I recently read a quote by Maurice de Vlaminck that says, “Good painting is like good cooking; it can be tasted, but not explained.” In Italy, cooking is a marriage of art and pleasure which truly cannot be explained. You know that feeling when a meal is so good but all you can do is hum and haw over it and make statements like, “I would trade my left arm for another slice of that?” A perfect example of why you can’t find the words to describe excellent cooking …
I was fortunate enough to attend a private cooking lesson (Italian style, of course) with my friends Sallie and Carolyn. We were greeted by Marcella, a beautiful Italian woman who has spent her life around food, starting with ravioli making with her nonna (grandmother) for Christmas dinner at the age of 2. Marcella is passionate about food and embodies the warmth and love that adds the special, inexplicable ingredient to her meals.
After we washed our hands, tied our aprons and enjoyed a little chit chat, we got down to work. We made ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta starting with little piles of flour and an egg. Now that’s “from scratch,” y’all! We whipped the combo into dough and left it in plastic to “sleep,” allowing the enzymes to rest before stretching it.
We moved to the main area of the kitchen and started our secondi piatti, a stuffed chicken breast. We learned to butterfly the chicken … I definitely failed by accidentally going in the wrong direction, but Marcella helped me salvage the foul. We made a pork meatball with milk-soaked Tuscan bread, garlic, parsley and the meat itself. We rolled up the breasts, tied them up with string( noting our professional skills) and sautéed them in a pain with olive oil. Carolyn was in charge of flipping, and then Marcella added a large pour of white wine. We put the top on and let the chicken soak up the delicious flavors.
For our dolci, we made chocolate gelato (yes, you may start drooling now). Gelato is technically custard which is then quickly brought down to room temperature, eventually freezing in a spinning gelato machine. Sal whipped up the eggs and sugar while Carolyn poured our expertly-chopped chocolate into the hot cream while I whisked. After combining the ganache with the eggs and sugar, we had our gelato foundation! Marcella popped it into the freezer, and we were back to work.
With the meat course and gelato in place, it was time to make the pasta! We made the filling for the ravioli by chopping our blanched spinach and mixing it with ricotta. We dumped a general portion of parmesan cheese into the mix and a dash of nutmeg to add a little extra to the Tuscan favorite. With the filling complete (and a few tastes for good measure), we went to the pasta table and began stretching it through the machine. It was surprisingly easy, and before you know it, we had filled over 40 ravioli! After a quick boil, I scooped the ravioli into a bath of butter and sage deliciousness to complete the dish. We garnished with parmesan cheese and headed to the table for the first course.
There is nothing like the satisfaction of enjoying the fruits of your labor, and a hearty meal is no exception. We kept raving about the taste and how proud we were to call this feast our own. And this is not me tooting my own horn. It was just that good. Seriously, I may stay in Italy to start my own gelato shop after tasting the heavenly chocolate gelato!
We left giving big hugs with leftovers in hand (oh, and very full bellies). Sal and I had been talking about doing a cooking lesson all semester, and this how-to couldn’t have been a better experience.