Thursday, November 11, 2010 Cooking school in Rome

Afternoon family and friends -
Thank you for all your positive comments and we are glad to hear that so many are enjoying our foolish blog.  Today we set out - with umbrella's in hand to Campo di Fiori to meet Diane Seed (and whomever else would be in our Cooking Class).  Campo Di Fiori literally translated is apparently "field of flowers" - in the middle ages this area was a meadow.  Nothing but cobblestones these days :-).
The center of the piazza marks the spot where on February 17, 1600, Giordano Bruno - a philosopher was burnt alive by the Roman Inquisition apparently because his ideas (such as thinking that the sun was the center of the universe) were deemed dangerous and all of his work was placed on the the list of Forbidden Books by the Vatican.  In 1887 there was a monument dedicated to Bruno on the exact spot of his death: he stands defiantly facing the Vatican, Bruno is remembered as the martyr to freedom of speech.

Giordano Bruno

We had signed up for a day of cooking instruction with Diane Seed after I happened to watch a Travel Channel special about her. She is the author of many cook books, the most widely known is "The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces".  Diane has lived in Rome (originally from London) for over 30 years.  Her cooking school is located above her apartment, which happens to be in the Doria Pamphili palace - in what used to be part of the palace attic.  There is a great moon shaped window in the cooking school that looks out over Piazza Venezio.

But I am getting ahead of myself - we met Debra and Steven (from the UK) and Diane by Bruno and set about shopping for what we would learn to cook today.


Our first stop was the bread shop - where we got pizza bianca, which is actually fresh cut crusty dough sprinkled with salt and brushed with olive oil. (It is spelled with an "a" at the end, and is not a "white pizza" as we in the states think of it.  It apparently is the national snack in Italy, and sandwich shops have made an art of actually splitting the bread and making it into sandwiches.  The high quality EVVO makes all the difference (or so we learned!).

Steven, Debra and Diane Seed at the bakery

Our next stop was the butcher - who cut a chicken breast into the thinnest slices imaginable!   Diane said the way to tell a good butcher in Rome, is by the quantity of prepared meats they have for sale.
This butcher shop had quite an array!  We purchased chicken and then headed to a butcher that only sells pork.  It is a tiny meat market that has been on the Piazza since 1890 - Norcineria Viola.  We bought salami and pigs cheek's.   You know I was anxious to see what we were going to do with the pig's cheeks!


Then we stopped by what Diane called the grocery store - was pretty tiny!  But we got a Burata (cream filled mozzarella), Pecorino (a hard cheese), another couple of breads (one with olives) and one with walnuts.  

Norcineria Viola - note random tourist with purple umbrella (is EC)

I didn't know there were this many kinds of sausages and cuts of pork!

Meat market where we bought chicken

From the market we got eggplant, basil, mint and lots of artichokes!  




Then it POURED - and POURED and POURED!  We ducked into a cafe and had a hot chocolate or cappuccino - then waited for a couple of cabs and were whisked off to Diane's cooking school in the Doria Pamphili palace.

Pouring rain at the market

A few fresh vegetables

The fruits sure look great!

Doria Pamphili Palace - a privately owned Palace, the upper floors are rented out - this is where Diane lives and where her cooking school is

 It was great that there were only four of us students and Diane.  We each got to do alot of the food preparation and learned tons!  I was most excited to learn to make a great tomato sauce - is even quick and easy.

Our menu consisted of alot of different things that she wanted to teach us to make and taste, not necessarily a meal that you would plan.
So we put on our aprons and pitched right in with the food preparation - while Diane told us lots about the history of the foods and the region.

The view of Piazza Venezio.

EC, Debra and Steven learning to cut egg plant

Learning to work with artichokes

The first thing we had was the Burrata cheese and pizza bicanca - with a great white Italian wine (Borgo San Michele, Gredco di Tufo).  A Burrata is a ball of mozzarella tied at the top, that is filled with cream and pieces of mozzarella, when you cut into it, the cream oozes out. 

It was GREAT!

 

A Burrata

A prepared Artichoke

Artichokes in a lemon, water and flour bath to retain their color before cooking

A simple tomato sauce

First course, burrata cheese, pizza bianca, salami - oh yea and white wine

Preparing the chicken

Chicken Sorrento style (chicken, Mozarella, tomato sauce and parmesan

Working hard on the egg plant rolls

Risotto with vegetable broth and zucchini with mint

Egg plant rolls

I must have begun to lose my focus - as I failed to take pictures of the plated chicken, and the last thing we cooked was Guanciale with Strozzapreti.  Gruanciale is Pig's cheeks - similar to bacon, but has a much more intense taste.  Strozzapreti is a literally translated to "Priest Choker".  The legend is that wives needed to invite the clergy over for dinner  - and the meal they had to prepare would often be the equivalent in food of what they could feed their family for a week.  So as the wives cut the pasta they would often put a knot in the middle and pretend they were choking the priest.  :-)    It was a pasta dish, with onions, garlic, the Pig's Cheeks, and Parmesan cheese.  We also used a dried pepper when we fried the Pig's cheeks.  It was actually a heavy dish - and had a kick and salty taste.  


We learned alot, got some great recipes and had a great day!  Tomorrow we will have a long day - we leave at 6am for the Pompeii and Almalfi on the coast of the Tyrrenhian Sea.  We will likely not return early enough for a blog - can you go a day without our babbling?  


Buona notte, amici miei
K and EC