Educere: to draw from within

It is currently thunderstorming like crazy and I have already had an amazing morning... so I decided to blog a bit now.

Today: First day of School!

OH.MY.GOSH. AMAZING.

For starters, I am the only student. So for the next month I will be getting 3 hours of one-on-one instruction every day with Marcella, the chef.

We started off with a tour of the studio (Marcella loves orange!),

the kitchen/studio

Then, we had a mini-lesson about the history and science of pasta, made the pasta dough, and let it sit while making the sauces.

kneading the dough

We made 3 different sauces:

• ragu' alla bolognese (bolognese meat sauce)
• calamaretti e rucola (baby calimari and arugula)
• gamberi and zuchinni (zucchini and shrimp sauce)

I learned the technique for and practiced chopping vegetables, as well as prepped the shrimp and calamari. This involved shelling and removing the intestine of the shrimp, and gutting the calamari. For the calamari, I was supposed to squeeze the eyes and pull it's head away from the tentacles, but I made her do this because eyes are creepy.

grinding tomatoes for ragu

calamari: pre gutting, etc.

shrimp in olive oil, shallot and parsley

Then we went back to the pasta and did four different types, formed from different cutting and folding techniques:

• Garganelli
  
• Orechiette Emiliane
• Sfrappole
• Tagiolini

me with rolled out pasta!

top left: taglierne, bottom left: sfrappole,
now from left to right: garganelli, orechiette emiliane, tagliolini

We then cooked the pastas one by one and added their respective sauces, pausing to eat at a very nicely set table, and talking in between.

The final dishes:

1. Tagiolini with butter and nutmeg
2. Calamaretti e Rucola (with Sfrappole)
3. Gemberi and Zucchini (with Garganelli)
4. Ragu' alla Bolognese (with Orechiette Emiliane)

Calamaretti e Rucola (with Sfrappole)

There was one more dish on the list for today, but with only two people there wasn't enough time...which was really okay because we were both STUFFED by the end :)

So I managed to eat pork, calamari and squid all in one day...

As part of the course I have a book with recipes, history and general information that I will definitely keep forever. Marcella says that this first week will focus on the basics: pastas, chopping, sauces, etc., and over time she will let me be free and add my own inspirations...hence today's blog post title. When explaining the "structure" of the class (as I did above) Marcella emphasized that education, as seen in the root of the word, is about pulling out of the student, not stuffing information in. I really like this teaching philosophy and am very excited to be studying and cooking with such a talented chef and fun person for the next month!

I hope it will stop raining soon so I can venture into the city. I had planned on going to an outdoor art fair today, but I think I will wait until better weather.

Photo of the Day
not actually worthy of being the photo of the day...especially because the day is not over, but it's so orange... I couldn't resist.

orange!

The Count

Pasta dishes eaten: 5

Glasses of wine drinken: 7

Photos taken: 454

For those concerned about the fact that I am drinking wine (dad): When I arrived to Italy on Friday, it was my pseudo 21st birthday. The drinking age here is 16; They drink wine like water.

Tomorrow:

Lesson 2--Sauces and Stocks

hopefully making it to the art fair

maybe visiting a church or the Uffizi Gallery

Question of the day: are these posts too long? (leave your answer in a comment!)

Ciao!