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Published On: May 13, 2007 08:22 PM
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Published On: May 13, 2007 08:22 PM
Asatour: Cooking Course, Continued
Greetings again from Torre del Tartufo! I can't
wait for ya'll to see the photos of this place. It's really amazing.
The only drawback is, though, no high-speed internet. Therefore both the photos and this entry will be awaiting my arrival in Rome before they are uploaded.
So to recap the course so far:
That first night we had the first of our four-course dinners. We started out the evening with Prosecco (I'm not spelling it right, i'm sure, but it's the Italian version of champagne). I've eaten so much food since then I can't even seem to remember what we ate that night. I remember the dessert was baked cream with strawberry syrup on top.
The next day we had our first cooking class in the afternoon. Our ten participants were divided into 4 teams to work on each course of the meal. I was on the two-person dessert team, and we made individual lemon pies with meringue, as well as cooked cream (different from the baked cream in that this was a boiled kind) with chocolate sauce, and also small buttery cookies. I amazed myself, which is a situation I've become very familiar with this week. When everything was prepared for dinner, we made pizza dough for the next day's lunch, and to learn the basics of dough-making on a counter.
On Tuesday we had our pizza-making lesson before lunch (which was, of course, our pizzas, along with eggplant parmigiana, salad, and the cooked cream -- I've never eaten so much in my life as I have this week), followed by a wine-tasting, and then our second cooking class, in which I was on the appetizers course. We made individual pecorino cheese tarts, which were garnished with ribbons of celery. We also made a brioche dough that was used to make croissants and a braided loaf for breakfast and a coffee break snack later in the week. I ran into a couple of snags on the brioche dough -- I hadn't made my flour volcano large enough, and the milk "erupted" out of it all over the counter, for one -- but it turned out fine in the end. When everything else was done, we made pasta dough, and made ravioli stuffed with cheese and asparagus, as well as plain noodles.
Wednesday we took an excursion. Our first stop was a cheesery, where we watched ricotta and other cheeses being made from a large vat of sheep's milk on a stovetop. It was a fascinating process, and we were able to try several kinds of cheeses. After spending much of the morning there, we went to a nearby castle, where the owner Martha provided us with a tour and a delightful lunch of a soup of beans and lentils, tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella, white beans, salad with pine nuts, and stuffed baked apples with whipped cream for dessert. Martha was a wonderful hostess, and regaled us with tales not only of the history of the castle (over 1000 years old), but also her personal family history, including the love story of her parents, and Italian lady and an American soldier in the Second World War. In the photo albums, Martha's the one standing with me in the archway.
After lunch, we headed to a wool factory (more of a factory outlet, although they made the stuff in the back at the factory), and then went to a ceramics place, where I bought a nice set of dishes for myself. Our next stop was at a monastery for a wine tasting. Many of their barrels dated to the 1750's, so it was pretty amazing to see them. The barrels, of course, don't hold wine for that long; they're used for aging before the wine is bottled, and are reused repeatedly. I bought a couple of bottles to take home. We ended our excursion with a seafood dinner of clams, mussels, an avocado and shrimp salad, seafood risotto, and lemon sorbet.
Anyway, that's enough for now. Ya'll are probably getting hungry, while I may never eat again. :) I'll fill you in on the rest in my next entry (I hope), which will also chronicle the rest of the course and my trip to Rome on Sunday.
The only drawback is, though, no high-speed internet. Therefore both the photos and this entry will be awaiting my arrival in Rome before they are uploaded.
So to recap the course so far:
That first night we had the first of our four-course dinners. We started out the evening with Prosecco (I'm not spelling it right, i'm sure, but it's the Italian version of champagne). I've eaten so much food since then I can't even seem to remember what we ate that night. I remember the dessert was baked cream with strawberry syrup on top.
The next day we had our first cooking class in the afternoon. Our ten participants were divided into 4 teams to work on each course of the meal. I was on the two-person dessert team, and we made individual lemon pies with meringue, as well as cooked cream (different from the baked cream in that this was a boiled kind) with chocolate sauce, and also small buttery cookies. I amazed myself, which is a situation I've become very familiar with this week. When everything was prepared for dinner, we made pizza dough for the next day's lunch, and to learn the basics of dough-making on a counter.
On Tuesday we had our pizza-making lesson before lunch (which was, of course, our pizzas, along with eggplant parmigiana, salad, and the cooked cream -- I've never eaten so much in my life as I have this week), followed by a wine-tasting, and then our second cooking class, in which I was on the appetizers course. We made individual pecorino cheese tarts, which were garnished with ribbons of celery. We also made a brioche dough that was used to make croissants and a braided loaf for breakfast and a coffee break snack later in the week. I ran into a couple of snags on the brioche dough -- I hadn't made my flour volcano large enough, and the milk "erupted" out of it all over the counter, for one -- but it turned out fine in the end. When everything else was done, we made pasta dough, and made ravioli stuffed with cheese and asparagus, as well as plain noodles.
Wednesday we took an excursion. Our first stop was a cheesery, where we watched ricotta and other cheeses being made from a large vat of sheep's milk on a stovetop. It was a fascinating process, and we were able to try several kinds of cheeses. After spending much of the morning there, we went to a nearby castle, where the owner Martha provided us with a tour and a delightful lunch of a soup of beans and lentils, tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella, white beans, salad with pine nuts, and stuffed baked apples with whipped cream for dessert. Martha was a wonderful hostess, and regaled us with tales not only of the history of the castle (over 1000 years old), but also her personal family history, including the love story of her parents, and Italian lady and an American soldier in the Second World War. In the photo albums, Martha's the one standing with me in the archway.
After lunch, we headed to a wool factory (more of a factory outlet, although they made the stuff in the back at the factory), and then went to a ceramics place, where I bought a nice set of dishes for myself. Our next stop was at a monastery for a wine tasting. Many of their barrels dated to the 1750's, so it was pretty amazing to see them. The barrels, of course, don't hold wine for that long; they're used for aging before the wine is bottled, and are reused repeatedly. I bought a couple of bottles to take home. We ended our excursion with a seafood dinner of clams, mussels, an avocado and shrimp salad, seafood risotto, and lemon sorbet.
Anyway, that's enough for now. Ya'll are probably getting hungry, while I may never eat again. :) I'll fill you in on the rest in my next entry (I hope), which will also chronicle the rest of the course and my trip to Rome on Sunday.
Posted: Sat - May 12, 2007 at 01:17 AM |
