Cooking May 2013

 Cooking class this week took place at the Nocosia Winery.  It didn't look like much as we drove up, but once we walked through this  hallway, it opened up to a beautiful location.

 

Our mission for the day was simple.  We were going to get a lesson from a famous Italian chef on how to make cavatelli pasta.  After making pasta, we got a tour of the winery and a brief wine tasting class with lunch.

It was a large class this time.  There were two long tables set up with cooking stations on either side of the chef.

Chef Carmelo Chiaramonte

Make pasta by putting semolina flour on the table, make a well and add water.  Then mix with your hand adding more water as needed.

Once the pasta dough is ready, pull off chunks of dough and roll into a "snake"

Then you cut off short pieces of dough.  Finally, the tricky part, you use 2 fingers to push and kind of roll the pasta

The final product

Sauce:  saute onion in some pork fat, add cubed pork and cook slowly, add tomato paste, add 1 cup red wine and 2-3 cups water.  Finally add red pepper flakes or white fennel seeds and finish with fresh marjoram.

 

 

 

 

Here is a small part of their bottling operation

My cooking class buddy!

Some serious wine tasting planned for lunch!

This is the correct way to hold your wine glass!

First course:  pancetta and marmalade

Chicken wings, YUMMY

Our first pasta course, it had a cream sauce underneath and then a meat sauce on top.

The pasta we made.  It was chewy, almost like a dumpling.  The sauce was ok, but I didn't care for the fennel in it.

beef stew and potatoes

This was dessert.  It looks pretty and it smelled ok.  However, it was some sort of almond something and it was not sweet at all.  Definitely not my favorite.

All in all, we didn't learn a lot on this trip, but it was a great day.  Good food, good wine, and good friends!