Last day of school and Torino

Today will be pretty busy. The last class starts at 9:00am with shopping at the local market. Then we move to Torino.

On the way to the school, I found a farmer’s market by the train station. Unfortunately, I didn’t have so much time to see individual booths, so I simply took some quick pictures and kept walking to school. They all look yummy…..

Today’s instructor was supposed to be Chef Davide (who taught me on Monday). But Chef Giampiero substituted today because Chef Davide hurt his back. I have no problem with the arrangement because Chef Giampiero is such a nice guy. Normally, morning class starts at 9:00am but today, we are going to a market near the school to get ingredients for the day. I didn’t even know that there is such a market (for the last 9 days of the stay). I’m glad the chef brought us here.

This is the Italian version of ready-to-eat food (I'm sure they are made in the morning and expected to eaten on the same day)                                           

 
Today’s menu is pan fried zucchini, orecchiette with broccoli and anchovy, chicken leg and yogurt mousse.

Zucchini

The zucchini was pan fried with oil without too much browning. Then, salt and pepper were sprinkled on (again, no salt and pepper before cooking). Served with a slice of mortadella (which is la ocal humongous sausage) and a mascarpone and parmesan mixture. A very simple vegetable appetizer.

Orecchiette

We made pasta dishes every day. I’m glad that the chefs chose a different style of pasta each day. The last pasta is orecchiette, which means ears. The ear-like shape is made by pressing a small piece of dough by finger.

The sauce was roughly mashed broccoli and well-cooked anchovies. The chef used a lot of anchovies but because he cooked them long enough with olive oil, all the fishiness was gone. Fresh boiled pasta was tossed with the sauce and served with grated parmesan cheese and roasted tomato.

Very very good! I really liked the roasted tomato. I wished I had more…

Chicken leg

The chicken leg was cooked slowly with a small amount of liquid in the oven. At the end, it tasted like rotisserie chicken.

                                                   Kind of California cuisine-like presentation

Yogurt mousse with peach jam

Peaches are in season in Italy and we made jam with the peaches that we bought at the market in the morning. The yogurt mousse is yogurt, whipped cream and sugar. Before mixing, I tasted the yogurt. Compared to US-made yogurt, it was much thinner and had more sharp tanginess. It was served with chopped lady fingers.

It was very summery dessert. I really liked the sweetness of Italian desserts (Not too sweet).

That’s the end of the cooking class in Bologna. It was a great experience. The best part was definitely the PASTA!!  It was just 5 classes but I feel much more comfortable in making pasta without measuring anything (now that I can tell the right texture by touching it). And I was really happy with the instructor chefs at the school. Both Chef Davide and Chef Giampiero were super nice. MY only issue was with the school’s scheduling. I didn’t think they would change the class time just before the first day…. But hey, this is Italy. When in Rome, do as the Romans do! (I’m not in Rome, though…)

After the class, we headed to Torino. After a two hours train ride, we arrived at Torino…. Are we still in Italy?? It looked like Switzerland or France. Torino is located northwest of Italy so this makes sense. It was very clean and sophisticated. Unlike other cities in Italy, there was much less graffiti. People follow traffic lights.. Wow, just a 2 hour ride makes this much difference.

After checking into the hotel, we walked to a restaurant. We enjoyed looking at lots of nice buildings on the way.  I really wanted to have beef carpaccio, which is a specialty of Piedmont region. Because the English menu that they provided to us said raw veal, I assumed this was the carpaccio. But it was actually veal tartar.

It was still very good. I thought I heard the server said carpaccio. Maybe this is a different type of carpaccio??

 

The two pastas were filled pasta with braised beef and sage and butter, and thinly-sliced tagliatelle with sausage tomato sauce.

The sausage pasta was very tasty! I saw many tables ordered the same dish. So, it could be their specialty.   

The server told us this beef stew is local dish to Torino. It tasted a bit like beef bourguignon (without vegetables). Very tender.

 

This was the last meal in Italy since we will move to Lyon, France tomorrow morning. Again, I would say the best food in Italy is PASTA! There is no question about it.

Let’s see what France could offer!

4th day of cooking class

Today’s class started from 3:00pm. I couldn’t have a dinner after the class (I'd be too full), so we decided to go for a nice lunch. We have had a quite few Bolognese foods since we arrived in Bologna. So, we wanted to try something different. I checked some information online and found a Sardinian food restaurant, which is close to the school. Unfortunately, it was closed for the summer. This was not the first time we'd run into this. I guess it’s not a good idea to come to Italy between August and early September. It’s a summer vacation time for the local people.

So, we decided to give a shot to one restaurant near University of Bologna because they had  pasta with boar meat sauce. The restaurant is called Trattoria Belle Arti. We had some communication problem with the waiter. He seemed to speak English well so we assumed he understood what we wanted. But unfortunately, the pasta dish with boar meat sauce was eliminated from the order…..

Anyway, the first dish was pasta with octopus in tomato sauce.  It’s almost like what I cooked at the school yesterday. Only difference is squid vs. octopus. And this is much spicier. This is the first noticeably spicy food I’ve had since I arrived in Bologna. Very tasty.

At this point, we realized this is a southern Italian restaurant. But I don’t know why they serve boar meat sauce, which is a specialty of the Tuscany region. The next dish was fish that the waiter recommended. We didn’t really understand what it was but decided to take his recommendation (Sometimes, we need to take a risk!). Seeing a whole fish on the plate was a nice surprise. And only 9.00 Euro a plate.

The fish was slightly overcooked but not so dry because it was served in the broth. The seasoning was very light but I think it was appropriate preparation to serve a whole fish.

The dessert was a cake with pistachio and ricotta. I was surprised to see the bright green. It was just ok.

The meal ended with a complimentary limoncello. It was a pretty good limoncello.

 

Today’s class was supposed to be for 2 students like yesterday. However, my classmate didn’t show up so that it turned out to be a private class, yay! Today’s menu was seafood again - lots of seafood since yesterday. I’m not complaining at all! The menu was marinated salmon, swordfish and potato filled pasta, sautéed shrimp and panna cotta.  

Marinated Salmon

The salmon was sliced and pounded to the right thickness, then marinated with lemon juice, orange juice, salt and pepper. It was served on top of a potato hash.

 

The salmon was really nice. Orange juice enhanced the fresh flavor and toned down the sharp tanginess of the lemon. I thought it was a bit weird to eat with potato. But it’s not too bad if I imagine Peruvian ceviche?

Filled Pasta

This is the first filled pasta I’ve made. The filling is somewhat unique, mashed potato and chopped swordfish. Filled pasta is traditionally eaten in northern Italy but seafood is not. Most of the common filling in the north is either cheeses or meats. When southern Italians started to eat filled pasta, they made their own version of filling with seafood. So, this is a fusion food between north and south.

Normally, we make pasta without using the pasta machine. But Chef Giampiero chose the pasta machine this time because he wanted very thin pasta. I was successful using the thinnest number in the dial of the pasta machine. Because the pasta gets wider as it gets thinner, I was worried that the pasta would get too wide to fit into the machine at some point. But Chef gave me a trick to avoid this by pulling the dough. Then, the pasta was cut into circles and folded after adding the filling. The boiled pasta was tossed with left over fish liquid when we cooked the swordfish, butter and sage. The chef was happy with my pasta.

Very good. I really enjoyed making this dish. If I made this again, I would use more fish and less potato in the filling.

Sautéed shrimp  

A very simple dish. Shelled shrimp was sautéed with garlic and olive oil and served over greens. The chef said cooking shrimp with its shell is more common in Italy because the shell protects its meat from over cooking. In the US, most shrimp dishes are prepared with shelled and deveined shrimp. But in such simple cooking method, I prefer shelled shrimp.

 

 

I also noticed some differences in plating between the US and Italy. There is no concept of “plating” in rustic and homey Italian dishes (just transfer to the plate). But when Italians actually “plate” dishes, the way they space each component was different. I see lots of empty spaces and some of them are close to the center of the plate so that it looks like it’s missing something. Also, the main ingredient is not necessarily placed in the center or front.

I was trying to take a picture in this direction

But then, the chef corrected in this direction

It could be just this chef. But I’ve seen several other interesting ways of plating in Italy.

 

Panna cotta

This is a simple panna cotta with real vanilla. Yes, it has to be real vanilla.

Simple but very good. Quite an abstract decoration, though….

Tomorrow is the last day of the class and we are moving to Torino. We wanted to go to Lyon, France directly but couldn’t find a train to arrive on the same day. So, we decided to spend a night in Torino. Let’s see what it is like.

Parmesan Cheese

 

I almost gave up on visiting a Parmesan cheese producer because nobody responded to my request to visit them. But luckily one producer near Parma got back to us! The producer is called Ciaolatte and it’s a small family-run business. They have their own farm to collect fresh organic milk.

When we arrived at their facility, Alex greeted and took us to the production area. He introduced us to his brother and cousin who are in charge of the production.

Each batch makes only 2 wheels. And depending on the amount of milk they collect each day, they make either 3 or 4 batches. So, only 6 to 8 wheels a day….. Once the milk is in the kettle, it’s heated to around 27 C and rennet is added. Their rennet is animal-based (which is more traditional). Then, they let it sit for a while. Once they confirm the right degree of coagulation by inserting their hand, they then proceed to mix it using an interesting shaped stirrer.

They then heat up the mixture again, to around 40 C and let it sit for about an hour until all the curd sinks at the bottom. The curd is scooped out with cheesecloth attached to wooden sticks, very skillfully. Voila!!

After cutting in half, the curd is pushed into a mold to remove the excess moisture by leaving a weight on top. Then, the wheel is soaked in the salted water. The rest is taken care of in the aging room. Periodically, a cheese master from the parmesan cheese consortium visit their facility and evaluates the cheese to determine whether it can be certified as DOP. Unlike other cheese, the cheese master can't take a sample to taste because that would ruin the quality of the cheese. Instead, he taps the wheel and evaluates it by sound. Alex told me, it is not unusual for a certain number of wheels to be disqualified for the DOP certification. The master will discard the disqualified cheese wheel right then…..

The longer the cheese is aged, the more glutamic acid (Umami) produced. Then  the glutamic acid gets crystalized. The cheese on the left in this picture is 36 month aged and the right is 24 month. The white spots are crystalized glutamic acid (natural MSG!)

We tasted 12 month, 24 month and 36 month aged parmesans. 12 month was very good but 36 month was just amazing. Some of the 36 month aged parmesan I’ve tasted creates unwanted bitterness but this didn’t. It had a very intense umami!! They sell their cheese on site. 500g (a bit over 1 lb) is only 9.50 Euro. I wanted to bring back the whole wheel to the US. But it’s physically impossible and also I guess it’s illegal…. I bought a smallest cut (which is 500g) and shared with my classmates at the cooking school.

We came back to our hotel a bit before noon. Because today’s cooking class starts from 3:00pm, we decided to have a light lunch near the hotel. It’s a pizzeria with some seafood dishes, called Ristorante Pizzeria Rococo. It’s off the city center so that all the other customers looked local.

The clams were tasty but a bit too salty. The pizza is grana cheese, arugula and prosciutto. The crust wasn’t as crispy as the one I had a couple of days before, but the flavor was very nice.

 

Today’s menu at the school was all seafood. Pan fried anchovy, pasta with squid and cherry tomato, salmon fillet and a dessert with ricotta cheese and walnut. 

Anchovy

This anchovy is not the one already filleted and salted with olive oil. These were fresh whole fishes. My classmate (the only classmate of the day because it was just two of us) hand filleted the anchovies by removing the guts with his finger and peeling off the bones by pulling the heads. I guess I should have done this. He looked really disgusted by the smell of the fish….

The filleted anchovy was lightly dredged in flour and quickly pan fried, served with sliced Gala apple (which is local to the area) and Sorrento lemon (which is used to make limoncello).  My classmate couldn’t finish this dish. I guess hand filleting anchovies traumatized him…..   

Squid pasta

Of course we made fresh pasta again. I believe it was tagliatelle (there are too many names for pasta to remember…). This is the third time I made pasta here in Bologna and I’m already getting used to making fresh pasta! It was prepared with chopped onion, garlic and fresh cherry tomatoes. Chef Giampiero kept saying not to burn the garlic because the bitterness of garlic is the worst. And he picked out the garlic (whole clove) rather quickly. I asked him that if the amount of garlic used is different between northern and southern Italy. He said Southern Italians would use more garlic. But it’s funny, he is originally from southern Italy, Calabria (which is at the toe of the boot). Probably he is trying to stick with the northern Italian style?

The cherry tomato used to make the sauce was very sweet. But the skin was very tough. The squid looked like a slightly smaller cuttlefish. It was cut into small pieces. I was surprised that Chef Giampiero started to cook the squid from the beginning. I thought the squid would be rubbery if we cooked it for  a long time. He said he would get more flavor then, though.

The squid was very tough as I expected. But the flavor was very nice. The tomato sauce was amazingly sweet!

 

Salmon steak

One thing I noticed in Bologna is that they don’t sear food as much as Americans would. The chef started cooking the salmon from low – medium heat and kept in the pan for a long time.

And no salt and pepper before cooking. Two different chefs told me that the salt would suck up the moisture and make the protein tough. So, they sprinkle salt after proteins are cooked. I see the point. But unless you are good at sprinkling salt evenly, the saltiness may taste uneven….. I like to add salt at different stages of cooking little by little to even out  the saltiness, though. Anyway, it’s very interesting to find differences in cooking style in different cultures.

The side salad was just arugula, tossed with olive oil and salt (no acid). The sauce on the side is deglazed from the pan used to cook the salmon

Dessert

This is the chef’s creation. It’s kind of ricotta cheese panna cotta. But it’s much heavier than regular panna cotta. Ricotta cheese was mixed with chopped walnuts and then toughened by gelatin. It was served with a blackberry sauce.

 

Somehow, the portions of each of the dishes was way too much today. So, I couldn’t finish the last two plates. My stomach needs some rest……

 

 

The second day of cooking

Today's class started at 9:30am (yesterday's was from 3:00pm) and it's a different instructor, Chef Gianpiero. He is more outgoing and energetic than Chef Davide and speaks English pretty well. Also, I had new 3 classmates (just 1, yesterday).

The menu is Potato Cake, Carbonara, Turkey Cutlet, and Egg Yolk & Mascarpone Cream with Almond Brittle.


Potato cake

Mashed potato was mixed with chard, egg white and parmesan cheese. It wasn't bad but I wish we had added a bit more parmesan cheese,

Carbonara
We made a fresh pasta again. But Chef Gianpiero's style was somehow different from Chef Davide's. Chef Gianpiero doesn't measure nor does he mix two kinds of flour. It's always good to know multiple ways, then I have options to choose from. We made two versions of spaghetti, one with the pasta machine and the other by hand cut. Since I wanted a challenge I chose hand cut. It was slightly thicker than what the pasta machine made. But I think I was close enough. Either way, it's not round but square cut. But you won't see that much difference after cooking

I've seen carbonara made with whole egg or egg yolk only. Chef Gianpiero's recipe uses the whole egg. I've heard original carbonara doesn't use cream but he did. I guess there are many variations even within Italy. One thing I should mention is guanciale. Guanciale is a cured cheek meat and a specialty food in Central Italy. The chef mixed pancetta and guanciale. I knew the authentic carbonara uses guanciale but it's not easy to find in the US (even if you can find it, it'll be very expensive). I was so excited to see guanciale for the first time. Of course, this is a real carbonara so that it's not like alfredo with a fried egg on top. Hot boiled pasta was tossed into an egg, cream and cheese mixture so that the egg is cooked indirectly by the heat of the pasta. Half cooked egg makes it creamy.

                                                    Very rich. Guanciale is salty and yummy!

Turkey Cutlet

It was perfectly executed cutlet. Evenly colored and the right amount of breadcrumbs. But it was lacking flavor. The egg wash had some seasoning, including some cheese. And the breadcrumbs had some spices. I think they were too subtle. Also, the accompanying sauce is mascarpone, beets and curry powder but again, everything was too subtle. The other classmates liked this though.

Egg Yolk & Mascarpone with Almond Brittle

The cream was pretty simple: egg yolk, sugar and mascarpone (again, the egg yolk wasn't cooked). And topped with almond brittle. But it didn't taste simple.

Later that evening, we went to a restaurant called Anna Maria, with 2 other classmates. This was a restaurant recommended by Chef Davide and a traditional Bolognese food restaurant.

                                          Complimentary mortadella

Because we wanted to try as many dishes as possible, we asked the server if they could do a half order for the pastas. The server was reluctant but said it's ok for ladies. Since we had two women at the table, we asked for two half-order-pastas.

                                                  Gnocchi with gorgonzola (This is full size)

                                                       Tortelloni with tomato sauce

                                                              Tortellini with ragu

Their pasta dishes weren't that big. That's probably why they didn't want to do a half order.... Anyway, they were very simple but pretty good. Again, the gorgonzola was subtle.

Simple salad. It doesn't come with any dressing. The server brought olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper separately.

                                            Vegetable soup - very hearty and tasty

                                          Rabbit with (most likely) pancetta

We were pretty happy with the meal. Now, we were ready for dessert. We asked for the dessert menu. We were told to wait. The two servers looked very busy (but the restaurant wasn't full...). In 10 minutes, we asked again, but we were told "later" again.... We waited more but nobody comes to our table. What's going on?? Is it because we ordered half-portions? I guess not.... because I see customers being frustrated like us. Some of them went to the cashier to pay. At this point, the restaurant was even less crowded. So, we decided to leave, asking for check. It took a while to receive the check and pay as we expected. Too bad that they couldn't offer a good service to match the food.

Tomorrow, we are going to Parma again to visit a parmesan cheese factory. I thought we couldn't get an appointment but one company replied to my email. We need to be there at 7:30 so we have to set the alarm for 5:00. It's early but I'm really looking forward to it.

The first day of the cooking class - Scuola di cucina Bologna

After a lazy morning, we headed to light lunch because I knew I was going to cook at school today. We hadn't had panini since we arrived in Italy. So, we decided to give it a try. The restaurant was adjacent to a book store and reasonably crowded. It looked like a quick lunch option for local people. I had sardine Panini.

The sardine was tasty. But it came with just onion with no sauce. The bread was super stale. I saw that so many people left the bread. Why was this place crowded? Or was this just a bad day? Anyway, today is a cooking day. My hope was that the class could make up for this panini bread.

After lunch, I walked around the city a bit then headed to school.

Today's instructor is Chef Davide. I was told in advance that his English was limited but I didn't have that much problem communicating with him. A very nice and mellow gentleman. The menu is julienned vegetables with mayonnaise in a baked parmesan cup, tortelloni with butter and sage, steak with balsamic reduction accompanied by roasted potatoes and tiramisu.


Julienned Veggie

 

                                         Their julienne was a bit bigger than I thought...

 Sheets of parmesan cheese were baked in the oven and shaped into cups by pressing over a cup

Veggies were boiled in seasoned water and served in the cheese cup

This was very good appetizer. When I made the mayonnaise, the only oil we had was olive oil so that it gave some bitterness. But the seasoned water (salt, sugar, bay leaf, sage and juniper berries) gave a very nice flavor to the veggies. The parmesan cheese cup was fantastic.



Tortelloni with sage and butter (Tortelloni is bigger version of Tortellini)

The bag of flour on the left is hard flour and the right is soft. For egg pasta, which is common in northern Italy, soft flour only is used. But Chef Davide used a 20:80 mixture.

The dough was kneaded by hand. It was supposed to be 1 egg per 100 g of flour. But the chef added extra egg white to achieve the right consistency.

We rolled out by hand. I thought we were using a pasta machine. But it's good to learn the traditional way.

                                                                      Cut into squares

 

                           Wrapped ricotta cheese mix and made into typical shape, it's very fun!

                                               Pan fried with butter and sage. Simple but tasty!


Steak with balsamic vinegar reduction accompanied with roasted potato

Chef Davide's preparation was interesting. He said using oil and salt when he cooks beef makes the meat tough. So, he pan-fried the beef on the non-stick pan and sprinkled salt after cooked. Also the way he plated was interesting. As you see in the picture above, there is a big empty space on the plate. It almost looks it's missing one more component. But that's the way he decorated the dish. Is this a new trend in Italy? The potatoes on the side were coated with a bread crumb and sage mixture, then roasted. Something new to me and very nice.


Tiramisu

I have a lot to write about this tiramisu. I just found what I used to believe was not right!!!

Now, I know why the tiramisu I had the other day was really fluffy.

First, I had wrong idea about the liquor used for tiramisu. I was usually using marsala and brandy, but that's not the typical liquor for tiramisu. There is no single liquor that we must use but marsala is definitely not the one.

Also, eggs. The way I used to make mascarpone cream is wrong! I've been making sabayon (a kind of custard) first then folding it into the mascarpone. In the class, we simply mixed egg yolk, sugar and mascarpone. We didn't heat it at all. Then we folded it into meringue (I believe this is an option even in Italy). Again, not cooked meringue.

Now I see why the recipe is modified in the US. Unlike other countries, people do not eat raw eggs. In order to accommodate the US culture (or regulations), the recipe had to be changed. I don't think I will make more authentic version of tiramisu when I get back to the US. But I'm so glad to know the way it is supposed be!!

I've learned a lot today!