Pasta for life! (t-shirts available for purchase within 30 days)
I'll start by saying there was way too much excitement about a day of Italian cooking, and I couldn't sleep last night. So, I got up, tired as all hell, but dragged myself out the doors at 8:15am (seems like a reasonable time, but I don't think I fell asleep until 5am), went to the bank, and then walked my way over to the restaurant to meet the chef and the rest of the group. It took about 30 minutes, and I got some amazing shots of the river as I walked along it. As much as I fight the mornings on a daily basis, there's a lot to be said for being up and out during a pretty pure part of the day.
And being in Rome doesn't hurt...
I arrived at the restaurant about 40 minutes early, because I'd misremembered the meeting time to be 9am, and it was 9:30am. I'd realized that before I left the apartment, but knew that if I sat down, I'd be very likely to not make it on time because I was so tired.
Once it was time to meet, I found out that there were seven people taking the class:
3 women from Los Angeles
2 people (father and daughter) from somewhere in the US
1 woman from Vegas
1 me
We met the chef, Paolo, who was this young Italian chef who's worked at multiple Michelin star restaurants, and has been teaching for a while. He was lovely, and had the very best accent ever.
The restaurant we met at is called Rosso Pomodoro, and the space is pretty great. It's about 10x the size of the picture here, and seems like a pretty formidable place.
He first took us to the market to buy our fresh ingredients. It was incredible.
This is Romanesco Broccoli, and it's apparently a mix between broccoli as we know it back home, and cauliflower, but tastes like broccoli.
A fine example of art in nature.
We went to a meat shop, a cheese shop, and then bread shop where they gave us a little sample of pizza, which was amazing at 10:30am. Permission to eat pizza for breakfast from a professional... that's all I ever wanted! lol
As we walked, Paolo told us that we were headed to a little island where his studio is. Yeah, the same island that I strolled around, went to the church on, and met those people for coffee at yesterday! In fact, the studio was right beside that church, IN the building that the coffee place is! Come on, how cool is that?
Even cooler, look how amazing this studio space is!
As we got settled in, we were given our aprons, cutting boards and a few other tools. We then cut up some veggies, etc. and began to watch Paolo cook such amazing food. He also taught us how to make our own pasta, which we got to do by hand, and then eat later!
I'm just going to run through a bunch of images and comment as they go.
This one is of the pans where Paolo was cooking up some mushrooms in a gigantic pan.
This is Paolo cooking veal scallopini with prosciutto on top, pan-fried together. Delicious potatoes cooking on the right.
This is where I learned to make my own pasta! The excitement at this moment was unreasonable! lol
I learned that one way to know if your eggs are fresh is the consistency of the whites. If they're thick and seem like all one piece, they're very fresh. The runnier and are liquids they are, the less fresh.
I learned how to make super-fun pasta with that wooden tool at the bottom!
Guys, dinner at "my" place!
Then we made our own raaaaavioli! There's a mixture of ricotta, fresh pan-cooked spinach that was cooked, strained heavily and chilled, and a whole ton of parmesan cheese (yassssss!)
So pretty!
Marry meeeeeee!
This is Paolo and his lovely assistant cooking and plating the ravioli that we all made. He used the same stuffing that was in the ravioli, along with some more cheese, and then some water from the pasta boiling pot.
This was our first dish. We sat and ate together, and then got up to help and watch Paolo make the next pasta dish.
This is the curly pasta that we all made by hand! We chopped up the tomatoes and watched him made the sauce from absolute scratch. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but I've never done it before, so it was very cool!
There was also some pork cheek that they bought at the meat shop that was cooked up in here.
Woooooow, you guys! Pork cheek sounds nuts, but so good!
This is fettuccini that we made by hand, cooked with olive oil, more parmesan cheese, and mushrooms, pan-cooked and added in. He said there were twice as many mushrooms as pasta, and that was the right way to go.
These are what I think are called zucchini flowers, which are delicate and amazingly beautiful! We cleaned them up a bit, and Paolo stuffed them with the same filling from the ravioli, and then covered these badboys in tempura batter, and fried them!
Sorry that the image is a bit blurry, I was a rush because they were about to be fried in heavenly oil!
These are the potatoes that you'll see in the next dish.
Come oooooooon, you guys! Fourth and final part of the meal (except dessert, or course!).
I was so-damned-full! It wasn't that there was a ton of food in each course, but that I rarely eat pasta, and this felt like three days worth for me.
This was my favourite dish, because how cool is the layering of meats cooked together, and deep frying a beautiful vegetable with delicious inside?
Man.
Then it was dessert time! We made our own tiramisu! It was outstanding, and I am now engaged to tiramisu. Facts are facts!
Deeeeeemolished it!
Now it was time to roll out. I don't mean that in a Transformers, Optimus Prime type way, I mean that I almost literally had to roll myself out of the studio!
I decided that home was the right to be after so little sleep, and so much food. I walked home, along the side of a river, and realized that I had walked by the same bridge on my way to the restaurant this morning.
I hadn't realized that this bridge, as Paolo told us when we walked to the studio, is the oldest bridge in the whole wide world. I don't know what it's called so I can't fact check, but, I feel pretty good about Paolo and his Rome knowledge over mind, so I'm choosing to trust him on this one!
Anyhow, I finally got home, passed out for a planned 2.5 hours, and decided that I was hungry again. Well, my stomach decided, but you know, we're pretty close so I went with it!
I popped out to a few stores around the apartment, bought a piece of pizza, and then the fixings for a fresh lettuce, tomato, bocconcini and avocado salad.
Soooo good, and honestly more refreshing than usual for a salad because it's contrasted with all of the pasta and pizza in the world. Loved it.
And now, I await tomorrow with anticipation because I am going to make a day of the Vatican and surrounding areas.
Off to relax, then to sleep and then to experience more of this amazing city they call Rome.
N to the ight, everyone!
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