Italian cooking class

Anna, Emily and I stayed at an AirBnB on an olive farm that was set up as an “Agrotourism” destination, and along with a pool and the store, they also offered a cooking class as an optional activity. I was pretty excited about this as I’d done a few other cooking classes on this trip, so we booked this place when looking for a place to stay in Italy.

The class itself was mostly Vegetarian / Vegan recipes - not my first choice, that’s just what they had on offer! It was a great experience. The main teacher is a chef from La Puntabella. There was one other family involved in the cooking class, just myself and the other dad doing our best to make fresh pasta and sauces. They were from the Netherlands and we had some great conversations about the pros and cons of living in various countries in Europe - they were pro-Netherlands of course! 

Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli

The recipes were mostly traditional Italian, fresh pesto, Gnocchi, Ragu, Ravioli and Tiramisu, with an additional side of tempura vegetables and homemade soy mayo. The chef did some pre-work, boiling the spinach, lentils and potatoes ahead of time as those are just time consuming, so we could focus on the interesting bits of making the pasta and sauces. The class itself took about 4 hours to make all the bits so we ended up eating around 9:30, a bit late for Anna and Emily, though I did take back a couple servings for Anna to try after Emily went to bed. 

Potato Saffron Gnocchi with Basil Cashew pesto

Basil Pesto Gnocchi

Pesto

200g celery, basil and parsley leaves

100g cashew nuts~130g rice oil

~70g olive oil

Salt to taste 

The pesto here was really creamy and interesting. The chef had us blanch the basil, parsley and celery leaves for a minute in boiling water, then chilling in ice water, before blending - the intent was to preserve the bright green color which goes away when blending if you don’t blanch first apparently. The other interesting changes were using cashews instead of pine nuts, and adding a couple ice cubes while blending, and it turned out super smooth and creamy without needing to use any cream! The use of rice oil instead of just olive oil was a lot more neutral flavor, letting the flavors of the basil and celery come through more. I liked this recipe and may try playing around with the balances of different leaves and oils next time myself.

Gnocchi

500g potatoes

150-200g flour 0

Saffron powder (qty 1 sachet, but unclear how much those weighed)

Salt to taste

Making the Gnocchi was one of the main activities of this class. The potatoes were boiled for 40-50 minutes until soft, then peeled while hot and pressed through a potato ricer. Peeling them was tricky as they were so hot! Then the flour, salt and saffron mixed in until a soft dough forms. Cut a ball off the dough, somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a baseball, which is then rolled into a tube and cut into bite size pieces. These are lightly floured and set aside. They boil for just a few minutes right before serving with the pesto, fresh basil leaves and sliced tomatoes. Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Spinach Ricotta ravioli with lentil ragu

Spinach ricotta ravioli and lentil ragu

Ragu

1 red Onion

1 Carrot

1 celery stalk

100-150g cooked lentils

500g tomato puree

Mixed aromatic herbs finely chopped

The ragu simmers for about an hour, to really meld the flavors. Since it simmers for a long time, some water is added, and the saucepan has a lid mostly covering it to keep the water from all evaporating. 

Ravioli filling

250g sheeps ricotta

100g cooked spinach, finely chopped

Salt, pepper and nutmeg powder to taste

Mix these together and season until it tastes good, set aside in fridge

Making the ravioli

Ravioli 

300g flour 0

3 eggs

Salt and olive oil to taste (I did not see if or when any olive oil was added)

Basically just make a pasta dough, we did this using the volcano/fork method which I messed up immediately because I forgot the eggs have to stay in the middle of the volcano! Normally I do the dough hook on a mixer to make my pasta dough. Chill in fridge for 20 minutes before rolling it out. Making the ravioli was fun, learned some techniques to use a rolling pin with the dough folded over itself to make one large circle of dough on a table, then adding a grid of ravioli filling dollops on the lower half of the circle. Fold the upper half over the top, then press lines in it to form the ravioli in one big sheet before cutting them out. This part was all surprisingly easy! I think Ravioli will be a thing I’ll make again, seems like it would be a fun project with Emily, maybe when she gets a bit older. 

The ravioli is then set aside until right before dinner time when they will be boiled for just a few minutes to cook before being served with the ragu and fresh grated parm. 

Tiramisu

250g whipping cream

1 tsp caster sugar

Savoiardi biscuits (aka lady fingers in the USA, or longfingers elsewhere in Europe)

Coffee/ espresso to dip the biscuits in, cold

Chocolate cream

Vinsanto

Whip the cream, adding caster sugar when it’s nearly whipped. 

When making this tiramisu, I learned structural whipped cream should be more firm than I thought! The cream held its shape when I held the bowl up, but the chef looked at it and said I needed to keep whipping it. Having just come from Guernsey where it was quite easy to accidentally make butter when whipping cream, I was overly careful here but the end result was a tiramisu that turned into a puddle on the plate instead of staying in cake form. It did need to be more whipped! 

Mix the chocolate cream with vinsanto to make it slightly more creamy.

Dip the biscuits in the cooled coffee, then squeeze some of the coffee out so it’s not too soggy.

Layer cream/ biscuit / chocolate 2-3 times in a circular mold, then top with berries or whatnot to decorate. Remove the mold and chill in fridge until serving.

I think I’ve had tiramisu that I liked better than this particular blend, but it was fun to make (and delicious to eat).

Breaded and fried vegetables with soy vegan mayo

We also made some tempura batter and soy vegan mayo, to have as a side dish before eating the meal. This was the last step and we didn’t start this until everything else was complete, as it goes pretty quick and you want everything to be fresh when eating it. 

I’m not going to post the recipe for this as it seemed like we didn’t really follow it, and any tempura and mayo recipe should work. The interesting bit was using soy milk instead of eggs for the mayonnaise to be vegan, otherwise it’s just making an emulsion with the oil, soy milk and seasonings. Slice some onion rings, carrots, zucchini and even some sage leaves, which are then dipped in tempura batter and fried. Serve alongside the mayo as a starter course. 

This whole experience was definitely worth it. The chef that taught us also worked at a nearby restaurant, and we could tell as her techniques and skills were on point. The class itself almost didn’t happen as they normally won’t do the class for less than 2 people - and we didn’t think Emily would be up to sit around for 4 hours patiently waiting for Anna and I to finish cooking, but fortunately the other couple signed up the day before which meant the class was on!