Cooking Class!

Friday, February 25

Oh geez, I think we have been branded the "girls that are always late". I can't say I'm surprised, but that doesn't help the sting of my humiliation.

Picture this, Maggie and Meghan snuggled on the pull out couch watching Jersey Shore leisurely awaiting 3:30pm when they will meet a group in Piazza de la Signoria for a cooking class. Its 3:15pm and Maggie and I are informed by Amanda that everyone is standing around waiting for us.

What?! Waiting for us?? We have 15 more minutes to get downstairs! Wrong. So wrong.

Apparently the email said the cooking class STARTED at 3:30pm but we were all to meet in the piazza at 3pm to walk there together. Oh, details....

We ran out the door and downstairs to meet a very forgiving group. I made an empty promise to share my dessert with everyone to thank them for waiting... yeah, not happening.

The cooking class was too fun!

I was at a table with Maggie, Amanda, and Liz. Chef Alessandro, like the Lady GaGa song, was our teacher for the night. He was pretty funny and full of sexual innuendos. The expression, "that's what she/he said" was used way too often.

First, we made tiramisu. I separated the eggs and added sugar to each bowl. Maggie beat the whites and Liz did the same for the yolks.

Then Liz added the mascarpone cheese and folded the sugary egg whites into one big bowl to finish the cream. Coffee and brandy soaked lady fingers were layered into little cups with the cream. Dusted with cocoa powered, the little masterpieces were put into the fridge to set.

Second, we made an eggplant appetizer. These things are delish! Potato, zucchini, oregano, salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil

and cheese stacked between layers of eggplant… yum. Just the other night, I made these for our friends before going out. They are really simple, but look impressive.

Finally, we made stuffed ravioli… from scratch! Combining flour and eggs we began to knead the pasta dough then fed it through a machine to flatten it. Once flattened, we cut the sheet of pasta with this cute little wavy pizza cutter and filled the pockets with a typical Florentine spinach and ricotta mixture.

I was pretty impressed with our group; our pasta was fabulous! The finished product was then plated and covered with a buttery sage sauce and served hot.

Alessandro agreed when we asked if we were the best group.

Honestly, I’m not surprised.