Friday, June 14, 2013

Italian Food: So much more than pasta and pizza

I use to think that I would never meet a better cook than my Spanish host mom, Carmen. And then I met Daniela.  One of the first things Daniela asked me was "what are you willing to eat?" That is a pretty intimidating question.  I really don't I would want to eat any sort of traditional Italian horse testicle soup (if there is such a thing) but I told her that I would eat anything she wants to cook for me.  I can't even tell you how happy that made her.  Apparently the girls that lived with her last year only ate pizza and pasta and according to her that is not "really Italian cooking".   My favorite meal that she has cooked for us has been Piadina.  It's a flat bread that is typical of the region where Daniela was born (Emilia-Romagna) and it can be served with just about anything.  I wish I had a picture of it but it was so good we ate it all before even thinking about picking up a camera. 

This past Tuesday, we got to take a cooking class with an Italian chef.  The chef who taught the class is currently a 3 star chef and throughout his career he's cooked for people like Madonna and the Pope.  For this class we learned how to make three different types of pasta (gnocchi, ravioli and tagliatelle).  It was a lot easier to make pasta than I expected it to be and the ingredients are really simple.

Our cooking stations

Don't worry, I wore an apron

In the process

Finished pastas
 

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