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.