Cooking Class a Roma

Finally, I've accomplished what I came here for. Well, that might be a bit dramatic, but I took my first, official cooking class! It was at this adorable cooking studio in Trastevere, run by Chef Andrea Consoli and his wife (who actually attended AUR!). There were 15 of us, so it was a pretty big class, but he split us up to make the four courses so it wasn't so crowded.

(Me and Amy with our bruschetta)

We started on the bruschetta, which was your pretty standard recipe except that he includes chopped, raw garlic. Personally, I would have left that out, but when in Rome...

(pan searing the steak)

I apologize for: a. my leprechaun ears, b. the poor quality of the picture (wasn't taken by me, obviously), and c. the creepy guy in the background. I couldn't figure out a way to crop him out. Anyway, the class was three hours - two hours for cooking, one for eating. Chef Andrea also runs a restaurant (Le Fate) with his family, and he shops for both the restaurant and the school every morning at a local market. So basically, his menu changes daily depending on what he finds. For our dinner, we made bruschetta al pomodoro e basilico (bruschetta with tomato and basil), fresh homemade tagliolini all'amatriciana (pasta with bacon, tomato sauce), straccetti di manzo con pachino, rughetta e scaglie di parmigiano (paper thin beef with arugula, cherry tomatoes and parmesan cheese), and for dessert (and since the class was on Valentine's Day) canestrelli alla nutella (nutella filled cookies), and they were heart-shaped (aw).

(yay so much food!)

(homemade pasta is just so much better than, well, not homemade pasta)

No shocker here but Italian food really is just so much better in Italy. Lucky for you guys (and by "you" I mean my family and Chris), I have all of these recipes and will be attempting to recreate them once I come home (in exactly three months from today). In other news, I'm traveling to Barcelona tomorrow! I'm not bringing my laptop for fear that it will get stolen so you'll all just have to wait for those pictures when I get back!