Siena, Italia
Ok, this is going to seem boring, however it is what it is. We got up, had a cappuccino and brioche in the apartment. I went out and got the brioche at Bar Caffetteria 4 Cantoni. Afterwards we headed for school.
We were at school until 13:00 when class ended. We decided to go to La Rosa for Chinese food for lunch. Then we returned to the apartment and did our compiti. There isn’t much time for much else.
We left for the cooking lesson just after 17:00. We stopped and picked up some Prosecco, limoncello and lemon sorbet. We got to class just about 17:30. Everyone arrived shortly thereafter. We poured prosecco, added a little limoncello and a small spoon full of lemon sorbet and served it to our classmates and chef.
Tonight we are learning to make:
Antipasto – Crostini Cavolo Nero E Pecorino
Prima – Gonnchi with Ragù di Salsiccia E Finocchietto
Secondo – Polla Alla Cacciatora di Sergio
Dolce – Tiramisù Classico
Now being hones, I have no great love of Cavolo Nero, aka Lacinato kale, Tuscan kale, Italian kale dinosaur kale, flat black kale, palm trees kale, black Tuscan palm or just plain kale. You start by pulling the leafy part of the kale leaf off, leaving just the stem. The stem is disposed of. Put some olive oil in a pan with a clove or two of garlic. Now, he did something we would never have considered. He just smashed the garlic. He didn’t bother to remove the skin. He threw that is the olive oil.
To this mixture he added a little bit of salt and black pepper. It was then allowed to cook on low heat until it was fully wilted. Looked a lot like cooked spinach at this point. We then took several slices of good Tuscan bread, drizzled it with olive oil. Put the cavolo nero on the slices of bread and covered it with pecorino cheese slices and put it in the oven. The finished product was quite good. It maybe the only way to eat kale.
Next we made gnocchi di patate. It was made the way we usually do. Potatoes, flour, eggs, nutmeg and salt. The only issue we had with the making of these was that they didn’t make them uniform in size, and they were too big.
Next we made the Ragù die Salsiccia e Finocchietto. Mary removed the sausage from the casings and put it into a pan with olive oil and smashed garlic. Once the sausage was browned he added tomato paste and sauce. Then he added the finocchietto (fennel). If the sausage has fennel, well first of all don’t buy it, but if you do then done put much fennel in. It was dried ground fennel he used. Honestly you could skip this. We would have added hot sausages or piccanti sausages. It shouldn’t be all hot sausages, but a few would be nice. This was then left to cook for 25 minutes.
The pollo alla cacciatora di Sergio was probably what you would expect. First we chopped up a bunch of different vegetables. Carrots, celery, and onions. We cooked those down in olive oil with some smashed garlic. Then while that was cooking down we browned the chicken legs. Not cooking them through – just browned.
While the legs were under heat and almost brown he added a little white wine. Then we added tomato sauce to the vegetables. Then added we add whole sage and rosemary. This cooked for a few minutes then we added the legs to the vegetables. He added green olives and capers. This was left to cook.
Last was individual servings of Tiramisu. Nothing like Mariaguilia’s. Mascarpone, eggs and sugar. Whipped together. Biscotti dipped in coffee. First a scoop of the mascarpone mixture, then the biscotti, then topped with more mascarpone. Into the fridge.
At this point the students were led into the dinning room. We poured red wine and shared chiacchierare for a few minutes until they brought in the crostini. It went down easily with the red wine. This was followed by the gnocchi, then the chicken cacciatora.
The tiramisu was last. By the time we were done, we were full.
Like I said before, I could have done without the fennel. Chicken legs were never my thing, I probably would have deboned them just to make it less messy. All in all it was a good dinner. Learned that you do not need to peel the garlic. The green olives and capers could have been left in the jar and bags.
It was nearly nine when we left to walk home. Another good day in Siena!
Buonanotte e Ciao, Enrico e Maria
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