Venice was a city of unique beauty because of it’s winding canals and many boats. You won’t find a car anywhere in Venice, unless you happen to see one of the car ferries going across Venetian Lagoon. The canals are packed with gondolas and water taxis and crossed with too many footbridges to count. You can walk everywhere, or try and navigate the water buses with their complicated, multi-colored routes. Every window has glass and Carnival masks and St. Marks Basillica dominates the skyline. Don’t wander out without a map, or you’ll find yourself turned around in a tiny alley and wander off with no idea where you are.
We spent a lot of time wandering around Venice, seeing the Basilica, St. Marks Square (and it’s many many pigeons), and the Doge’s Palace. We also went out to Murano island and got to explore hand blown glass and meet some incredible people who taught us a lot about Murano and it’s glassmaking families.
The restaurant we went to on our last night in Venice was absolutely astonishing. Ristorante Riviera sits on the water and gives you a breathtaking view as you enjoy your meal. We were greeted by the owner, who took my mistake of reservation dates gracefully and still got us an amazing seat. The servers were attentive and knowledgeable about the foods that were prepared. They made sure you were enjoying yourself and were well taken care of. Sean and I decided to do the 7 course seafood tasting menu which put me way out of my comfort zone but was so worth it. We got to try scallops tartar, spider crab wafers, homemade pasta stuffed with prawns, cuttlefish ink risotto, mackerel with rhubarb consomme, red mullet fillets with beetroot and horseradish cream, and buffalo ricotta with white chocolate for desert. Every course tasted better than the one before. By the end of the meal I was completely in awe of the chefs creativity and passion for food.
The other big thing we did was…you guessed it! Another cooking class. We’d had this one booked for a while, and Lorenzo did not disappoint. He welcomed us into his home, and led us through eggplant parmesan, tiramisu, and homemade pasta with a meat sauce. I won’t be posting recipes for this either, but I will walk you through the steps and will reach out to Lorenzo to see if I can share the exact recipes.
Eggplant Parmesan
I’ll be the first to say that eggplant is not my favorite thing. It can be slimy and lackluster, but Lorenzo showed us how to prepare an Eggplant Parm that was so good we forgot all about how we don’t like eggplant.
We started off by slicing the eggplant, lining a colander with them, and sprinkling with salt. The goal was to dry the eggplant a little and make it less watery. While the eggplant sat, we sauted onion and then added canned tomatoes, salt, and pepper to create a simple sauce. After the eggplant sat for about an hour we rinsed them off individually and then we lined a baking sheet with them and baked them in the oven. Again, drying them out. The last step was to layer the eggplant, sauce, parmesan and mozzarella 3 times in a pie dish and baked until the cheese was melted and everything was hot. The end result was an Eggplant Parmesan that we will definitely be creating again. The eggplant was full of flavor and stood up well to the sauce and cheese layered on top.
Fresh Egg Pasta
We all know I love making handmade pasta! There is something so exciting about being able to say “I made this pasta!” and watching people enjoy it. The sauce we made for the pasta was a meat sauce that was packed full of vegetables but was oh so simple.
We created the pasta in the same way we made pasta in Sorrento, by combining flour, eggs, and a small amount of salt. With fresh pasta, you mix it with a fork until you can’t mix it anymore and then switch to hand mixing and kneading. We fed it through a pasta press until it was thin enough, and then swapped settings to cut fettuccine noodles. To keep them from sticking, we spread them out on a baking sheet and coated them with flour. Fresh pasta cooks quickly in a large pot with salted water and then it’s done!
For the sauce we combined carrots, onion, celery, garlic, and rosemary in a blender and pulsed it a few times to chop it really finely to blend with the sauce. I loved this method because it enabled you to get bites of everything on your fork and not have huge chunks of stuff in your sauce.
We cooked that vegetable blend in olive oil until soft and then added the ground beef. Once the beef was cooked, we added white wine and cooked the alcohol off. The tomatoes were the last thing in. Once everything was combined we let it cook for about an hour. We wound up adding peas into the sauce at the end because I love peas.
Once the pasta finished cooking, it was tossed directly into the sauce for maximum sauce coverage.
Tiramisu
Tiramisu is so classic, that the steps are the same no matter what. The thing that changes will be what the ladyfingers are dipped in and the toppings. This tiramisu was traditional coffee and chocolate, which is my favorite!
Tiramisu starts by separating egg whites and egg yolks. You whip the whites until it has stiff peaks, and then beat the yolks with sugar and a little Marsala wine. To the yolks, we added mascarpone and mixed until the cheese was incorporated fully. Then we added the whites in and gently folded the mixture to keep the whites fluffy.
The ladyfingers get dipped in coffee, and then we begin the layering process with ladyfingers and cream. It chilled in the fridge and then got a sprinkling of cocoa powder to finish it off.
Cooking is Elementary 