Baking Workshop, Northern Italian Class, & Gift Certificates

Join us for our annual Italain baking workshop and learn to make 6 traditional cookies in time for the holidays on December 17 at 12pm!

We have such a good time baking, and we love sharing our creations with friends and family. On December 17, we are hosting a brand new Italian baking workshop, our way of inviting you into our kitchen for a fun-filled afternoon of holiday baking, during which you'll not only learn to bake six very different, and very delectable, sweets... you'll get to taste them all, and bring some home for your loved ones to enjoy. We'll bake buttery rosewater-scented morsels from Sicily; anise-kissed white wine taralli, shaped like tiny pretzels, so good dunked in sweet wine; addictively crisp almond biscotti from the town of Prato in Tuscany; jam-filled pecan cookies that melt in the mouth; a tender fig and apple confection wrapped in the most amazing shortcrust dough ever; and delicate chocolate meringues, a favorite throughout Italy. After the baking is done, we'll enjoy a simple but fortifying lunch of orecchiette pasta with roasted vegetables, and a salad of greens tossed with balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil. And best of all, you can bring home a happy little package of cookies to enjoy later... Don't wait too long to sign up, this class is sure to sell out.

Hands-On Workshop:

Light-as-Air-Chocolate Meringues
Crunchy Tuscan Almond Biscotti
Flaky Apple, Fig, & Walnut Squares
Pecan-Jam Heart Cookies
White Wine-Scented Anise Taralli
Buttery Rosewater Shortbreads

Lunch menu:

Orecchiette Pasta with Roasted Vegetable Medley
Baby Greens with Balsamic Vinaigrette
Cookies, Cookies, & More Cookies
Espresso

This hands-on cooking class lasts from 12PM to 3PM. The cost is $110 per person and includes a full lunch paired with wine. Be sure to sign up here before class sells out or call 917-602-1519.

And we are also very excited about our Taste of Piedmont & Lombardy Class on December 16 at 6pm... In this new class, we'll explore five traditional northern Italian dishes. We'll begin our feast with handmade ravioli (called casunsei in Lombard dialect) stuffed with sweet sausage and Parmigiano; they need nothing more than a drizzle of sage-scented butter to shine. Our main course: meaty pork ribs slow-cooked with white wine until they are meltingly tender, served with a mushroom-laced risotto and a medley of fall vegetables roasted with aromatic sage and nutty Parmigiano (if you've never had parsnip before, you'll wonder why you waited so long to try this nutty, slightly sweet root vegetable). And for dessert, we'll bake a delectable bread pudding studded with panettone and chocolate, two of the regions' signature ingredients. You can sign up here for our Taste of Piedmont & Lombardy Class. Take a look at our complete online class calendar through February 2012 here.

And with the holiday season just around the corner, this is a good time to think about ordering gift certificates for our cooking classes for the food lovers in your life; certificates also make a great gift for colleagues who love cooking! Recipients can redeem certificates for any cooking class (or wine tasting) on the calendar, so they have total freedom! You can add a copy of The Italian Grill or a handsome RUSTICO COOKING apron to make your gift even more special. We will email you a printable gift certificate within hours of your purchase, so nothing could be easier for holiday gift giving.

For those of you who want to celebrate the holidays in style (without messing up your own kitchen!), why not host a private cooking party this year? Private cooking parties are a unique way to mark a special occasion (birthdays, anniversaries, bachelorette parties), usher in the holiday season, and enjoy a fun-filled evening of food and wine. There are still a few dates open in December; parties can be held in the daytime or evening and last 3 hours, and the cost is just $162 per person inclusive of gratuity. And the best part: you get to pick the menu you want, and you can add on a wine tasting if you are really into wine! We've even created a chocolate lover's dream event: a hands-on cooking class followed by dinner, a wine tasting, and a chocolate tasting... Call 917-602-1519 to inquire about availability for your private cooking event this holiday season. Our corporate clients include A & E Television Network, Unilever, Google, Colgate Palmolive, Credit Suisse, Newsweek, Victoria's Secret, NBC, and many more... Click here for more on our clients and testimonials.

Here's what a client recently said about her team-building event at RUSTICO COOKING last month: "The evening was a huge success, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Gerry was incredible, as was Elizabeth, Melissa and Szabina. I really enjoyed working with all of them, and appreciate all that they did (as well as you and Dino), in accommodating the group, and taking such good care of each and every one of them! I hope to do something again in the future, and have been talking about Rustico Cooking all day, and will continue to spread the word. It is such a unique spot - I feel like I found one of New York's hidden gems!" Dorian, The New Yorker

We look forward to cooking with you soon! Happy Holidays!

Micol Negrin & Dino De Angelis

And why not forward this email newsletter to your food-loving friends? The more people around our kitchen table, the better!

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New Recipes

We've added 2 brand new recipes to our web site this month, including a delicious pasta and a colorful appetizer featuring shrimp. Let us know which dishes you prepare! These are perfect recipes for entertaining, and are sure to make your dinner guests feel very special. And consult our complete recipe index here.

Here are links to this month's brand new recipes: