Let's Cook Italian

This past March I took an Italian cooking class at the the Italian Cultural Centre in East Vancouver. I am finally getting around to recording a few of the recipes and posting some of the pictures one of my classmates took. I definitely recommend the class! My favorite day was when we made pane, pizza Napoletana e focacce liguri (bread, Neopolitan pizza and focacia bread from Liguria). I've copied our Italian teacher's copy of the recipes to give a sense of the traditional way of recording and preparing Italian food as we learned it in the course.

White bread

15 gr. of salt
2/3 spoons olive oil
25 gr. fresh yeast (Using fresh yeast really adds to the taste!)
500 gr flour
250 ml warm water
2 tsp of sugar

Bake at 400 degrees C.

Focacia and pizza dough

Same ingredients as above plus choice of rosemary, thin onion slices, minced olives, cherry tomatoes cut in half for focacia.


Pizza, tomato paste, capers, soft mozzarella cheese

Preparation

Melt yeast in the warm water. Add sugar. Dissolve salt in a separate glass with warm water. Sift the white flour, add other ingredients. Knead with strength. Make a nice smooth ball. Let it rest.
Remanipulate the dough. Stretch it with the rolling pin or by hand.

Some additional notes from our teacher:
*Dough should rest one hour
*Rest in a place that is warm and not airy
*Cover the dough while it is rising
*Use warm water

 

 

First day of class. Hand-made pasta with tomato and pesto sauce. One important lesson I learned- sometimes less is more! An important part of Italian cooking is using only a few high quality ingredients. For example, all that went in the tomato sauce was fresh tomatoes, garlic, fresh parsley and salt and pepper.

We made short-bread pie with berry jam and cake with lemon custard cream and pine nuts on the last day.

This appetizer was so simple yet completely delicious! Sliced oranges with high quality olive oil drizzled on top with a dash of salt and pepper.