Hooray!
Here it is, the first of our annual cooking classes with chef Andrea Leonelli at Locanda Rovicciano, his incredible country restaurant just outside Spoleto. Andrea, formerly the head chef to the Italian delegation at the United Nations (he has a photo of himself and Kofi Annan hanging in the restaurant), spends a day each summer with our gang of students, teaching them the ropes of an Italian kitchen. They first don their chef’s hats, then chop to exacting standards the celery, carrots and onions that will be the sofritto for stewed guinea fowl. Next they make their own pasta, and from that their own ravioli (with spinach and ricotta filling — photo 1), as well as zucchini lasagna (Kailey, Campbell, Caroline and Shep all happily assembling the dish in photo 2), the guinea fowl, and stuffed fiori di zucca. Then we all sit down together, and chow (there’s the first course, those fiori, in photo 3). A grand time is had by all, as witnessed by photo 4, wherein I couldn’t get them to hold still or stop laughing.
My job in all this is to drive them to the class, then take photos, my recompense a wonderful lunch with Andrea’s good company (and that of the students, too!). Next week we do it all over again with the second half of the students. It is a duty to which I am committed, and for which I am duly fit.
Chow — I mean, Ciao!
Bret