My first time to try buffalo.
Not bad at all!
Welcome to Italian Week! We start off the week with a celebration of all things Italian. We're going to learn how to do it correctly, the right way, the Italian way. (Otherwise resident Italian Chef T is gonna insult us, beat us, and then throw us into the straights of Juan de Fuca!)
Italy and all her many delights!
The board work for Chef T's opening lesson. This plus pages and pages of notes; the guy is obviously up on his Italian cuisine. Our aim this week is to get to know the basics and nuances of the cuisine. This actually comes naturally to me because I can draw a lot of parallels from Turkey, it's not really so different, in fact I can say in some ways Turkish cuisine is more complex and without the pigs.
Hand-rolled artisanal pasta is making a
comeback in fine dining
I have a knack for this hand rolled pasta making. (Probably got it from Frank Poll's clay sculpture classes.) This was tough though,and as we ended near the end of the dough, our fingers started to ache from so much pulling. I can't imagine putting this on a menu, you'd have to charge a mint, although in New York City fine restaurants are offering already offering it.
Rolling out sheets for the pappardelle
Lobster Tortolloni - my fave of the day!
This was the surprise hit of the day and something that was dead easy to make. The filling is simply lobster, sweated leek and fennel, and basil.
Finished Lobster Tortolloni
The sauce on top is butter, tomatoes, chili flakes, lemon zest, parsley and a bit of lemon vodka. As usual, this is not the most figure friendly dish but I loved it. And I know I could reproduce this in a heartbeat.
Tomorrow, we're moving into the area of my sister's expertise, pizza! II'll keep you posted on any tips or pointers I pick up!
And for dessert- very good biscotti - and I know biscotti!
Okay that is weird, I just made gingerbread biscotti yesterday. Im not so sure what mom and dad think of it but the dog goes crazy for it. I told mom no more liver cookies! I like them so they can't be that bad. ; )
ReplyDeleteSo on to pizza, eh? Hmmm. I'm not so sure what I think about that. I liked being the master of the pizza domain! You mean I have to share that spot light now? ;) I think I have one of those pasta machines in a box somewhere. And I'm totally going to call you on reproducing that tortellini next time I see you!
My mouth is watering over all of it!! YUM!
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