Cooking Class Part 1

We woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and headed out to meet our culinary guru, Carmelita. She was very warm and friendly right from the start. We knew we'd like her when we stopped at this gorgeous looking market and she said, "This place is no good. Overpriced, and they sell poor quality Parma ham. We'll go to my deli." We knew we were in good hands. Take a look at the "bad" deli.

This'll knock your socks off. Check out how much they get for real balsamic vinegar. This is the genuine article. So read carefully because if it doesn't say what it says on this label it ain't worth the grape juice it's made of (or so says Carmelita). And don't even bother converting the price to dollars. You can't afford it. (And if you can you should be buying me a bottle.)

We strolled with our guide through the produce aisle (also known as Via Drapperie).
Wow.

Wowee. You just want to reach out and touch it...

... or not.

These are the amazing tomatoes we bought to make our tomato sauce.

Next to the zucchini blossoms are the baby zucchinis we used for one of our dishes.

Garlic. Although Carmelita informed us that most of Italy does not, and I repeat, does not use garlic. Especially Bolognese. So I don't know why they are selling it but we didn't ask questions.

Here is "her" deli. Great stuff.

We bought this runny local cheese stuff and that other brown stuff which is caramelized figs. You spread both on a piadina, which is a local flat bread.

Nice hams.

Cluck!

Oink!

These pasta are called "caramelle" (candies).

So we finished all of our shopping and headed to Carmelita's flat to begin our lessons.
Lesson 1: Zucchine Ripiene con Salsa Pomodoro (Minced pork filled zucchini in a fresh tomato sauce, but you knew that already.)
First, slice tomatoes in half, horizontally, and place in big pot with one onion.

Let it cook like this for about 10-15 minutes. Add some bay leaf, cloves and olive oil. NO BASIL. NO OREGANO. NO GARLIC. I know, shocking.

And after it is all cooked down, process it through a food mill so you get none of the skin or green bits and all of the good stuff. Return to heat and add more olive oil. That's it!

Next make neat little holes in your zucchini with a corer and stuff them with a mixture of ground pork, mortadella (a Bologna staple), some parmesan (another Bologna staple), ricotta... and other stuff.

Pan fry them in some butter and olive oil. Then throw then in the tomato sauce you made and let them finish simmering in there.

You are left with this which is absolutely fantastic.

Remember that runny white cheesy stuff and those caramelized figs? Here they are. MMMMM...

Lesson 2: Tortelloni Burro e Salvia (tortellonis with butter and sage sauce)
Ok, here's where it gets tricky. She made us make our own pasta dough. You need soft soft soft northern Italian flour. No durum wheat here, please! It looks and feels like talcum powder. You also need one of these Italian eggs with the super duper yellow yolks. They must be from super happy chickens. That's it. No water in this pasta. You mix it all very gently and you finally get something that looks like a dough. It feels like a babies butt.

Then we rolled and rolled it, thinner and thinner.

Then we cut it with this neato pasta cutter.

Carmelita showed us how to fold them (Note for you Chinese cooks out there: it is not the same way you fold a wonton. Mom tried that. She got scolded.)

Our humble attempts. She said they were "bellissima" but I think she was being generous. They don't actually look too bad...

This is a perfect one. I think I made that one.
Not.

We tossed them in a pan with melted butter and sage leaves, sprinkled a little parmesan (of course) on top and there you are. Molto bene!

For dessert we made "Panna Cotta alle Fragole" (kind of like a white flan with strawberry sauce) First we hulled the berries and sprinkled them with vanilla sugar.

Then we cooked them down. Notice how the strawberries are getting pale. This is a good thing. They are giving all their pretty color to our sauce. After they are done you simply drain the sauce into a container (do not press the berries, don't ask me why, just don't do it).
We then measured out cream, milk, sugar and gelatin sheets and cooked it until the gelatin had dissolved. Then we poured it into molds to let set in the ole frigorifero. An hour later you unmold it, pour your sauce around and...

Presto! Panna Cotta. Translation: Evilness times 10.

We bid ciao to Carmelita. More cooking to come tomorrow!