day 11 :

friday, 25 may

Last day of class!

After breakfast, we took the bus to a great spot above Verona with wonderful views. You could see for miles!

Our next stop was the Salvagno Olive Mill, where we learned all about how olive oil is made. First, the olives are put into huge vats where they are crushed by large stone wheels. The crushed olives are then put between layers of round discs made of nylon threads, and pressed together with a hydraulic press. The oil that comes out is caught and directed to huge vats downstairs. (This type of oil is described as first-cold press oil - only one pressing of the olives was made, and no heat was used in the extraction.) Some oil is filtered before being bottled, while other oil is bottled as is.

From there we went to the beautiful Lake Garda, and took a boat ride around part of the lake. We saw the Scaglieri Castle, ruins, lots of beautiful scenery, and some natural hot springs bubbling in the lake around us. People apparently come from all over the world to experience the spa at Sirmione because of the curative properties of the spring water.

The boat dropped us off at the dock of the Ristorante Signori - very convenient! We had lunch at the restaurant and enjoyed many varieties of fresh fish from Lake Garda.

We then headed back to the villa and took a short break before starting dinner. We started off the evening with a meat cutting demonstration by Gianni (roughly pronounced "Johnny"), the local butcher. Then it was class as usual.

Friday Dinner

• Risotto ai peperoni (Risotto with peppers and fresh tomato)
• Scaloppine vitello all arancio e sedano (Veal scallopine with orange and celery)
• Finocchi gratinati (Gratinéed fennel with parmesan cheese)
• Diplomatico

• Risotto ai peperoni
  • Peppers: cut along the grooves of the pepper with the tip of your knife; the grooves line up with the white pith inside, so this makes it easier to remove that when cleaning. (Suggestion from Michéle for next year's class: give everyone T-shirts that say, "I peeled a pepper in Verona.")
  • The amount of liquid that goes into a risotto will vary. If a recipe says to add 5 cups of broth, it could require more liquid. If it needs more, add water instead of using more broth.
• Scaloppine vitello all arancio e sedano
  • The ideal meat cut for this is just a chunk of the top round; you want to avoid getting a cut which cuts across multiple muscles. You may need to buy a larger piece from your butcher in order to get these, so just cut it up and freeze the rest at home.
  • We learned how to use a meat-pounder correctly during this class. Why do you pound meat? To make the meat thinner and more tender. You're not trying to compress the meat, though - you're trying to stretch it. When pounding, pound down and out from the center in one continuous motion - like tennis, the follow-through is important here. You don't want to bring the pounder down in the middle of the meat, though, because you'll end up dragging meat from the other side. Aim the edge of the pounder in the center, then go out from there. Lastly, keep the pounder straight!
• Finocchi gratinati
  • Fennel: there are actually male and female varieties of fennel. Female fennel is rounder, more bulbous, and more tender. The male fennel tends to be flatter. Buy the female variety if you can.
  • If the outside of the fennel is bruised, you don't have to remove the entire layer - just slice off the bruised part and use the rest.
• Diplomatico
  • This was made earlier in the week, but tonight we covered it with whipped cream and fresh wild strawberries. Bill came up with the idea to write "CIAO" on the cake, and several people in the class helped decorate it.

Friday Snack

• Mortadello - Mmmm, good ham.
• Taleggio cheese - Also very good!
• Sopressa salumi - Eric didn't like this.
• Rosette bread
• Five different olive oils - In order from lightest to heaviest:
  1. Allegrini: Cortegiara
  2. Ardoino: Fructus Aureus
  3. Cima di Bitonto - Giuliano will probably be importing this one.
  4. Castello di Ama
  5. Alberto Cipolloni
  We tasted the oils using salted, boiled potatoes, since they don't add extra flavor and let you taste the flavor of the oil (or, if you're like Dawn and don't like potatoes very much, with bread). Overall, people seemed to like #3 and #4 the best.

• You almost always use olive oil when cooking seafood; it's rare that you'll use butter for this.
• Dry your cutting boards standing up, otherwise they'll warp. You can wet a warped board and redry it to straighten it.

• OXO juicer - We bought one of these, and love it! For the price ($11), it does a great job.

We all graduated after the meal that night, though we were worried about Lyle for a little bit. :-) The class lived up to all of our expectations, and we would certainly do it again. With luck, we will in a few years!