Master two of Italy's quintessential dishes in our upcoming hands-on cooking classes: Fresh pasta in our Southern Italian Favorites cooking class on May 6 and homemade cannoli in our Taste of Sicily cooking class on May 9!
If you love fresh pasta but are intimidated at the thought of making your own, join us for our upcoming Southern Italian Favorites cooking class. This new class highlights the flavors of southern Italy's Puglia and Basilicata regions: subtly spicy, laced with garlic, kissed by ripe summer tomatoes and fruity olive oil. We'll begin our taste journey to Basilicata with my favorite version of pasta e ceci (pasta with chickpeas, a cousin to pasta e fagioli): rustic homemade tagliatelle, tossed with a rich chickpea sauce. (The technique for making these tagliatelle, or lagane as they are called in this area, can be used to make all manner of fresh pasta, so it's an essential technique that will serve you well time and time again.) Our main course: tender morsels of lamb slow-cooked with plump sausages, aromatic fennel, and peppery Pecorino cheese, the perfect partner for a garlic-infused tangle of sauteed broccoli raab. Dessert is a sweet ode to Ricotta, one of southern Italy's most beloved ingredients: buttery shortcrust dough encasing a heavenly Ricotta filling, topped with wine-soaked strawberries.
On the Menu, May 6 at 6PM:
- Homemade Tagliatelle Pasta with Garlicky Chickpeas
- Slow-Cooked Lamb with Pecorino, Sausage, & Wild Fennel
- Sauteed Broccoli Raab
- Ricotta Cheesecake with Wine-Soaked Strawberries
This hands-on cooking class lasts from 6PM to 9PM. The cost is $95 per person and includes a full dinner paired with wine. Space is limited, so reserve soon... this class will sell out. You can sign up here.
And if you love cannoli, then don't miss our Taste of Sicily class on May 9: we'll be making our very own cannoli from scratch, shells and all.. In this new class, we'll prepare four fabulous dishes in true Sicilian tradition. We'll start by rolling out homemade pasta dough; we'll cut the dough into squares and stuff it with a rich, garlic-scented beef ragu and melting Caciocavallo cheese (similar to Provolone, but with greater compexity and character). Our main course perfectly embodies Sicily's culinary artistry: thin slices of swordfish wrapped around a sweet-and-savory stuffing, roasted until tender and served with a light lemon and olive oil sauce known as salmoriglio; a refreshing salad of thinly sliced fennel and sweet oranges flavored with a few mint leaves is the ideal complement to the swordfish. And for dessert, we'll make our very own crisp cannoli, boasting a rich, creamy cheese filling studded with dark chocolate.
On the Menu, May 9 at 6PM:
- Homemade Cannelloni with Beef Ragu & Two Cheeses
- Swordfish Bundles with Pine Nuts & Raisins in White Wine & Lemon Sauce
- Shaved Fennel & Orange Salad with Fresh Mint
- Miniature Cannoli with Bittersweet Chocolate Morsels
This hands-on class lasts from 6PM to 9PM. The cost is $95 per person and includes a full dinner paired with wine. Be sure to sign up here before class sells out.
And of course, we have plenty of other mouthwatering menus lined up for you this spring and summer: our Evening in Emilia-Romagna featuring homemade ravioli in fresh tomato sauce, veal scaloppine with Prosciutto, a decadent potato gratin, and a chocolate-studded semifreddo on May 16, and our Classics of the Italian Home Kitchen on May 23, where you'll learn to make crisp shrimp phyllo baskets, chicken scaloppine in Marsala glaze, roasted wild mushroom risotto, and apricot pastry squares, to mention just two of this month's fabulous offerings. Take a look at our complete online class calendar (available through July) here.
We look forward to cooking with you soon!
Micol Negrin & Dino De Angelis
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