Italian Cooking Lessons

If you read this blog regularly, I think we've established that I love Italian food. It really is my favorite food in the whole world. And one of my favorite things to do is cook..............NOT! I actually only do it because I have to. People in my house gotta eat. I'd much rather someone else make me Italian food, but one day we won't have this cushy assignment and there will be no one around to make my Italian food for me, so I figured I'd better learn. An opportunity popped up to take a cooking class with some of the other wives and I rearranged my life to be able to go. The class was super informal and held at this adorable little restaurant, Taverna al Frico in Polcenigo. Silvanna was our instructor and the owner of the restaurant. That's her there on the left, sweet lady. Or at least I think she was, she spoke in Italian and my Italian is still extrememly limited, so as far as I could tell she was nothing but sweet. Luckily, one of the wives speaks fluent Italian and was able to interpret for us (thanks Sia!).

 We learned to make Gnocchi (top right, potato balls) with a simple tomato sauce and Spaghetti alla Carbonara (bottom right), Brian's favorite.

 We made Crespelle or Crepes (top left) and Pasta e Fagioli Soup (top right) and Biscotti (bottom) which are Italian cookies and this particular recipe reminded me of sugar cookies with almond extract. They were yummy!

Here, Silvanna is rolling out the homemade pasta to make Pumpkin Ravioli. It looked like ALOT of work and took way too much elbow grease. Oh and was also made with ingredients impossible to find in the states, so I don't think I will be making the Pumpkin Ravioli but it was neat to see the process. I have tried most of the other recipes and converted the ingredient measurements into units I understand, like cups, and tablespoons, etc. As I get them converted and try them out, I will add them to the blog in case anyone is interested in trying them out too! Hopefully we will do another lesson soon, I could do this every week!

 

Below is a simple recipe for pasta sauce, which I am ashamed to say I've never ever made pasta sauce from scratch, but only because I never knew how easy is it, so I will be making my own from now on! I made this for dinner tonight and served it over store-bought ricotta-spinach torteloni.