Italian Cuisine

The title of my cooking class that I'm taking at Lorenzo de'Medici is "Current Trends in Italian Cuisine."  This means, that although we get recipes for all of the original Italian foods, we learn how to make what is popular now.  For example, instead of making regular lasagna, we made "ravioli aperto" which was in one of the pictures I previously posted.  On Monday we learned how to make lamb, chicken with asparagus and smashed potatoes with wasabi, and bruschetta.  Which was kind of funny, because when I went home for dinner, Manuela made Chicken and lamb with potatoes.  After our API trip to Chianti, Catie and I brought back a bottle of wine for the family which we had with dinner.

On Tuesday, I didn't go back to the house for lunch, because I had to go with Courtney, and Sydney and Irene to get our train tickets for this weekend, but I got some gelato instead.  My favorite!  In cooking class we learned about "aperitivo" which is a very current trend in Italian cuisine.  It is a concept which "bars" or what we would call cafes, charge a standard price for a drink (usually campari) and you get all you can eat finger foods, or appetizers.  It's kind of like "happy hour."  We learned how to make a few different finger foods, and tried the campari.

We learned that you plate food in a clockwise pattern so you start eating what is in the top left and go clockwise from there.  First we had what I thought were just like pigs in a blanket, or sausage rolled in pizza dough and baked.  Then zucchini salad with balsamic vinegarette, then Kiwi with crawfish, prosciutto topped with sidronette, seared sesame tuna steaks, and finally strawberries with balsamic vinegar and basil.  It was all so good, and so fancy!  The campari is a mix of this red drink (not even sure what it is) with prosecco or sparkling wine.  None of us liked it, and it tasted like cough medicine, but it is really popular here.

When I got home for the dinner, Manuela had been on another frying kick so our whole dinner was fried.  She always matches the courses so when she fries one things, she fries it all, or if we have a fish for the first course, there is usually fish for the second course too, etc.  We had torta ensalata which is like puff pastry filled with ham and cheese, and she made another one filled with zucchini.  Then she had fried zucchini, and THEN she had fried zucchini flowers (which are so good).  For dessert, she made my favorite which was just a big bowl of cherries with fresh whipped cream.

Tuesday night, I got to skype with mom and Jordan, and Manuela and Oleania wanted to say hello, so we all got to speak together which was really exciting!