really good, definitely something I will make again - sans the hand made pasta. I am even planning on taking another class right before I leave and this time with some friends so it will be even better!
