Today March 22 - To welcome Spring, we had a "Pro" RICO! Tuscany class at Kathy's:
Panzanella (Salad with bread soaked in vinegar, onions, tomatoes, celery, cucumber, olives, capers...) ; Tortelli Maremmani (Homemade Ravioli with ricotta and spinach filling and Tomatoes and veggy sauce) Tortelli with stracotto alla Fiorentina filling and sauce (stracotto means stew); and Schiacciata Fiorentina (orange spongecake with chantilly cream).... yummy!!!!!

Hoy 22 De Marzo, para festejar la Primavera, tuvimos una clase "Pro" RICO! Toscana @Kathy's:
Panzanella (ensalada con pan empapado en vinagre, cebollas, tomates, apio, pepino, aceitunas, alcaparras...) ; Tortelli Maremmani (ravioles caseros con rellenode requesón y espinacas y salsa de tomates y verduritas) Tortelli con relleno y salsa de stracotto alla Fiorentina (stracotto = estufado); y Schiacciata Fiorentina (naranja bizcocho con crema chantilly)... ¡qué rico!!!!!

Wow! We were quite a crowd yesterday at RICO! LAZIO.
9 people to experience how real Romans cook their Carbonara....
We started with the delicious and crispy "Carciofi alla Giudia" (Roman-Jewish way to deep-fry artichoks) and we made them really well!
Originally the Jewish community of Roma were having them as their first food to break the Yom Kippur full fasting and praying day (probably as artichoks contain a lot of minerals and iron).
As you see by the picts here beside, we had big mexican artichoks, which are not quite the same as the Roman "Mammole" (rounder and bigger but with softer leaves and no hairs nor spines) however the final result was good.
First we needed to squeeze some lemons and then rub our fingers with the half squeezed lemons to prevent our skin to turn dark by touching the artichoks.
Take off the first outside leaves until the whitish part at the bottom start to show. Cut the artichoks top off and peel the stem.  Here below is a video that shiws exactly how to do this. Then we put them into the previously prepared bowl of fresh filtered water with the lemons' juice in it and let the cleaned artichoks soak into that lemon water at least 10 minutes.
Meanwhile pour 1 and 1/2 liter of olive oil (better if extravirgin) into a frying pan on high fire and wait until it reaches the temparature of apx 150 /160°.
shake well and dry the artichoks with some kitchen absorbent paper and when they're dry and a little open throw them into the hot oil to fry for apx 10 minutes.
when they are brownish  and open we take them out and put them upside down on absorbent paper to take exceeding oil off and cool down. As soon as they're not too hot open them well and pour in their very middle salt and pepper to taste and throw them back into the hot frying oil (this time it should be apx 160° / 180°) for a few minutes until the leaves are darker brown and crispy, serve them hot. Eventually prepare a dip sauce with grated pecorino cheese, cream (or greek yogurt)  and some mint!

Here is a link to an article  on New York Times (if you trust it) about healthy deep frying and best oil to use: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/dining/deep-fried-and-good-for-you.html?_r=0
You can find good Italian extravirgin olive oil even at Mega : Pietro Coricelli, Costa d'Oro, Basso...
or if budget is not an issue, go to Olio Fino on Ancha de san Antonio, not far from La Cava grocery (where I normally buy Italian pasta, cheeses and ham or pancetta). However to deep fry you can also use less expensive olive oil  like Orlotti olive oil (non evoo) or even Kirkland or Carbonell.

CARBONARA:
As we experienced yesterday it's really easy to make a good Carbonara, much better than the ones served at most restaurants....First of all use a lot of clean water to cook pasta, bring it to boil without adding any oil.... (Italians NEVER add oil to water for cooking pasta!) add salt - better if sea salt or in grains - only when water's boiling. Use good quality Italian pasta (not Barilla) like De Cecco, Agnesi, Rummo (at Mega) or Divella (at la Cava). We used 2 packs of Divella spaghetti Ristorante type. (Normally 100 gr. per person is the right quantity). Pasta must be well underneeth boiling water surface and be stirred to prevent it from stick together. watch the time on the package and taste it 2 minutes before due time... you'd never know...to drain it you can use a clamping tool or a stainer, stop it cooking with some cold water. I always save a little of the cooking water to thin sauces.
For the Carbonara sauce we used 1 egg for each person (so we used 9 eggs of which 7 whole + 2 yolks) after mixing the eggs, add grated pecorino cheese and some parmesan too, salt and pepper to taste.
In a large pan dry-sautee (without any oil nor butter) the previously chopped bacon (or thick pancetta)  in small cubes until it gets dark brown and crispy (but do not burn it) throw away the exceeding greasy liquid.
When pasta is cooked al dente pour it over the pancetta in the pan still on medium fire.
When the pasta is well mixed and greasy with the bacon pour it in a serving bowl where you have previously put the mixed eggs with grated pecorino and parmesan cream like sauce and mix well.
The eggs are basically cooked by the hot pasta  (but not too hot since it would overcook eggs and the result would be different) if you need to thin the sauce you can add a spoon or two of the boiled pasta-water.
Serve and grate more parmesan or pecorino on each plate and add black grain grounded pepper to taste.
Note: as you see there is NO CREAM in the real Carbonara!!!

SALTIMBOCCA ALLA ROMANA:
one of the most classic Roman dishes. The name literally translates as hopinthemouth and is singularly appropriate -- you can never have too many of these veal cutlets topped with prosciutto and sage
Veal meat scallops (we used sliced veal meat from Mega) apx a pound of veal cutlets or scallops (each about the size of a playing card), equal slices of prosciutto, leaves of sage, butter or oil for sautéing, wooden toothpicks, and salt and pepper to taste.you will need 

Flatten the cutlets as much as possible, lay a leaf of sage on each, and a slice of prosciutto. Affix the prosciutto to the veal with one or two toothpicks. Heat a couple of tablespoons of unsalted butter or olive oil in a skillet and sauté the cutlets until done,  Season to taste and serve them with their drippings.

As variations, you can sprinkle some (a couple of tablespoons at the most) wine or lemon juice into the pan when the cutlets are almost done. In any case, these will go well with a white wine from the Colli Romani (Frascati).

Well, we surely had fun cooking theese Roman dishes and their taste was mouth dripping!
Do not miss our next classes.... March 3rd will be Umbria/Marche and march 10th Tuscany.
Call or write me to register on time (yesterday we were 9 and I had to say no to 4 more people) so I will do an encore class this saturday at a friend's ranch : https://www.facebook.com/events/132930956877261/

Sorry, last monday for our Abruzzo & Molise stunning class I did not make pictures (I forgot my camera) so here are some picts from the web of the recepies we did....
As usual it was all de-li-cious! The combination of fish in the first course and lamb meat in the second was really surprisingly good.
And everything was accompained by a "Montepulciano d'Abruzzo" red wine!
We started as usual preparing the dough for the dessert (as it needs to rise for 30' in a towel) in order to prepare CEPPELLIATE DI TRIVENTO (jam filled croissants from Campobasso in Molise):
we mixed the flour with sugar and softened butter,lemon's grated peel and the yeast. work the dough forming a ball that needs to rest half hour wrapped in a towel at room temperature. Later on we rolled out the compound with a rolling pin and cut out several disks; spread each of these with cherry jam, then wrap each disc forming a roulade and gently fold back the tips giving these cakes the shape of the crescent moon. Cook the cappelliate Trivento in oven at 180° for 20 minutes.

Since we already had our "hands in the dough" we prepared the COLCIONI  (panzerotti like salted pastry filled with ricotta, ham and provolone) : blend the ricotta in a bowl with a fork, add 2 egg yolks, ham and provolone, both diced, parsley, season with salt and pepper and mix to blend ingredients well. Prepare the dough: pour the flour onto a pastry board and make a well, put in the center the eggs, add the room temperature butter to it, the juice filtered of the lemon, a pinch of salt and work the mixture until a smooth dough. If it proves too hard, add a little water. Roll the dough into a very thin puff, on one half of distributed little mounds of filling, cover with the remaining pastry, press it well around the stuffing to seal it and roll out thin with the toothed wheel obtaining many floppies. Heat the oil in a small saucepan with high sides and fry the calcioni until golden brown. Take them out of the fying with a strainer, place them on absorbent kitchen paper to remove excess oil and serve while still hot.

Believe me, they were a HIT !!!

Then we prepared our main dishes:
BRODETTO ALLA VASTESE (Fish soup from Vasto)


clean well the fishes and cut the bigger in pieces. Heat the olive oil in crock pot, fry the garlic, add 2 big dried peppers and cook for a few min. then blur with vinegar, join peeled tomatoes  (Pelati Mutti at Mega) and let cook for a few minutes before adding first harder fishes and cook 5 more min. and finally all the other fishes (a mix with mossels, clams, squid, cod, shrimps, other soup fishes); sprinkle with a pinch of salt and a good grinding of pepper (or red hot chili peppers, either dry or fresh). cook for 20' low fire adding water if necessary.
Serve with some slices of toasted bread. And pour good extravirgin olive oil on top.

and LAMB WITH OLIVES

Wash the chopped young lamb meat, wipe it dry by blotting with absorbent kitchen paper, saut in the flour and shake slightly to remove any excess. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a large casserole, arrange the slices or not so big pieces of lamb meat and let them brown on medium flame. Add the pitted olives, and distribute them on the lamb. Turn low the fire, sprinkle with a pinch of oregano and chili pepper chunks at pleasure, season with salt, then cover and cook for about 20 minutes, basting, if necessary, with a little water not to let the meat stick to the bottom of the container. Just before the end, sprinkled with the filtered juice lemon and let cook for a few more minutes so that the cooking thickens a little. Serve immediately.

Now, keep tuned for the next classes..... the next one are LAZIO (The Region with Roma) and a Special VALENTINE DAY'S class for couples!!! Soooooo romantic and afrodisiac!!!!
look on our main home page for infos and details.

CIAO!  e.... BUON APPETITO A TUTTI!

As usual we had lot of fun at our weekly Regional Italian cooking class: this time we did PUGLIA!  It's a highly appreciated from a culinary point of view. Has a Greek background , then conquered by Lombards, Franks, Saracens since it has always been a strategic territory between Rome and the East.
Here beside you can see some of the ingredients needed to repare the recepies:

FRISELLE are a type of dry bread typical of Apulia: they are very similar to bagels, but not quite the same... howevers since they are virtually impossible to find in San Miguel Bagels are a good substitute.
DRIED TOMATOES the ones we used are coming all the way from Puglia, but you can find different kinds here or dry them yourself in the Mexican sun! ( cut small tomatoes in half put salt on them and leave them on a sunny place until they dry)
BASIL freshly picked it's the best!
EXTRAVIRGIN OLIVE OIL Must be extravirgin olive oil! Costa d'Oro or Berio or Corricelli from Mega or the even best one that you can find at "Olio Fino" on Ancha de San Antonio.
MOZZARELLA Remo's mozzarella at Mega  it's fine, for a n extra flavour try the Buffalo one!

This is ment to be a breakfast dish... and it's very simple and quick to make: soak the friselle in cold water, not too long or they will fall apart
then pour some extravirgin olive oil on top of them (be generous) and cover them with dried tomatoes and mozzarella and a leaf or two of basil! if you like you can add some salt and pepper but the dried tomatoes are salty and tasty by themselves. You can do the same using fresh tomatoes too!

Then we made "Orecchiette" with Broccoli...
This type of pasta , typical of Apulia, is made just with flour and water and a little bit of salt.... nothing else, except the work of your hands and arms (see picture beside , where Carmela is making the dough...) we let it rest in the fridge for 20 / 30' in a thin plastic foil. meanwhile boil water (always use drinkable purified water)  with previously washed and divided broccoli flowers... (like shown in the pict above) add salt to water when boiling and let boil for 10' until broccoli are cooked but still hard. take out broccoli but keep the boiling water on the fire, cause we'd  use that same water later to boil orecchiette. sautèe the broccoli in olive oil with garlic.
When the orecchiette are floating in the water are ready, take them out and mix them hot with  broccoli and pecorino cheese (I used  Sheep Ricotta salata) or Parmigiano. Add a little of the water in which broccoli and orecchiette have been cooked to amalgamate all and serve! Buon appetito!

The main dish is TIELLA BARESE, typical recepy from Bari, also known as RISO e PATATE e COZZE: it's a Single-dish the poor's  cuisine with Mossels (they are free in Puglia you just pick them yourself from the see) Potatoes ( very cheap and basic food) and Rice (also cheap and filling).... Now, we added onions, tomatoes and parsley but skipped the rice or it would have been too heavy!

Clean Mossels very well and sautèe them in a pan with garlic and a little water and add some white wine when the shells open.
 divide the shell and throw away the half without mossel.

In a  baking pyrex plate put the potetoes, tomatoes and onions sliced finely, on top of them place the mossels ( some with their half shell some without) pour extravirgin olive oil , and some grated parmesan cheese (or pecorino if you find it) and put in preheated oven at 200° for apx an hour... not to have it dry to much pour some white wine and /or the mossels cooking water, toward the end pour chopped parsley andd more cheese. and serve hot!

Now, whoever do not like Mondays it's because they do not come to our RICO! cooking classes!!!

... and we enjoyed cooking and eating the delicious recepies of Campania !
"Ridi ridi che la mamma ha fatto i gnocchi ! " ( smile and be happy tha Mom made gnocchi! ) it's an Italian expression when somebody is laughing without reason.... But we had many reasons to laugh and have fun while making gnocchi!
Here are some pictures: the sauce for Gnocchi alla Sorrentina made with Tomatoes purea "Mutti" to be found at Mega.... just adding that to previously sautéed spring onions in extravirgin olive oil  (it must be extravirgin , possibly Italian, and of good quality - check out that it says "spremitura a freddo" which means cold squeezing ).
and then add fresh basil to the sauce when ready, mix it with freshly made and hard boiled gnocchi and slices or pieces of mozzarella ( preferably Buffalo's, to be found at Mega by Remos') and grated Parmigiano cheese ( the real one!). before serving leave it for a few minutes in a hot hoven to melt mozzarella and parmesan... delicious!
I can't explai how to make gnocchi... it's an art... you must come and see it yourself and try it yourself.... maybe they do not come perfect at first... but after some time and experience they will!  However basically you'd need to hardboil potatoes ( better if they are the floury type) and then peel them and smash them.adding to them an egg and flour, salt and slowly work the compost with your hands until it's quite solid but soft , make a serpent like long roll with it on a clean surface sprinkled with flour and cut it in little pieces ( as big as a wholenut) then roll each piece on a fork to make some striped form that takes the sauce better...
We also made the sontuous and mouthdripping "Parmigiana di Melanzane" . cut vertically the Eggplants into apx 1 cm slices, let them soak in milk for 15' to loose the bitter taste. then fry them in extravirgin olive oil untill they are golden on both sides, dry the exceeding oil on paper. lay the fried eggplants slices on a pyrex dish and cover them with a previously made tomatoes sauce (done with garlic, extravirgin olive oil, salt and basil) , slices of Mozzarella and grated parmesan, make two layers repeating the first one and cook in a 180° preheated hoven  for  apx. 20 / 25' or untill you see that the mozzarella and parmesan are melted and start to make a little golden brown crust (not too hard though!).
In the pict here below we are eating gnocchi  in the beautiful Posada Corazon ! A great venue for our Classes! http://www.posadacorazon.com.mx/esp_pagprin.htm
while drinking a very nice white wine ....

Since our double "first courses" were quite filling, as main dish we made a simple and light recepy: Seppioline con i Piselli ( aka inkfish with green peas) cleaning the inkfish ( in this case we used squid) and cutting it in small pieces and cooking them into previously sautéed garlic in extravirgin olive oil, salt and white wine... adding fresh (or canned) greenpeas for 20'  /25' on low fire. adding before serving freshly chopped parsley.

And.... last but not least...as dessert we made the filled pastry,  the fantastic Sfogliatella Napoletana di Frolla .

There are two types of Sfogliatella napoletana: the sfogliatella riccia and the sfogliatella frolla, the first one is delicious and very typical of any respectable confectionery of Napoli.... but it would have been too complicated and take more time... here  beside are pictures of both types.



and here a picture of a very special chef making the pastry's dough : Kris Rudolph...
http://www.eat-write-travel.com/kris_rudolph.html  yes!  THE Kris Rudolph in flesh and bones !.... the most famous culinary adviser in san Miguel de Allende (among many other places in the world). I was a bit nervous having her taking my lesson... my gosh she is a "PRO".... and I'm just an Italian housewife.... but, well, I'm Italian and this makes it! (I hope I didn't disappoint her...)

while she was magistrally rolling on the dough, we made the filling with ricotta, glass sugar, semolina and orange peel cooked in sugar and water, lemon grated peel ( who wants can add an egg' s yolk)... but who could better teach to make the original Sfogliatella if not a real Napoletano???  watch the video here below ( it's in neapolitan dialect but it's hilarious !)

Last Monday we had fun at the Christmas Special Class at La Bodega de Ciuciu in San Miguel de Allende!
We've been making Cannelloni Ricotta e Spinaci (Ricotta cheese and spinaches cannelloni) : we used dry canneloni De Cecco, we filled them with ricotta and spinaches (previously cooked) we prepared a cold tomatoes puree sauce adding to Cirio tomatoes purèe some salt, herbs extravirgin olive oil. we made a bechamel sauce without butter (using extravirgin olive oil instead).... pouring the bechamel sauce and tomatoes sauce on top of the cannelloni and top all with some grated parmiggiano reggiano... and put in a 200° oven for apx 25 min.

I could not find Scallops anywhere, so I bought big clams: Here are the Clams au Gratin ready....First we washed well the clams, then we open them and irrorate them with white wine , we prepared a mixture with breadcrumbs, chopped garlic and parsley and extravirgin olive oil.. put a large spoon or two of such mix on top of the clams meat and put all in the oven to gratinate for 10 min. Don't they look delicious?


But first of all we must make a toast with red wine.... Cin cin!


Here are: Vanessa, Mary, Kathy and Kis and... Mamma Elsa... who's also asking for some wine!






And then we made the main dish: Fagiano all'arancia (Phaisan with orange) and potatoes...I must admit we left it in the oven a littl too long and the orange sauce dried up... but it was delicious anyway...

Here Kis is making a dough with chocolate, flour, spicies, to make Mostaccioli: the traditional Christmas cookies from Naples....
The final result: maybe doesn't look so beautiful as we didn't have cookies forms but they're delicious!

Buon Appetito!  .... Salute!

E....Buon Natale!

Merry Christmas!
Feliz Navidad!