Recipe: Tuscany Journal Entry #8-Cooking Class and 5 Recipes

Tuscany Journal Entry #8

Cooking Class

A nice quiet day in the country today. We dry the load of wash we put in the washer last night and wash and dry another. Mostly we read and relax outside enjoying the beautiful views all around us.

We have a simple lunch at the apartment of salad for DH and chickpeas and veggies including fennel for me. Yum!

We go exploring around the property in the early afternoon. No buds on the grapes yet, but the roses are budding out. Some of the fruit trees are in bloom, pinks and whites that are just dazzling.

We head off to Buonconvento in the early evening for cooking class at Ristorante I Poggioli. DH dropped me off and went to wander around Buonconvento, planning to be back around 7 when dinner would be ready.

They have several different stations set up, you can pick what you want to watch being made and often get to help make it. We prepared scottiglia di carne, (a mixed meat stew which most of us ended up calling Dead Farm Animals because it consisted of chicken, rabbit, guinea fowl, pork and veal), pasta fresca (fresh pasta, which we made into tortellini stuffed with ricotta and spinach), risotto al radicchio (rice with radicchio), salsa fresca (for which we didn't receive a recipe), Panzanella (bread salad, something I never liked in the States, but this version was wonderful!) and panna cotta (oh my!)

I have converted the recipes to make it bit easier, (hope I have done the conversions right!) the recipes we were given were in metric measurements.

The Scottiglia di Carne was not something I helped make. From what I saw the meat was browned in a roasting pan on top of the stove.

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SCOTTIGLIA DI CARNE (MIXED MEAT STEW)

1 onion
1 bunch parsley
6 Tablespoons olive oil
2.2 lbs mixed meat, cut into 2" or so pieces (it's not necessary to debone the meat)
1 glass of white wine
11 oz. (or so) canned peeled tomatoes
2 chili peppers
salt and pepper

Saute the chopped onion and the parsley with olive oil. Add the meat and brown it. Add the wine and let it evaporate over high heat. Add the tomatoes, chili peppers and two or three ladles of hot water and continue to cook until the sauce becomes thick and meat is tender. Add more hot water as necessary to keep pan from drying out.

I helped with the preparation of the Pasta Fresca because that's something that we didn't get to do on our last trip. For Easter I made the same recipe for DH and friends. It made WAY too much. DH ended up helping me run it thru our manual pasta machine (a gift from a friend) We didn't use up all the dough and had more than enough pasta for the 7 of us. I used my Bosch kitchen machine to knead it. Next time I think I will just dump all the ingredients in and let it mix it also. I'm going to try it again soon because I want to make pici, the hand rolled thick spaghetti of Tuscany that DH loves so much. I will cut the recipe down, probably only making 1/3 of it. For Easter we made papparadalle. DH said it was too thin. I have never heard anyone complain that the pasta was too thin! He doesn't care for angel hair pasta though, so perhaps it's just his preference.

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PASTA FRESCA

(Recipe from class)
2.2 lbs hard or wheat flour
8 eggs

(What I used for Easter dinner)
1.1 lb semolina flour
1.1 lb. unbleached white flour
10 eggs

Mix flours together. Place on work surface in a pile. Make a well in the center and break eggs into the well. With your fingers or a fork, break the yolks and mix the eggs together. When eggs are more or less mixed, begin adding a bit of flour from the edges of the well to the eggs, slowing incorporating all the flour into the eggs to form a dough. Knead dough until it becomes elastic. This takes some time. Let dough rest, covered, for about and hour or so, so that it will be easier to roll. (This really helped) Roll out small portions with a rolling pin to the width of your pasta machine if using one. Pass dough portions thru pasta machine twice on each setting, beginning with the setting where the rollers are farthest apart. Flour dough occasionally if it appears to be getting sticky. Cut into desired lengths or use to make tortellini, tortelloni or ravioli. You can let the pasta dry a bit after cutting so that it won't stick together as much when you cook it. Cook in boiling water until done, about 3-4 minutes.

I didn't help with the Risotto, I usually use my (gasp!) microwave at home. This Risotto al radicchio was very, very good. The recipe was a bit vague, so I filled it in a bit, instruction-wise. You could substitute any risotto recipe instructions if you want, just using the sauted radicchio as an ingredient.

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RISOTTO AL RADICCHIO

1 head of radicchio of Chioggia (the ones that are about the size of a grapefruit) or 2 of that of Treviso (the ones with the narrower, pointer leaves)
1 onion
6 Tablespoons olive oil
11 oz. rice for risotto (Arborio is one choice, I think they used half Arborio and half Carnaroli)
Salt and pepper to taste
brandy, if desired
2 quarts vegetable broth
3 (1 oz) of butter

Wash, drain and cut the raddicio into small strips. Chop the onion and put it in a pot with the olive oil to saut . Add the radicchio. After 5 minutes add the rice, salt and pepper and, if you like, two spoons of brandy. When the brandy has evaporated and the rice is "toasted", wet with ladles of vegetable broth and stir all with a wooden spoon. When the broth has cooked into the rice, add more, keep adding more broth when rice has absorbed what is in the pan. After 15-20 minutes the risotto is ready, it must not be too liquid or too hard. In Italy we say that it must be all'onda", it must make waves. Remove from the heat and add the butter. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

PANZANELLA

14 ounces day old bread
4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 red onions, thinly sliced
1 cucumber, cubed
1 bunch basil leaves, torn
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil


Cut the bread in slices and put it in a bowl. Wet the bread with two or three glasses of water and leave it to stand for 10 minutes. Squeeze bread slices to remove water and crumble between the palms of the hands. Put the crumbs in a bowl with the tomatoes, cucumber, onions, basil, vinegar, and salt and pepper. Add olive oil to taste.
This salad can be prepared ahead and enriched with tuna, hard-boiled eggs, capers, olives, anchovies or celery. It is a very good summer dish, light, refreshing and complete. In the past the farmers took it to the fields for lunch.

PANNA COTTA

For the panna cotta:
2 leaves of gelatine
1/2 quart cream
1 3/4 ounces sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
FOR THE SAUCE:
7 ounces fresh or frozen fruit of the forest (mixed berries)
2 Tablespoons sugar

Put the leaves of gelatine in cold water. Put the cream with the sugar and the vanilla bean in a small pot and bring that nearly to boil. Remove from the heat and open the vanilla bean to remove the seeds and put them in the cream. Squeeze the leaves of gelatine to remove the water and add them to the cream. Mix together and pour into four individual small cups and put it in the fridge to cool for two hours. Prepare the fruit sauce by putting the fruit and sugar in a non-stick pan and cooking it until the sauce becomes thick. I you like you can add a small glass of vodka or grappa. Serve the panna cotta with the sauce on top.

DH returned at 7pm, along with David, another Untourist who had skipped the class. DH and David ran into each other in Buonconvento and spent most of the time visiting with each other while waiting for dinner to be ready.

We sat down to feast on our accomplishments and drink red wine. We toasted the cook and his staff, congratulating them on a job well done. We also took up a small collection for them to show our appreciation.

Everything tasted wonderful and we had lots of fun getting to know the other Untourists better. We sat with Bonnie and Steve, Moe and Steve and Barbara.

Another lovely day in the Tuscan countryside, eating eating eating!