Pasta Fresca

Last night I took another cooking class and it was awesome! I don't go throwing the world awesome around willy nilly for the record. The class was all in Italian again but once we started working I was able to keep up. Thanks to the two girls in class who helped me when I looked very confused!
We started with making the pasta dough. We each made our own ball of dough and we made four different kinds: pasta al nero di seppia (pasta made black by squid ink); wheat pasta (which is the dough I made); pasta verde agli spinaci (pasta made green by spinach); and regular egg pasta. Making the dough itself was very tiring. You had to kneed it for a long time to make sure it was the perfect texture (I am not sure exactly what that texture is but when Federico told me I could stop I did). We then put the dough in the freezer and prepared the vegetables for the sauce.
Once we had finished preparing the vegetables it was time to start making the pasta. We used the pasta al nero to make tagliatelle which is a typical pasta from the Piemontese region. It is similar in to fettuccine. We had to put the past through the pasta machine to flatten it out and then we put it through the machine to cut it into the perfect shape.

After it was cut it was hung on the rack to dry.

We used the wheat pasta to make maltagliati. Maltagliati is "badly cut" pasta which used to refer to the scraps but now is actually a pasta made to typically be used in soups or simple dishes. It is a small flat cut of pasta about an inch squarish (remember it is "badly cut").

We used the pasta verde to make cannelloni with cheese. The pasta was thinned and cut into a piece about four inches by two inches which we filled with the cheese mixture and then rolled.

The regular dough (although it is hard to call it regular after all the hard work that was put into it) was used to make ravioli, agnolotti and tagliolini. Just as a point of reference we started to make the pasta around ten o'clock!

The ravioli was filled with an artichoke mixture.

Agnolotti is another pasta typical from the region here in Piemonte and is a type of filled pasta. We used a meat mixture to fill ours. Here is the agnolotti I made!

The final pasta made from the not-so-regular dough was tagliolini which is similar to angel hair.

Now that the pasta were all cut and filled we needed to cook them and eat them! The fresh pasta do not take long to cook, typically four to five minutes maybe longer depending on the thickness. Here are all the sauces that we used as toppings (Anna did most of the work while we ate!).

First up to eat was the cannelloni which was baked. The cannelloni was served with fresh parmesan cheese and a side of fried artichokes. Now some of you may wonder if I was able to resist the fried artichokes but alas I was not. I thought long and hard about breaking my lenten vow and shot a thought to the man upstairs letting him know this was an exception as who knows when I will be back in Italy, during a lent when I have given up fried foods, at a cooking class serving fresh cut artichokes dipped in floor and then dipped in oil. And if you are wondering my conversations with the big man are pretty much like my conversations with Cork...I talk...He listens. I think that this pasta may have been my favorite. Here Anna cooks the artichokes.

We then had the ravioli di carciofi and the agnolotti del pin with both sprinkled with fresh parmesan. The maltagliati was next with a fresh tomato sauce (which I learned that when preparing the sauce you squeeze out the water and the seeds as they are not the "good" part of the tomato...perfect for you mom!).

The tagliolini was served with a light sauce made with fava beans and shrimp and topped with a sprinkling of dried tuna eggs (which are very small...like using salt).

Last, but not least, was the tagliatelle. We put a little of a sauce made with aspargus on the bottom of plate then put the tagliatelle with clams and asparagus spears on top. Everything was so good! I love pasta and I can't wait to make some of these at home...I will need a pasta machine though! Thanks to Anna and Federico for an amazing class!

Obtaining A Visa...Round Two

I went to an office that Rafaella suggested may be able to help me understand what paperwork is necessary to bring to the United States to obtain my visa. The man was very helpful (after I asked for help with a visa and he instructed me to go across the street to the bank and I had to clarify I needed a visa to stay here to which he replied...ohhhh...visto) and let me know that my office here would need to obtain nulla osta for me. If the nulla osta is in fact obtained it will be sent electronically to the United States. This process usually takes about thirty days which is perfect timing. The only problem is that no nulla ostas will be issued before the fifth of April as they are changing the issuing regime currently in place as one of the people are currently in prison. It looks like I may have to make another appointment at the consulate and then change my flight to stop back in Chicago if necessary! The good thing is that the bus I needed came right away so I didn't have to wait to long. Plus on my way to the bus I saw my friend Eliana and her husband Andrea. I love running into people on the streets! A great start to the day.

Dinners with Friends

I apologize for my lack of updates but really nothing too crazy is going on over here. Two Friday's ago I attempted to watch the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament with limited luck. A few coworkers and I found a "sports bar" that told us they had ESPN America but that we would have to wait for the owner's son to come with the "key" to change the channel. We waited and finally were treated to the UCLA-VCU basketball game. It was a very good game and after UCLA won I went to update my brackets (which I of course brought to the bar) and realized that the game had been played yesterday. We were not watching ESPN America but Sky Sports which was showing OLD games. Oh well at least it was something and a chance to show some friends "March Madness". I am pretty sure they just think I'm crazy.
Two Saturday's ago I went shopping to the outlet malls...but these have Gucci, Prada and Furla! Raffaella and her boyfriend Diego were kind enought to let the American tag along with them for a day of shopping.
The next day I went out for dinner with Veronica (who I share an office with), her boyfriend Marco, her sister Martina, Martina's boyfriend Mario, Massimo and his friend Matteo. We had great pizza and it was a lot of fun getting to know everyone! Martina and Mario invited me over for dinner on Wednesday and made a great meal for me. I really enjoyed the pastry with ham, artichokes and eggs. So delicious I hope that I will be able to get the recipe and try it out at home!
The weekend was very rainy so we were not able to go skiing as planned. Instead, my coworker Luigi invited me to spend the afternoon with his family at their house which is a short drive away in Rivoli. I had a great time. Luigi showed me around the town and we took a walk up to the castle which was built in the 1600s and was one of the castles used by the Savoia family. The Savoia family ruled Italy from the eleventh century until the kingdom was abolished at the end of World War II. Crazy to think that is not "old" here! It is now a museum of modern art. Luigi and his wife Daniella were scheduled to watch the children of Luigi's sister Margherita and her husband Mario in the afternoon so they could go shopping. You may ask why they didn't take the children shopping with them and the answer is because shopping with twenty-three month old triplets is just a bit too difficult! We spent the afternoon with Luigi's children Cristina (seven) and Francesca (five and a half) and the triplets Marco, Chiara, and Pietro. It was a lot of fun. We played Mario Cart and I of course kept my streak of loosing to a seven year old alive! I also learned a lot of words playing with the triplets as my vocabulary is just a little above theirs! Cristina taught me (and sometimes one of the triplets but mostly me) the names of many animals too. Such an educational day! Daniella made a wonderful dinner of rice with artichokes, breaded pork, potatoes and asparagus (which were the largest I have ever seen...Stacey they made the ones in Salzberg look small). Margherita, Mario and the triplets came back after dinner to hang out and have a wonderful apple torte. I had a lot of fun and hope to return soon!

Dublin and London Pictures

See Dad everyone knows you should NOT travel with the plague


Bank of London

St. Jame's Park

Queen Victoria Memorial

Royal Court of Justices

St. Paul's Church

Buckingham Palace

They want to make sure you understand they drive on the OTHER side of the road. I wonder how many people get hit by cars looking the wrong way.

Such a tourist picture!

Not sure what this is but it looks cool!

Admiralty Arch (I am not sure why there were men on horses protecting it but you never know)

A large square

DUBLIN PICTURES

Christ Church Cathedral (Schankey wants to know why there is a rooster on top)

The parade

Temple Bar Area

Tara Street Station

Tara House on Tara Street

Tara Street (wonderful being in a country where they say your name like your parents intended it!)

St. Patrick's Cathedral

A big church

St. Patrick's Cathedral

On our way to the parade through St. Stephen's Park

Guinness on Tara Street

Getting our shamrocks

Dublin Castle

Dublin on St. Patrick's Day!

Schankey and I had a great time in Dublin on St. Patrick's Day! The weather was amazing...sunny and no rain!

I left my house on Tuesday morning at 5:35 to catch the 6:05 train. First, let me say that I have three items in my house that tell time: my computer, my cell phone and my blackberry. The time difference between the three is ten minutes so I go with the middle one. I get to the train station at 5:48 and see that the train is not in fact 6:05 like the website said but actually at 5:50. I run to the ticket office: CLOSED. I run to the train and ask the man if I can buy tickets aboard and he says yes but there is a five euro fee. Ouch, but oh well I am not missing Dublin! I take the two hourish train to Milano and then hop aboard a bus that is about 50 minutes to the airport on the outskirts of town. From what I can see of Milano the traffic is crazy in the morning. We arrive at the airport and I check in. I am flying Ryanair which is a discount airline so there are no seat assignments. I figure I can handle Southwest's corral system this will be no problem...until I remember that here in Italy there is no such thing as a line! They call boarding and everyone lumps together to pour into the line. Madness. Then we board a bus to go to the plane. When the bus opens the doors it is insanity and people run to the plane (I love that here they board out of both doors...I feel this would increase on time departures in the US). I get a seat and settle in for the two and a half our flight to Dublin.

Arriving in Dublin I am shocked to see the sun. Everyone always talks about how rainy it is. The cab driver is very nice and is telling me all about the holiday and things in Dublin. I casually ask him how to pronounce the word T-A-R-A and he says "why Tara (not like Sara) of course". I love this country! I arrive at the hotel and meet Schankey and get ready to hit the town. We walk down to the parade but it is so crowded we can barely see anything but things that float over heads. We walk around and have lunch (great seafood bisque soup) and enjoy our first pints. Everyone in Dublin is so nice! We then walk down to Tara Street and of course take pictures. We go into a pub on Tara Street (mainly because I want to be able to say I had a Guinness on Tara Street). We hang out for awhile watching everyone and then head back over to the Temple Bar area with a stop along the way to get our faces painted with Shamrocks. You would think that nothing screams tourist but in fact everyone had their faces painted with something (sometimes in all green). We hang out at this bar for awhile chatting with some nice Irish boys (who become very difficult to understand as the music gets louder) and then head over to Temple Bar. All in all a very fun evening.

Wednesday morning we head to the airport around six thirty as Schankey's flight is around eight thirty. Mine is not until eleven but none of the shops are open so I head to the airport with her. I catch a flight to London and then take a train to Victoria Station for a quick tour of London. Here are some pictures of the day in London. I took a train to the airport and then a quick two hour flight back to Torino. While in line waiting for my flight I met two students (Sara and James) from Nevada who were in Torino studying. We took the bus back into the city and chatted about the places we have visited and their plans after college. Always nice to meet people!

I will post the pictures next...

Gran Torino

What a fun weekend! Friday after work Elena and I went to the chocolate festival in the piazza by the Po River. There were a lot of amazing chocolates and it was fun to have people with me that could help me as when I went last Saturday I didn't really know what to get! We had chocolate covered nuts, chocolate covered coffee beans and chocolate fruits (some had fruity liquor in them and some had chocolate that tasted like the fruit). I also learned that here in Torino they do not have a tradition of hiding Easter eggs for children to find. Instead, they have chocolate eggs with surprises inside. The eggs can be very small or HUGE...the size of a seven year old child (and a large child like Aidan). Here are some pictures are took last weekend of the festival.

Saturday I walked around the city in the amazing spring weather, it was in the fifties. I met Eliana and her husband Andrea for coffee and to devise a plan for the evening. We decided to see Gran Torino at eight and have dinner after. We arrived at the movie and it was sold out so we decided to have dinner before...which was great because we got to watch the first half of the Juventus game! We met Sabino (a coworker) and his friend Sarina for dinner and then met Anna (the instructor from the cooking school) at the movie. The movie was very good and although it was in Italian I understood a lot...thankfully Clint Eastwood is a man of few words! Plus there was a very adorable yellow lab in the movie! As we were leaving the movie I put my hand in my pocket and forgot I had a small piece of chocolate in their and due to the high temperature of the movie theater (totally opposite of the freezing cold American ones) it melted. Good thing Sarina had kleenex as there were none in the bathroom and that the mess was pretty much just on my cell phone!

Sunday I got up and went for a run along the Po. It was a beautiful day again. I then met Eliana, Andrea, Anna and their friends Silvia and Andrea and their son Nicolo for lunch along the river. It was a beautiful day to sit and talk (in my case mostly listen). We then took a walk along the river and back up to a great gelateria. I even got to see them making my stratcciatella (Stacey you are right it is the best flavor) on a video right before they brought it out! Also, it seems that you don't just get one flavor here. A small portion can contain two flavors and most people take full advantage of that. Oh, and another thing that made me obviously American is when I was discussing how I loved Nutella with peanut butter! Everyone at lunch thought I was crazy! I am pretty sure we walked for at least five miles all over the city and it was so fun as I got to see so many different piazzas that I had never seen before. It is so fun to walk around a corner and see a beautiful piazza. I also had a wonderful conversation with Nicolo about how English is a lot easier to learn than Italian and he seemed to agree with me...sure he is five months old but still I think he is on board! I went with Massimo and his friends for dinner at a pizzaria on the Po (wow I pretty much spent the entire day next to the river). I think I had my favorite pizza so far!

I also got to talk to my mom and listen to how crazy the dogs are which is nice. I do miss Cork!

Food Lab - Finger Foods

Last night Eliana and I went to a Finger Foods cooking class. It was so much fun. Michele (one of the partners here) has a daughter, Anna, who opened a cooking school (Foodlab - Scuola Cucina Torino) with a friend called. Anna and Eliana have been friends since they were young so Eliana suggested we attend a class together. I am sure many of you are laughing right now as I don't cook very often...it isn't that I can't cook it just takes a lot of time! And for those of you wondering, yes the class was conducted in Italian. Thank goodness Eliana and Anna helped me out when I had questions!

The kitchen...Eliana takes her turn at the patte dollops

We began by making a raw tuna dish mixed with soy sauce, sesame seeds, and another ingredient that I have already forgot (good thing we have the recipes!). We put the dish into the refrigerator to chill. We moved on to making patte. We each got a turn trying to make the patte into a very nice presentation (sort of like a fancy dollop of butter) but mine turned out more like a blob! We then put the patte into the refrigerator while we made the chocolate mousse and the mandarino dessert (which had to be chilled before serving). The chocolate mousse was spooned into little cups and then we topped it with oil and salt (similar to sea salt in texture but from Hawaii and the Alps). It sounds kind of odd to top chocolate mousse with oil and salt but it was amazing (all you salt lovers...Stacey and Dad...will love it when I make it!). The chocolate mousse made the salt almost taste like sugar.

Chocolate mousse and mandarino dessert

We then went on to make mussels with bread crumbs, meat and other spices. We learned how to steam the mussels in order to make them easier to open. We then topped the mussels with the bread crumb crumb mixture and baked them. While they were baking we made breaded sardines with pine nuts and raisins. The mussels came out of the oven and were delicious. While the other tray of mussels and the sardines were cooking we made a miniature version of a salad topped with chicken and two different Asian soy/ginger dressing.

Eliana, Anna and I...sardines and mussels

Eliana and I are planning on recreating all the dishes for all of our friends here one weekend. I am sure it will be a lot more difficult than Anna and Andrea made it look but it will still be fun. Oh and I got my own apron! I can't wait to go back for my next class!

Making the stuffed pasta shells...the finished product

All of our creations (minus the tuna dish) and our class!

Answering a Request From the Crowd

I have had several requests to update my blog. The problem is that I really have not done anything super exciting since last Sunday when I went skiing so I didn't think that anyone would really seem to read it...but for those of you (Tracy) who are interested in what I have been up to the past few days here goes.

I was successful in exchanging my necklace that broke. I purchased a simple beaded necklace and when I went to open it beads went flying. I was able to explain (in very choppy Italian) that it broke and was able to exchange it. Success!

My Italian lessons this week were on items in the store and fruits (two different lessons not fruit in the store). I have a lot of trouble with when you use some articles. I am also learning all about feminine and masculine. "That" or "the" has seven different forms based on singular/plural and masculine/feminine. Also, it is so hard to remember that each adjective has four conjugations based on the noun it describes. Seriously, adjectives like "red" have four different pronunciations/spellings based on what "red" is describing: rossa fragola (red strawberry), rosse fragole (red strawberries), rosso divano (red couch), rossi divani (red couches). I have cursed Rosetta Stone so many times! Frankly I do not believe that our Department of Defense would send someone into a foreign land with only the use of Rosetta Stone. Frankly "the cat jumped on the bed" is just not useful!

I ate some great sushi for lunch yesterday at a place called Japs. The salmon mix was out of this world. Last night I also made an amazing piadine (I think I have described them before...between a tortilla and a pita) with salami, fresh grated Parmesan cheese and a little balsamic vinegar. Fantastic!

Oh, another thing that I figured out (although this was last week) is that not all of the red post office boxes accept mail. Some seem to be similar to the green mail boxes we have the US which you can not deposit mail as they are only for the post office to store mail in for routes so postal workers do not have to carry all their mail instead they can pick it up along the way. I must say the system of blue and green to distinguish between the two is a little easier. Although I guess it isn't that hard to see when you walk by it that it does not have a spot to deposit mail like the other ones do.

So there you have it. I am sure it will come as no surprise to most of you that I can write (or talk) for a long time on just about anything. I hope this gives you a Tara Story Fix! I promise to have more entertaining stuff to write after my Finger Foods cooking class tonight!

Skiing in Limone

Sunday I took the 0700 train from Torino to Cuneo where I Natalia picked me up to go skiing in Limone with her and her friend Chiara. Limone is south of Torino, as opposed to where we went skiing last weekend in Sauze d'Oulx. It was another amazing day filled with amazing views! The skiing was a little bit more difficult than last weekend as I think that the hills were a bit steeper. We were near the french boarder again and could see the check point to France as we turned to go up to the ski resort. In fact, if you take the farthest chair lift you actually ski down the French side of the mountain!

We finished off the day meeting a friend of Natalia's in Cuneo before I caught the train back home. We had great little treats and an amazing glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. I caught the train with a few minutes to spare (both ways actually...I am sure no one is surprised) and it was very busy. I didn't know how to ask people if they would move their belongings so I could sit down so I sat in the jump seat in the entry/exit way for the one and a half hour ride home! Good thing I had a good book!

Here are some pictures of the amazing views!

A black...in the Alps? Good thing I bought the insurance for 2.5o euros!

I have to get down from here....looking down 27

I made it down...without falling...a few near falls though! Looking back up 27

I should have stopped here before our start just to say a quick prayer!