Looking forward to next year

I don't know if I will be able to get to go anywhere, but I can dream. Check out the dreamers blog, about cooking vacations.

If you go to Florence

If you ever get the chance to go to Florence and want to learn some Italian cooking I can highly recommend the two cooking schools I attended and the bed and breakfast I stayed in.

The first cooking school that took was Toscana Mia with Simonetta.
You could be in their country home or in Florence at their apartment. They can help you with your Italian, as well as great lessons in cooking. Simonetta was patient, funny and supremely knowledgeable. With her I learned to make pasta, saltimboca and many other goodies. We ate with her father after every cooking lesson, and laughed and had wine and chatted about food and customs.

The second school was with the Instituto Galilei. I think that they are mainly a language school, but had great choices for cooking lessons, also.
I chose the fish restaurant, and learned much. The school had a student escort me to the restaurant the first day and introduced me to the chef. I learned how to clean squid, among many other exciting skills. From Alessio, the chef, I learned more than recipes. I gained confidence in tasting, adjusting, and using wine in cooking.

Both cooking schools were helpful, patient, and were willing to teach me anything that I wanted to learn.

Another wonderful experience was the bed and breakfast I stayed in. It was right in the middle of the historical district of Florence, had great amenities, and was charming in all aspects. I was usually exhausted after the cooking courses and was so relieved to get back to the kind attention of Claudio and Christelle. The Tourist House Ghiberti is the place to stay.
There was a restaurant two doors down that was a treat, there was a tobacco store next door, there was the history of Florence in every step.

Last Cooking Course Day

Well it all had to end. There were two people who wanted one day of cooking on Saturday, so they joined the class. I think that because they joined we had a day with some repeats. Not a bad idea, since the style of cooking was reinforced for me. Chef Alessio didn't measure anything. "Just important to look and listen and smell and taste," he said several times. "Only in baking important to measure." I ended up being the chef's helper. He would shout to me in Italian to hand him this or that. I could understand burro (butter) and balsamico (basil) and branzino ( a type of fish) and a few more things.
We made a steak, which with all of the ingredients and methods (Marsala wine, truffles), seemed more like French than Italian. It was very tasty, though. We made a scallop risotto with saffron that was beautiful to look at, and tasted good also. The appetizer of mascarpone and parsley wrapped with prosciutto was ok, but I would add something that would give more texture contrast.
Of course there was plenty of wine and lots of food, so I walked home/hotel in the rain full and happy.
I have learned a lot about cooking during these two weeks, from pizza dough to that wonderful seafood soup. I have enjoyed the different cooking styles of the two chefs. And I learned "Just important to look and listen and smell and taste."
There are more pictures here.

Squid and Octopus

Started off the cooking day by cleaning 5 squid. If you have never cleaned squid it is a messy frustrating event. I was unlucky enough to puncture the ink sack on the first one I tried and the ink shot out all over my face, the chef's face and clothing. There was laughter from the chef's helper and me. The chef was not laughing. There is no picture of this event, but it is firm in my memory bank. We got them done, but it was a struggle. I had to rip out their eyes, turn them inside out, remove the cuttle bone, rip off the tentacles, then strip off their skin. Lordy. We made two different things with the body parts: a salad (with boiled octopus, boiled shrimp, boiled squid, carrots, celery, red peppers white wine vinegar, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and olive oil)and a dish of squid (with ink and ground tentacles) and orzo.They were both extremely tasty, much to my surprise. Also made a wonderful crostini with boiled white fish (boiled, then drained, then whipped with olive oil), a rolled fillet of fish with eggplant and a fish fillet with spaghetti. If you want to see some graphic squid pictures, and more, go here.

The walk to the restaurant where I take lessons usually takes 45 minutes. The walk home, head reeling from wine, food and lessons, usually takes and hour. It is usually dark, rainy, and cold. Tonight was no exception. I am thrilled that I haven't gotten lost in a few days, so I looked in the windows of the stores as I wove around umbrellas and people gesticulating on cell phones. Italians seem to talk with their hands, even while holding an umbrella and talking on the cell phone and smoking a cigarette.

Calamari and octopus

Another long, exciting day. I finally had the sandwich. It was " un panino de carne, bagnato, con due salse" ... a boiled beef sandwich, dipped in juice, with two sauces. One was a green sauce and the other was a spicy red sauce. It was killer delicious. And 2 euros. Here is a picture of the place I got it from, in the central market.

The cooking class was perfect, once again. I cooked things I had never eaten before, and loved it all. We started out with a shrimp cocktail, then proceeded to a crawfish with spaghetti. We also had a salad with the same dressing as the fennel of the day before ... oil, salt and lemon juice with carrots, celery and red bell pepper. Many instructions on using only the central celery stalks and very little pepper. We both nibbled on that the whole lesson. The crawfish, well I am not sure what to call them, here is a picture, were incredibly sweet.

The next dish we started were these tiny octopus(es?)(i?). We started by cooking 4 cloves of garlic, 3-4 bay leaves in olive oil for a few minutes. Then added the "muscotini" ( ... tiny octopus ...) ,added water then boiled them on high heat for 5 minutes. Then added red wine, tomato pieces and more water. They were boiled on a high heat, covered, for 2 hours and still weren't done ... but I got to taste the sauce and the not-quite-done octopus. It was incredibly delicious. Tasted like a beef broth. The octopus was almost tender, like a beef tenderloin. I was totally surprised.

We did a tuna with spaghetti that was very tasty, then a stuffed calamari. I have always avoided calamari, but this dish changed my mind. We started with 4 whole calamari. Took the feet off of them all and combined it with one of the calamari bodies, chopped it up pretty small, added 4 capers and one chopped anchovy to a frying pan with olive oil, parsley, basil and crushed red pepper, 1/2 c white wine and 1 c of fish stock. It was fried/boiled for about 3 minutes, then tomatoes and sliced zucchini were added. Then the whole calamari bodies were added and then removed after 1 minute. Another 5 minutes of cooking and bread crumbs were added. Then the calamari bodies were stuffed with the mixture. We deglazed the pan with white wine, and added 1 c cooked tomato sauce and 1 c fish stock. The stuffed calamari were added to the pan and cooked for about 5 minutes. Then fresh basil was added. The calamari were removed, the sauce was reduced and a knob of butter was added. Then plated. I loved the dish.

For the last dish we fried two whole small fish. They were very tasty, also. The surprises were the calamari and octopus. Never thought I would crave more of either dish.

If you want to see more pictures they are here.

Salmon Coooking Day

OMG. What a fierce cooking lesson. We prepared salmon in 5 ways. The first was a salad of "lox" and fennel. It was wonderful. First, however, we started out by filleting the 20 pound salmon. The fatty pieces were cut off, a salmon steak was cut off and the scrappy pieces were saved for the salmon and pasta dish. Then we prepared the curing of 1/2 of the salmon. It was so big that it was going to take 4 days to cure (so for our recipewe used some that he had prepared earlier). The salad was easy to prepare, all we did was cut the green parts off of the fennel, then sliced the fennel (minus the root) very thin. Then prepared an olive oil and lemon juice and salt dressing, whipping it with a fork until it was creamy. Rinsed the fennel and let it sit in the dressing for 10 minutes. Piled the carpacchio on top, dressed the plate and ate. It was more than delicious.

The next dish was pasta with salmon, using the trimmings from the salmon. The we did a wild, fancy dish with the raw salmon rolled around a mixture of bread, shrimp, artichoke hearts, olive oil, garlic and fish stock that was boiled for 15 minutes, then ground into a paste. We had sliced the salmon into two layers and gently pounded both layers flat. Then rolled the paste inside and baked it in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Very tasty.
Then we fixed the salmon filet with green peppercorns, brandy and fish stock. It was divine. Then we prepared baccala (which has the texture of halibut) with a tomato sauce. Yummy. And the finale was a seafood risotto that was easy and tasted like the ocean ... it had clams, shrimp, calamari and mussels along with calarose rice with fish stock.

I am exhausted. He kept pouring glasses of wine to go with each course, so I stumbled home. If you want to see more detailed pictures go here.

New Cooking School ... Shellfish soup

I found more about the lard I had the other day. It is from Colonatta. It has been aged in basins in a cellar dug out of rock. High humidity. The insides of the basin are rubbed in garlic, the bottom is covered in sea salt and herbs and spices. Then they layer strips of the lard with salt to the top. After a week the basins are uncovered and salt water is poured on top. This sits for 8-10 months. It was more than tasty, no matter how weird it sounds.

The second cooking school started. Very different from the home of Simonetta of last week. This was a serious restaurant with a stressed chef. The restaurant is known for their fresh fish preparations, so that is what we are doing. We first did carpaccio of fresh fish. He was great at making the slices, I was pretty bad. We made two types of carpaccio, one totally raw and the other, using the same thickness of slices, was put in the oven for 2 minutes until it just turned opaque. The raw was better than the cooked, but both were good.
The next dish was fish with potatoes. We put some potato slices (waffle cut) in the oven, on a thin bed of olive oil, to toast them up a tad. Then started cooking potatoes,cubed, in olive oil and rosemary. When those potatoes started sticking to the pan water was added. Fish was filleted. Then the waffled potatoes were taken out of the oven, layed over the fish and they were returned to the oven. When it was done (maybe 5 minutes at 400 degrees), the cubed potatoes were ready. I was surprised at the combo. The fish was tasty, the potatoes great.

The next dish was a shellfish soup. It was delicious. Clams, mussels, olive oil, basil, white wine, garlic, salt, a little tomato sauce and some fish stock were added to a fry pan, covered and cooked for a few minutes.Then uncovered, and the liquid was reduced. It was served with bruschetta. This was my favorite of the whole night. The taste was vibrant and more complex that I had thought possible. I could eat this for breakfast. And lunch. Then want more for dinner.




We also made 2 seafood and pasta dishes( shellfish and asparagus with gnocchi was one. The other had zucchini and tomatoes and shrimp with fresh pasta). The shellfish were removed and plated, then the pasta was tossed in the reduced sauce. Then it was plated with the shellfish.

The finale was a whole fish done in tin foil in the oven. The fish was stuffed with rosemary. Then laid on a piece of tin foil.Surrounded with thinly sliced onion, tomato, basil, clams and mussels. Then another piece of foil on the top. He took more time sealing the tin foil than preparing the dish. Put into a 400 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes. The tin foil puffed up, the fish steamed it the juices, and the taste was great.

He also showed me how to make a roux that keeps for a few days. Also shown were oil (not olive) and garlic and oil and onion mixtures that would keep for a few days.

I learned a lot here. Tomorrow he has to go to his lawyer, so cooking is postponed for the day and we will add Saturday to the schedule. I will head to the museums.
I took pictures of all of the dishes and also there is a picture of his wife, here.

Florence wandering

Walked over the Ponte Vecchio bridge this morning, in a drizzle. Have stopped getting lost. All I have to do is look up and find the Duomo and I am almost home. Getting ready for the new school, I walked around and found a great place to eat. It has a wood burning pizza and an extensive menu. The first thing that caught my eye was an appetizer of lard. Really? I had to try it. It was more than delicious. It appealed to all of my senses ...the lard itself was sliced paper thin, was warm, and the bread was very fresh and had a crunchy crust.

Found a beautiful leather jacket for Susan. Wish she had been here to try it on. Got a good price on Marie's belt, then lucked into a mask store. Shopping, shopping in the rain. The rain kept the tourist traffic down and the atmosphere of past history high.

If you want to see this mornings pictures go here.

Sunday wanderings

Wandered around today, Sunday, in the rain. Ate my first gelato, saw huge statues that I had seen in art books all my life. There is something about seeing them in person that took my breath away. Had my first tripe sandwich. Found out where the next classes meet.





There are more women here in fur coats than I ever thought possible.


















There are very few tourists here, so if I walk into a store or restaurant for a second time it is like old home week. The owner comes out and is more than effusive, wanting to know if I want something new or the same as last time. I have had some wonderful meals, and am getting to know how to food shop.
The town was all abuzz yesterday with the story of the plane in the Hudson River in NYC. I must have heard the tale 5 times. Everyone wanted to share the story with the American. Strangely enough there have been very few questions about the presidential elections, unlike past years when I was quizzed repeatedly about Nixon or Reagan or Bush.

easy day

Yesterday, Saturday, I had no classes, so I went to the market to buy balsamic vinegar. There were some 100 year old bottles available ... for 495 Euros for 50 ml. That is $657.83. As much as I lusted after that there was no way. I ended up with a bottle of 100ml 25 year old vinegar. It came in a lovely box, like a fine piece of jewelry. And it tasted very different from the balsamic that I have been buying at City Market. Then there was the first pressing olive oil ... that tasted wonderful. First pressing is cloudy and full of flavor.

I decided to go to a tiny restaurant and have a tiny meal. Still came to 25 Euros (~$33). I had mozzarella and bread, then gnocchi in gorgonzola on rocket. And, of course, a glass of chianti.

And I walked, got lost, got found and walked some more. Went to the English bookstore and traded in some paperbacks for new reading material. Took pictures of the dome ... again. (There is a collection of non cooking pictures here.) The museums close at 2pm and are mostly closed on Sundays, so I am out of luck for that. I will wander today (Sunday) also.

Pizza and panna cotta

I wasn't going to do desserts, but had a panna cotta at a restaurant and fell in love. Well, who wouldn't. Cream and sugar. So, Simonetta taught me how to do pizza dough today and panna cotta and a great pasta sauce (with aromatic herbs) and turkey breast cooked in milk.

The pizza dough was lots easier than I had imagined. It took only one rising, and the formula was a lot like the focaccia from the other day. We made tiny pizzas, with plain tomato sauce and mozzarella. They were tasty. The crust was very thin and crunchy.

The panna cotta was just cream, confectioners sugar, vanilla bean and sheet gelatin. We put the cream, vanilla bean and sugar in a double boiler and put it over heat until the sugar dissolved. Then added the gelatin (which had been sitting in some milk) and removed the vanilla bean. This sat in the fridge for an hour. It could be made the day before, then taken out of the container to be served.. Simonetta melted chocolate and put it on top. It hit the spot after the meal. It was more solid than the one I fell in love with in the restaurant, so I think that I will reduce the gelatin by half and see what that does.

The pasta sauce was the best I ever had. First you fry onion and garlic in olive oil until just before it gets brown. Then you add chopped up (with a mezzaluna to be authentic) parsley, sage and rosemary. Salt and pepper, too. Fry this for a few minutes, then add tomato sauce and a half glass of water. This needs to simmer for 20 minutes or so. Peperoncini can be added, also. The taste was great. It was served with penne pasta and grated parmesan. I wanted three or four helpings, but limited myself so I could have some of the turkey breast.


The turkey breast was rolled and tied, then rolled in salt and pepper and allowed to sit while the sofrito was prepared. The onions, celery and carrots were fried in half olive oil, half butter. When it was halfway done the turkey breast was put in the pan to brown on all sides. Next came the fun part. 4 tbs of red wine vinegar were added, then reduced by 3/4. Then milk was added about 2/3rds of the way up the turkey. When it started to boil we turned down the heat, partially covered the pan and let cook for ~30 minutes. Tender and tasty. Yes the sauce looked 'curdled', but tasted yummy.

If you want to see more pictures, and a movie of the pizza dough being made, go here.

Foccacia and Balsamic Scallopini

Another cooking day with Simonetta. Today we did focaccia, a balsamic scallopini (with turkey breast), beans and a bean/faro soup. The bread, because of the rising time, was the first to be made.It was made with cooked potatoes, flour and yeast. 2x the amount of flour as potato. The potatoes, already boiled and cooled, were peeled, then put through a ricer. The mixed with flour. The yeast (a whole packet) was added, then warm water. We kneaded it, a cross was cut in the top, and it was put in a warm oven for 1 hour. Then it was kneaded again, shaped and put into a pan that had been covered with olive oil. The we pressed cut tomatoes on the top and it was set aside to rise again for 20 minutes. Then it was put into a 400 degree oven for ~30 minutes. When it came out of the oven more olive oil was poured on top and it was given a sprinkling of coarse salt. It had a great taste of potato and was soft.

While the bread was raising we started the soup.
First with the soup was the sofrito ... carrots, onion, celery were all fried hard in olive oil (we could have added pancetta or bacon at this point). Then cametomatoes. Then added lacinto kale, torn into pieces (without the main rib). After a few minutes bean cooking liquid was added and some stock. When this came to a boil we added faro. This cooked at a boil for ~20 minutes. Some already cooked beans were pureed and added. This was cooked another 10-15 minutes, then whole cooked beans were added.

While this was happening we got the beans going. These were called beans cooked in a flask. And they were. Very simple, very rich tasting,. The beans were soaked over night first. The they were put into the flask with onion, garlic, sage, rosemary and salt. Water was added to cover the beans three times over. Boiled for about 40 minutes (until the beans stopped jumping around.). We don't have one of these flasks in Colorado, so the beans could be cooked in a pot with the lid just barely ajar.

The scallopini with turkey breast and balsamic vinegar was quick and easy. We had a long talk about balsamic vinegar ( and the stuff we get in CO ain't what I tasted here) and the differences between traditional balsamic and regular balsamic. Traditional balsamic vinegar is made from a reduction of syrup from sweet wine grapes, called "Mosto Cotto" , which is aged for a minimum of 12 years in seven wooden barrels of successively smaller sizes. The casks are made of different woods like chestnut, acacia, cherry, oak, mulberry, ash, and, in the past, juniper. I got to taste some of the traditional ... and it was a wow! I aslo found out that it costs around 90 Euros (~$118) for a tiny bottle of 12 year old. The prices go up with age. Gotta get some. I'll do without dinners. I'll do without many things. This stuff is heavenly.
If you want to see photos of the day go here.

Chicken in Prosciutto

My teacher, Simonetta, had a dentist appointment this morning, and our class was started at 4:30pm instead of 9:30am, so I had the morning off to wander and have lunch. And what a lunch. I went to I' Toscano Sas on Via Guelfa.They had a fixed price menu for 16Euros (that translates to $21 ... much for a lunch, but I get a free breakfast at the hotel, then eat what I cook at Simonetta's house) that was wonderful.I had the ravioli with butter and sage (since that was what I had a lesson in yesterday), roasted pork loin and cream pudding (also known as panna cotta!). I was run by a family, and the food was great. The daughter was the wait staff/ cashier/ hostess. The dad was cooking. The ravioli that we made the day before was better ... but just. It was better because the sage was crispy, and the ravioli dough was thinner. But I loved the atmosphere and the attention. Everyone was very nice to the tourist who couldn't speak Italian.

After that I went to have an espresso (called caffe) at a local coffee bar. Normally I stand at the bar to have it (.90 Euros = $1.19), but there was hardly anyone there, and I got a table. The espresso amount is tiny and very powerful. Loved doing the people watching thing. There were two very old (very, very old) women seated next to me. There were some business people hunched over computers. No children. No adolescents. They have a huge selection of pastries and sandwiches, but I haven't figured out how to order them yet, so I haven't tried anything.

Then it was time for the class.Today we cooked spinach with tomato (olive oil and anchovies and parmesan cheese), chicken legs wrapped in prosciutto and rolled in a combo of fresh sage and rosemary (chopped up with a mezzaluna), broccoli with orichietti pasta (with garlic, anchovies and bread crumbs), and roasted sweet peppers rolled around equal amounts of ricotta and parmesan. And we had a nice chianti to go with it. The spinach and tomato was a surprise, how good it tasted.There are better ( and more)pictures here.

Lost in Florence

I knew that the hotel was somewhere near the dome, but had no idea exactly where, so I wandered and took pictures. check them out here

Cooking Pasta

Today's cooking lesson was fennel, crostini, ravioli, and saltimboca.
We began by preparing the fennel first. We cleaned the fennel by taking off the outer leaves of the root and cutting away all of the green and the fronds. The fennel was cut into quarters, then covered with salted water and allowed to boil for twenty minutes. While it was boiling we made a bechamel sauce. Then fried a bunch of chopped flat leaf parsley in olive oil. Then we sliced the cooked fennel and fried it with the parsley and oil. Then put into a oven proof pan, covered with bechamel and put it in a 350F oven for 20 minutes. the top browned beautifully, and it tasted wonderful.


It was a thrill how easy and quick the pasta was to make. Aside from the ravioli, Simonetta showed me how to make lasagna and tagliatelli and other types of pasta from the same dough and process. We made a spinach and ricotta filling, which she said was traditional. The dough, after being kneaded and rolled out (note ... roll always in the same direction holding the part nearest you), sat for a few minutes. Then we mounded the filling, cut between the filling, then folded the dough and pressed it closed with a floured fork. It was boiled in salted water, then drizzled with a butter/olive oil mixture which has been fried with sage leaves.

We also made the saltimboca .... veal rolled around prosciutto and sage, them lightly floured and browned in a combo of butter and olive oil. Then a cup of white wine was added to the pan and left to cook for about 10 minutes.
The crostini was simple ... robiola cheese (kind of like cream cheese, but a little looser and a little more tart) and lots of chives. This was mixed and let to sit until we finished preparing the meal. Then we spread it on crusty bread.
Then I walked home and got very lost, so I took pictures as I wandered. Check out the next entry for some of those pictures.

Market with Simonetta

For the first day Simoneta took me to the big market (fish vendors closed on Mondays, open from 7:30am until 3pm Monday-Saturday). We shopped and wandered. I oohed and ahhhed at the selection and quantity. We bought some burrata .... a fresh cows milk cheese (oh, what a taste .. it was like solid cream. It should be outlawed or taxed), some anchovies and some bread. Here is just a tiny part of the Mercato Central.


Here is a selection of pigs heads and porcini mushrooms.


























Then there were the hams















I took altogether too many pictures. This will probably continue.

If you want to see the whole collection of pictures taken at the market take a look here

Hotel

Ah, what luxury. The room is spacious, the window opens, there is a smoking porch, the bathroom has amenities not found in the Holiday Inn. A bidet, for example, and a towel heater.

airports and hotel

The flights were scheduled tightly, and it was strange. All of the airports were under construction, and there were multiple bus trips from the planes to the terminals, where there were more passport controls and baggage inspections. But, all lugage arrived to the next connection.
I got to the hotel, and one of the the owners, Christelle, tried to explain how to get into the hotel, lock my room, and turn on the lights. It went one ear and out the other.
Claudio, the other owner(and husband of Christelle,) was astonished that I wanted to eat breakfast outside. So peaceful and lovely.

I am off to my first class, and will report back this afternoon.

Oh no, another book decision

Once again I have changed the books to take with me on the plane.The Gastronomica magazines will have to stay. The new book list is Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Highly reccommended.
There is also the newest Mother Jones. Tinly Norbu's Magical Dance went in the bag. And the blank book stays in the "purse" for the airplane rides. I just know that I will pick up a thriller in an airport.