Cheese Field Trip

One class excursion I really enjoyed Agriturismo visit. We had the opportunity to travel to a beautiful lakeside cheese farm where we saw the animals behind the product and the proccesses involved with making cheese. We got to see the man make caciofiore di columella from sheep's milk. After heating the milk, enzymes were added to speed up the process of coagulation. The mixture sits until it forms a thicker texture and is then put through a strainer.

The leftover liquid is then used to make ricotta cheese, a personal favorite of mine. The liquid is heated again and put through the same exact process, but the second rundown forms the softer, more cheese tasting cheese. We tasted both immediately after they were finished, and the caciofiore tasted more like solidified milk to me than actual cheese.

After watching the demonstration, we got to tour the farm and see some of the animals kept for milking purposes. We then listened to a lecture about the wheat that they grow, and although it was not in season, we still got to try our hand at baking it. Wheat, yeast, flour, and a little salt are rolled into dough balls and shaped to the desired formation. Bake it for about forty minutes and you've got yourself some delicious bread.

The facilities at Agriturismo were beautiful and I loved being able to see the "behind the scenes" work involved with making the delicious cheese I've been enjoying here in Italy.

-Sarah

Cooking Classes with Chef Cristina

Federico and/or Sonia: Please note that my March 11, 2010 post is meant to be the "food and culture in Rome" entry. Thank you!

For the past few weeks, we have had the great pleasure of taking cooking classes with the head chef of Glass in Trastevere, Italy. Glass is a high-end restaurant cooking top Italian cuisine and Cristina Bowerman is the creative and very talented chef we had the gift of learning how to cook from. We were taught how to make risotto, pasta alla carbonara, mackerel sandwiches and veal, tiramisu, chocolate cream, and pizza.

Four times this semester, we went to Convoglia, a restaurant in Termini Station to have our classes. Cristina would present the ingredients of the recipe of the day on a table and go through the directions, letting us know how the texture and timing would work with each dish. Then we break into pairs, grab what we needed, and head to our cooking stations to start the day. Cristina would walk around and tell us if we needed to add something, or stir faster, or turn the heat up or down, etc.

Of all the dishes we made this semester, risotto was my favorite to taste but tiramisu was the one I think we did best on. The consistency was very good and I think we mixed the cream to the perfect thickness.

I appreciated that Cristina would actually taste our dishes, so we knew if they were really successful or not. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn how to make some aspects of Italian cuisine that I will probably never have another chance to do. I've learned that making good food is an act of love and passion, because if you are not really concerned about what you are making, then it will never turn out right.

This is April and I working on our wonderful tiramisu!

I can't wait to go back to America and make a full course meal for my family- pasta for starters, veal and risotto as the second course, and chocolate cream for dessert, complete with lady fingers as dippers. Hope my mother thinks I am as good of a cook as she is!

-Sarah