Cooking Class Day One

Food Class One-

While I am studying abroad in Italy, I am attending cooking classes for five weeks. This post is based off my first lesson.  

The Menu

Chestnut flour crepes with bacon and cheese

Tomato bread soup

Frittata with leeks and potatoes

Stewed green beans

Raspberry Torte

The cooking class started with an explanation of how the class is structured. She will be teaching us basic and simple Italian recipes that are easy to turn into spin-off recipes. All meals are five course meals which include all the traditional courses eaten at special occasions. Typically, an Italian family will only eat the first (primo) and second (secondo) course in one meal unless it is a special celebration.

Food Lessons/Fun Facts

Our cooking instructor plans on teaching us about all the ingredients we are using and why they are used. Here are a few fun facts I learned from the first class...

• The Mediterranean diet consists primarily of eating as fresh as possible, which includes changing what is consumed as the seasons change. It is more common to buy fruits and vegetables from the suppliers at markets rather than buying produce at grocery stores. In Italy, it is important to build a relationship with the farmers. If you are a recognizable and well-loved customer you will find yourself receiving free spices or an extra few onions in your shopping bag.
• Olive oil is used in just about everything. Butter is only used for baking specific pastries, but never used to cook a meal.
• When looking for tomato sauce, only buy the ones in the glass bottles that you can see into. Sometimes the canned tomatoes will be greenish and nowhere near being ripe. Also, glass saves better in the refrigerator. Your tomato sauce won’t pick up an “essence of the fridge” flavor.   
• “A occhio” and “quanto basta”- These are Italian phrases used to describe cooking methods. The first, a occhio, means “the eye wants its share”. This refers to using colorful ingredients when cooking. The second phrase, “quanto basta”, means until it is done. This is a very liberal way of cooking and can be used to describe almost anything. For example, “How long do you cook the soup?” “Quanto basta”…helpful, right?
• Tuscan bread soup originally comes from the soup eaten by servants during the Renaissance. After cleaning up a meal for a wealthy or noble family, the servants threw the leftover bread, vegetables, herbs, and water into a pot. This was then boiled and became their dinner.
• When baking…cold dough likes to be kept cold and warm dough likes to be kept warm. Sounds simple, but many people will warm up cold dough when it comes out of the fridge. To get the best results keep it cold until it goes in the oven.
• In our cooking teacher’s family, wine and water are mixed in the same glass. She said only do this if it is table wine, never with something fancy. Since wine enhances the flavor of food, people will just mix the water they would normally drink in a separate glass with the wine. Therefore, every bite tastes good.  

Cooking and Eating the Meal

Antipasto- Chestnut Flour Crepes

One of the reasons we were taught to cook this is because it is quickly dying out in Italy. These crepes are made with only chestnut flour and water. After mixing the two together, the dough has to sit long enough for it to become less watery and slightly gooey looking, about 30 mins. It is spread-out into a pan and cooked until the edges curl then flipped over for a few more seconds of cooking. The bacon and cheese are placed inside and it is rolled up and eaten as finger food. It was delicious. I couldn’t come up with an accurate comparison for chestnut flour… other than it tastes like chestnuts. It is different, but something worth trying.

Primo- Tuscan Bread soup

This is the easiest soup recipe. Basically, it consists of olive oil, old dry bread, tomato sauce, water and herbs. It is simple, but comes out tasting amazing. The only problem is that the bread likes to stick to the pot, so it is important to stir it often.

Secondo- Frittata and Stewed Green Beans

Frittatas are very similar to what we call omelets. The frittata we made in class consisted of leeks and potatoes. Both are cooked separately then added to the same pan with the beaten eggs. Let it cook until the sides begin to curl and it comes loose when it is shaken. The only slightly terrifying part is flipping the frittata. We used the top to a pan, but anything large and flat should work. Place the lid over the frittata, flip it upside down so the cooked part is on top, then slide it back into the pan for a few mins to cook the other side. The stewed green beans, the side dish, were very simple to cook. Just cut, place into a pan with garlic, olive oil, onions, carrots, and stewed tomatoes. Cook until tender. Easy and delicious.

Dessert- Raspberry tart

This was my favorite part! We made the dough first so it was able to sit in the fridge for about 30 mins. Once the dough had set and was cold, we put jam on top, put a lattice cover on it, and baked it. It was such a simple dessert, but it tasted fantastic.