Più Ricete

Another mercoledi, another meal (or three) to make! This week, we prepared dishes from Northern and Central Italy. This time was particularly special because we got to homemake pasta- "mini ears" or orecchiette to be exact! It was spectacular. Italian cooking is so much fun because of labor we call love put into it. Definitely a highlight of the meal is mentioning how many times you screwed up trying to make it perfect!

Of course, we did more than just make pasta:

Trofie al Pesto Genovese (Trofi Pasta with Basil Pesto)
Orecchiette con Cime di Broccoli (Orecchiette Pasta with Broccoli Heads)
Suppli alla Romana (Fried Tomato Risotto Balls with Mozzarella and Beer)

It was a lot of work this week- the whole lesson was two and half hours! However, it was really fun and the food was such an amazing reward. The pesto had the perfect proportion of oil to basil and clung to this very specific twisted-cut-spaghetti-type pasta very well. Trofi is commonly paired with pesto because the specific twists in the shape allow the sauce to gather in the creases but are not long like spaghetti so the oil doesn't get all over your mouth when you would have to suck in the last bit. It is also not hollow to the sauce can't hide inside since pesto can coat the pasta more closely than say marinara. 

Every pasta, as I just mentioned, has a science to it. The orecchiette were spectacular, but involved lots of skill. The patience I managed to maintain was shocking to me, but in the end we had fresh, perfect pasta. The sauce was also amazing even though I probably won't be making it at home since my mom doesn't like broccoli...maybe now I'll have to make my own sauce recipe!

Finally, supplì. I never thought that so much Italian food was fried, but lo and behold these handheld savory treats. I'd say its a genius food combo: rice, cheese, and beer-batter fried. Yes you read that correctly, I said beer. Now it is not actually in the rice, nor is it cooked in with the cheese. The Italian cooking secret of the week: put beer in the frying batter! The bubbles and a mild flavor make the outcome have an incredible texture and boost the taste of the cheese and other contents, but has little resemblance of actual beer flavor. 

Trofi al Pesto Genovese:







Orecchiette con Cime di Broccoli:






















Suppli alla Romana:


                               









I think I forgot to mention we had a little helper in the kitchen this week...meet Luigi! Hope he helps me out when we return for another wonderful lesson!


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