Focaccia, Pasta & More Neapolitan Favorites... May 11 at 6PM

Join us for an amazing evening of Neapolitan cooking and learn to make fresh pasta, focaccia, and more on May 11 at 6 pm!

Don't wait too long to sign up for this one time-only hands-on cooking class! Join us for a taste of Naples right here in Manhattan, a chance to explore the cuisine of this lively southern Italian city without getting on a plane. We'll begin our Neapolitan feast with a timeless classic: handmade focaccia topped fresh tomatoes and oregano, the perfect starting point for any Italian dinner. Next up: fresh lasagna layered with cheese and a hearty sausage ragu; and while you can buy ready-made lasagna noodles if you are short on time, we'll make the pasta dough from scratch in this class, giving you the foundation to making fresh pasta confidently at home in the future. Our main course: Mediterranean sea bass (aka branzino) poached in a lightly spicy broth with capers, parsley, and garlic, just delicious with a side of slow-cooked broccoli raab and potatoes with garlic and chili oil (a hint: boiling broccoli raab in the same water as potatoes, or any starchy vegetable, tames its bitterness and transforms it into a sweet, tender vegetable). A classic Neapolitan dessert featuring liqueur-soaked ladyfingers and a silky espresso custard closes the meal on a decadent sweet note.

Menu, May 11:

Focaccia with Olive Oil & Tomatoes
Neapolitan Five-Cheese & Meat Lasagna
Branzino in "Crazy Water" (with Spicy Tomato-Garlic Broth)
Garlicky Broccoli Raab & Potatoes
Silky Espresso Custard over Drunken Ladyfingers

This hands-on cooking 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 or call 917-602-1519.

And we are also very excited about our Northern Italian Classics cooking class on May 7 at 6pm... We'll begin our feast with delicate tagliatelle, made by hand from a foolproof recipe you'll surely use time and again, tossed with a vodka-spiked tomato and cream sauce. We'll stuff veal scaloppine with a delightful mix of herbs, Pancetta, and Parmigiano, then cook them with white wine and a hint of tomatoes until tender and juicy; the ideal side dish for this sumptuous main course is a playful reinterpretation of polenta, layered with melting Mozzarella cheese and fragrant with fresh herbs. And for dessert, we'll make my favorite version of tiramisu: featuring dark cocoa, amaretto liqueur, and almond extract, this is a serious tiramisu worthy of the most elegant dinner tables. You can sign up here for our Northern Italian Classics.

We've also posted our complete online class calendar through June 2012 here.

For those of you planning a team-building activity or important celebration this season, consider a private cooking party. 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. 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 husband's 60th birthday party at RUSTICO COOKING: "It was a wonderful evening!!! The ambiance of your facility is so right: we felt like beautiful people in a very chic place. The food was scrumptious. My, were we good cooks: so good that some dishes we did not even work on came out so well by magic!! Elizabeth, Lauren, and Jessie were friendly, warm and gracious. You were both organized and thorough in doing the planning. I could have asked for nothing more." Candace S.

We look forward to cooking with you soon!

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 delicious new recipes for spring: homemade pasta with broccoli raab, and a tender octopus salad. 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 recipes: