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!