Ital.cook

[Kevin72]

Kevin, I think I went into a small rhapsody over "Sarde in saor" when you were cooking from the Veneto (the sardines marinated in lots of onions, raisins and pignoli).  Well, I'm happy to say that I got to make this dish.  Take a look at these sardines, they were such a lovely color!

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*gurgle*

And here they are in  a classic Veneto prepartion with an egg sauce.

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What's in the sauce? How do you make it?

Were the bigoli made from whole wheat or white flour?

So, are we going to have competing Puglia posts in our threads this week?

[hathor]

Sauce is softly boiled eggs, oil, salt, pepper and olive oil. Think of a loose egg salad. Personally, I think it needed some lemon juice. Secondo me.

Bigoli: white flour. The flour ratio is: 125g grano tenero 00, 125g grano duro (durum)

As far as competing Puglia threads...why the hell not!!??!

P.S. I'll be in Sicila by Wednesay!

[Kevin72]

Sauce is softly boiled eggs, oil, salt, pepper and olive oil. Think of a loose egg salad. Personally, I think it needed some lemon juice. Secondo me.

Bigoli: white flour. The  flour ratio is: 125g grano tenero 00, 125g grano duro (durum)

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Interesting. I made bigoli when I was doing the Veneto (here) and remarked at the time that I was under the impression that they were whole wheat only, then was upset when I got a "white flour" variation in Verona. So I wonder if it's a regional variation then? Still, that doesn't let Verona slide, since the pasta was plain ol' spaghetti noddles.

[hathor]

Sauce is softly boiled eggs, oil, salt, pepper and olive oil. Think of a loose egg salad. Personally, I think it needed some lemon juice. Secondo me.

Bigoli: white flour. The  flour ratio is: 125g grano tenero 00, 125g grano duro (durum)

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Interesting. I made bigoli when I was doing the Veneto (here) and remarked at the time that I was under the impression that they were whole wheat only, then was upset when I got a "white flour" variation in Verona. So I wonder if it's a regional variation then? Still, that doesn't let Verona slide, since the pasta was plain ol' spaghetti noddles.

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We haven't really used much whole wheat flour...you see more variations between the tender and the durum wheat, and semolina. There are regional variations with next door neighbors so I can't vouch for anything in that department.

[hathor]

Quick catch-up... here is a monster of a desert we made, from Puglia :"Cartellate". Basically you make an olive oil/wine pasta, cut it into strips, design the strips into any and every possible 'fantasia', fry and arrange on a platter, then dribble it with melted honey and cooked grape must.

Wes and Thur were "Sicilia" with Chef Francesco Sultana of Il Duomo, or "Checo". I'm not sure I'm spelling his name correctly. He is a molto bravo chef and created an absolute whirlwind in the kitchen!

Take a look at these gambero rosso that he brought along.

These were served raw with a sauce made from the roe. Actually 2 sauces, one a crudo and one a cooked version. Both were delicious, but I preferred the crudo. They smelled and tasted incredibly sweet, and of course they are the most flamboyant and exotic color. We made an incredible variety of dishes: stuffed boned chicken, arancia (rice balls), really delicious Panelle (basically a chick pea mixture that is fried and eaten hot with salt), bucatini con le sarde, gnochhi stuffed with formaggio etc. etc. and then we hit the dolces... exceptional light crunchy canole made with a red wine pasta and whipped ricotta filling.

Then we started whipping up the sorbetto, gelatto, almond milk, geli. We had lemon granita, mint gelato, almond gelato, a creamy strawberry confection, and an apple one that nobody like except for S. Mancini!

And the chef generously shared with us some of his botarga which was simply orgasmic on some toast with a little parsley, garlic and oil. It was one of the most amazing flavors I've ever had in my mouth.

And that brings an end to our formal classes! Its been an amazing adventure. Today we had a wine lesson on wine and food pairing, and an olive oil lesson complete with an olofactory quiz. Tonight is another wine tasting that Alessio has arranged ffor us...its a 'private' tasting as the students have all chipped in together to pay for these wines. We are all looking forward to this experience as Alessio is certainly passionate, knowledegeable and generous!

Next week we go to Umbria for Wine, Fabriano for salumi, somewhere in the Marche for mozzarella and then...uh-oh...the dreaded final exam. Which includes making a final project dish.

It occurs to me I've never posted a full on group shot. So, here we are, in all our glory.

Edited May 20, 2005 by hathor (log)

[albiston]

Wes and Thur were "Sicilia" with Chef Francesco Sultana of Il Duomo, or "Checo".  I'm not sure I'm spelling his name correctly. He is a molto bravo chef and created an absolute whirlwind in the kitchen!

Wow! Francesco, or Ciccio, Sultano is considered one of the best young chefs in Italy, by some even THE best. Kudos for the guys at Ital.cook for getting him to do the Sicily lesson. What I find even more interesting is that he thought you really classic Sicilian dishes though his own cuisine is definitely creative albeit rooted in the local classics.

It occurs to me I've never posted a full on group shot. So, here we are, in all our glory.

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And who would you be? The one choking the poor guy ?

[Ore]

Great post!! I love how you remind me of the great times in Jesi. Lucky you, when I was there it was too hard to bring someone from Sicily over so we skipped the region.

Can you post a recipe for the cannoli and its filling, or e-mail me with it?? They look amazing and I am in a craving mood for them.

Where are you off to on stage, if at all??

What wines are you tasting at the orivate tasting?

Have fun and say hi for me!

Ore

[hathor]

Ciao tutti!

Alberto: yes, that's me choking Gordon. Every once in awhile it feels good to choke Gordon!

But, all kidding aside, Gordon Finn is going to do interesting things with his life...he knows more about wine at 22 than a whole lot of other people of any age. Keep your eye on him.

Still... an occassional chokehold is not necessarily a bad thing...!

Friday night was exceptional! Kudos to Alessio, he chose some really stellar wines.

Here's the lineup, in order of appearance:

Ca'del Bosco Giulio Ferrari: knock out sparkling wine. Just incredible, long, long finish, minute bubbles that didn't quit. A favorite of most of us. If you have the bucks, treat yourself.

Terre Alte, Livio Felluga 2001: beautiful, easy to drink, bit woody on the finish

Kolbenhof Gewurztraminer Soll 2003: it was like drinking a rose garden, it was just too perfumey for me, and it was one of the few wines left in the glass at the end of the night

Palari Faro 2001 from Sicilia: Alessio was very disappointed in this wine as he has had the 1998 and just thought this 2001 was not up to par

Casanova di Neri, Tenuta Nuoava, Brunello di Monticello 1999: lived up to its name...Casanova...it was sex in a glass. This was the sexiest wine I've ever had in my mouth. I could make a fool of myself....

Cannubis Boschis, Sandrone, Barolo, 1999: could I have some more...please.... This wine just cried out for some food with it, it was huge and divine. The kind of wine where you just sort of melt into the glass along with it.

Time for a palate cleanser: Moscato D'Asti, Degiorgis. Just plain delicious, not too sweet, clean, fresh.

Finale: Martingana Moscato Passito di Pantelleria 1997. Now, I'm a fan of the passitos from Patelleria as it is, but this was unlike any I've ever tasted. It was deep amber in the glass, and was like a luscious bowl of ripe apricots. A fine finish.

Can you tell we were having a good time?

Sunday night was time for another festa! It was Satsuki's birthday! The party was out on the terrace and Gilberto and Masa brought out a feast of tapas, gazpacho, paellea, Yoshi made a sushi birthday cake... I kept saying, "Yoshi, are you sure a sushi birthday cake is a good idea?"

Take a look, tell me what you think. But, once again, a very good time was had by all.

Today we headed into Umbria and visited the Caprai cantina where we tasted some Grechette and Sagratino. Look, the grapes are starting to make their appearance!

Then we headed to Foligno and went to the "Accademia del Salame Storico Fabrianese". Its an organization dedicated to preserving traditional salame production. (www.salamedifabriano.it)

The salume are only available to members of the Accademia as they do not contain any preservatives and apparently cannot be sold in commercial retail shops. For the sum of 20euro I became a card carrying member, and got a welcome Soppressato. You can't beat that. Here are the salume hanging in all of their moldy glory and a beautiful salame being sliced for our tasting.

Tommorow morning we head off to a mozzarella maker...and the last week of classes is rushing by us. This is a class of very dedicated and talented chefs, its going to be fun to watch to see what everyone does.

No, Ore, I'm not staging. I'm going back to Umbria to start building a kitchen, and when I say from the ground up, I do mean from the dirt floor on up. And work on the menu, and the wine cellar, and what kind of plates do I want, and the forks? and what shape glasses?? Can you feel my anxiety?? My work is cut out for me in spades (and shovels...). But the rest of us are going on to stage and hopefully they'll keep the thread alive until the next class shows up in October. But...I'm not done yet!

[docsconz]

Nice work, Hathor! I am extremely envious of what you are doing.

Wherre will you be going for the mozzarella production? Will it in fact be mozzarella or Fior di latte? I'm sure it will be delicious whichever it is.

[Kevin72]

Sushi on an Italian terrace? Salumi? Wine? All in one post?

Congratulations on your soon to be completion. What's the biggest lesson you've learned?

Please keep this thread up from time to time in your hectic new life!

[kellytree]

Excellent post. After buying some wine and grappa from the Enoteca in Jesi this morning, I peeked inside the teaching kitchen, which happened to be open and unoccupied. Before being shooed away, I thought of Ore and hathor and decided to check in on this thread again. Inter alia, I picked up two bottles of Velenosi Brut spumante. Tasty. Had one with kellytree this evening. Keeping this about cooking: stay tuned for pix coming to a thread near you, featuring pizza from kellytree's outdoor brick oven...

Ooops. cinghiale here. I forgot I was logged in under kellytree.

Edited May 23, 2005 by kellytree (log)

[hathor]

Ciao tutti!! Sorry about the long silence, but between being a hectic last week at school and graduation and moving out of Jesi and back home to Montone, etc. etc, not to mention losing my internet connection, I haven't been able to post anything on eG for awhile.

Kellytree/Cinghiale: one of these days we will have to share a bottle of wine from the enoteca, ok? I'll PM you the next time I'm heading in your direction.

I'm afraid I don't have the name of the cheese azienda that we went to, but it was right outside of Jesi. They are producing fior di latte, buffala mozzerella and bunch of other interesting cheeses. I'll post the name later when I find it. Very nice people, very passionate about their cheese. And I have to say, I'm not overly fond of cows (its a long story), but water buffalos are pretty cool, and apparently intelligent. Here's a real cutey, posing for me.

It just seemed very strange to think of these beasts living in the Marche.

The next big event before graduation was our 'final project'. We teamed up into pairs and had to prepare a dish for a panel of 6 judges. Luisa and I made an anchovy trio: marinated anchovy (Marche), a spicy fried anchovy (Calabria) and a double fried anchovy (Abruzzo). Did I mention that I've become addicted to fresh anchovies? They are just delicious, versatile and cheap. What more can you ask for??

Here's our final project

Then it was time for graduation and making our gala graduation dinner. It was a bittersweet night, I'll tell you that. We had lots of fun making dinner for about 30 people, we got our diplomas, our gold snails and a lovely recipe book about the Marche. Why bittersweet? We have all become very close to each other, and I'm extremely lucky to have met and befriended my fellow classmates. Here's our "formal graduation" photo.

And here is a very Happy Hathor surrounded by my husband, my son who flew over for the big event, our director Signor Mancini and the president of Ital.cook.

This photo is far more representative of the gang!

And now we are all spread out over Italy, the UK and NY. Luisa is back in the UK at her family business, Dario and I snuck in a quick trip to NY, Gordon and Roz are touring around a bit with family before heading to Puglia, Shozo went off to Sardinia for a little R&R before he reports for duty in Sicily, Masa is up in Genoa, Yoshi is in Piemonte (or about to go there, I know he's teaching a sushi course at school before going), Charlie has head back to the Philipines before coming back to stage, Satszuki is staging in Numana and hopefully can arrange for a little beach time, Gilberto is already staging in Sicily with Ciccho and Roberto snagged a stage in Tuscany at the last second.

I'll be in NY for a week, and then I go back to Umbria and my Tower to start putting together a kitchen and a cantina and a menu and etc. and etc! The joke is that everyone can stage at my place, but you'll be staging with a shovel and cement mixer instead of a knife! But, hopefully, little by little it will all come together.

My friends and family are all asking me, what did you come away with from this course. I came away with an incredible respect for regional ingredients and the people who produce them. There is so much passion for the food its staggering. The Slow Food organization and its mission is fundamentally important. We need to respect the earth and its bounty..and then of course, eat it! Yes, I came away with a treasure trove of recipes, but it was more about learning the properties of specific ingredients and what can be done with them. I also came away with a better understanding of the history of the traditional recipes. Currently is trendy to say that your cooking style is like 'la mamma' or 'contadine style' (see this month's Gambero Rosso), but its another thing to see 5 different uses for a bit of left over pasta dough.

All in all, it was an exceptional experience and I'm very happy to be a part of Ital.cook.

The next group doesn't check in until October, but hopefully someone else will pick up this thread so we can all stay in touch.

Ciao and arrevederci!!!