Brad and I love cooking, whether together or for each other. I have always said that I would love to learn how to make hand-made pasta.Since we have not been taking a language course this time around, we thought it would be great to take a cooking class. Searching the internet I found a chef that was located in the quaint,old neighborhood of Trastevere. We weren't exactly sure what to expect. We were hoping for an interactive learning experience that was both hands-on and informative. We walked into our class and found ourselves surrounded by mostly American and Canadian tourists, which was bit funny at first because for the most part we have spent our time in Italy trying to communicate in Italian. But it ended up being quite relaxing to have a "day off". We walked into the class and we met Chef Andrea and all of our classmates. Shortly after we began our 4 hour journey of prepping, making and cooking a 5 course italian meal, which would include; Eggplant Parmesan, Homemade Chitarra Spaghetti Pasta with Pesto, Beef Scaloppine with mushrooms, Sautéed Flat Beans with Cherry Tomatoes, and Crostata di Ricotta e Marmellata di Pere e Noci. [gallery type="rectangular" ids="836,844,843,842,848,847,841,838"]
When we walked into the kitchen our teacher had all the fresh food spread out on the counter that we would be preparing our meals with for the day. He explained how he bought everything at the farmers market that very morning and chose the menu based on all the produce that was available that day. We made everything from hand that day including fresh hand made chitarra spaghetti. The first two hours were spent exclusively on prepping the food. We split up the work of cleaning and cutting every food. just looking at the food we were all in awe and it was hard to grasp that this would all be turned into a five course meal.
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Slowly we made it through all five courses. It was an interesting process because I am so use to cooking one dish at a time, however we seemed to cook every thing slowly all at once. Each person chose a "job" and we all worked together. From time to time Chef Andrea would stop to advise particular ways of preparing and cooking. For instance he explained when cooking with garlic it is not necessary to even chop the garlic, instead he suggested you first smash the garlic with the skin "on" and simply infuse the garlic in oil until it is brown. And the only time to completely chop garlic is when you use the garlic raw. By around 2 o'clock our meal was finally completed and we all sat down to enjoy our lunch together. Overall it was quite an interesting day and inspired Brad and I to keep cooking every day. If you are interested in any of this recipes, let me know and I will repost!
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