Cooking in Lucca Part 3

To finish up the Italian cooking class, I am going to combine the last two cooking days of recipes and eating into one post.  Shorter, less work and I'll be honest, I totally forgot to take pics the last day so it would be boring.  But the recipes will be listed at the end if you are interested.

To start off the third day, we made biscotti.  Below you see the beginning of the cookie dough, which is on a table.  After this picture, we slowly combined the flour/sugar/nut mixture with the eggs, and once mixed rolled it into long "snakes" which we dusted with sugar and baked.

  

Annnnnd I don't have an "after" pic, so you will just have to trust me that they came out of the oven nice and golden and then we cut them into little biscotti wedges.  They were softer than we typically think of biscotti, but really the texture is up to the baker - if you want them crunchier, you bake them twice, if not, you can enjoy them a tad soft (or dry them out on a baking sheet).  

Then we moved on to the really fun stuff - making pasta!  Paolo whipped up a filling for ravioli (swiss chard - spinach would make a yummy substitute, pine nuts, parm cheese, etc) and then we made up the pasta dough.  We each took turns rolling out sheets for ravioli:

And then putting the filling down and actually making the individual ravioli:

And then we ate it.  Red and I have decided that we may have to change the name of the blog...because we are becoming Blobs Who Blog.  Sigh.

The last dish from that day was an amazing pork roast.  Paolo showed us an interesting rub that could easily go on many other cuts of meat.  You chop up lemon rind, rosemary, sage and garlic and add a bit of salt and pepper.  The cut of pork he used was pork loin and it had the ribs still on - I think you could probably do it with tenderloin as well with a few adjustments.  Anyway, he sliced the meat along the ribs and then sliced small holes on top and stuffed the rub into the slices.  Then he wrapped the loin with pancetta (the Italian bacon).  After roasting the meat for 1 1/2 hours or so, he made a gravy with the drippings and, again, we ate it (oh, and we roasted potatoes in the same seasoning as the meat, as you see on the plate).  

FANTASTIC.  Of course it was, there was bacon in it.  Sigh.

Now, the details on the last day get a little...not detailed.  First we learned how to make carpaccio, a wonderful raw beef dish.  The one below is actually cooked (for those who can't stand the idea), but the raw versions were delicious and very fresh tasting.

So this is where things go downhill a bit.  We also learned how to make pate, and discovered we aren't fans, so no pictures of that.  Then Paolo taught us 4 different risotto recipes, and yup, you guessed it, Red and I are not major lovers of risotto, so we didn't document that section too well either.  To be fair, they were very good risottos, so if you like risotto, we do have recipes.  We also made 4 different kinds of veal scaloppine and unfortunately those were REALLY GOOD, but everyone ate everything up before I could get a quality photo.  Excuses, excuses, I know, I know.

Below are the recipes worth sharing, feel free to ask, we'd be happy to email the ones that stand out to you!  MIss you guys!

Day 3:

• Panzanella (a Tuscan bread/veggie salad) 
• Crostini with eggplant topping (really yummy - another kind of bruscetta)  
• Ravioli  
• Ragu alla Luccese (a fabulous spiced meat sauce from Lucca) 
• Roast Rack of Pork with Sage, Rosemary and Pancetta  
• Biscotti  

Day 4:

• Beef Carpaccio (2 different raw versions, one cooked) 
• Fresh Mozzarella with raw tomato sauce 
• Scaloppine: sage and prosciutto (maybe my favorite scaloppine) 
• Scaloppine: tomato sauce (really delicious too)  
• Scaloppine: lemon sauce (fresh and tangy) 
• Risotto: Saffron and Shrimp 
• Risotto: Red wine and Radiccio 
• Risotto: Bacon and mushroom

Comments

[rene]

Hi Chris and Rose! Fabulous photos and blog. Really enjoying it. We were in Lucca in April and had a memorable ravioli Luccese at Gigilio (?sp) and
would really love to have recipes/ingredients for ravioli, sauce and filling
for a ravioli party we'd like to have this fall.
We are so glad you are having this adventure of a lifetime.
By the time you get this, your parents will have descended upon Germany
and you'll see them soon.

Would love a reply. Email: spahrirene@gmail.com
Happy adventures... Bill and Irene

[Sara Mesing]

Awww. I love how you add in the little flares of, 'Readers, this is how you can do it at home.' Ahem, who said you weren't famous? It's cute. It shows you're really thinking about how you can keep cooking this way when you return.