Italian Seafood Cooking Class in NYC!

Learn to cook a classic Italian seafood menu featuring handmade pasta, branzino, mussels, shrimp, risotto and more at a fun-filled hands-on cooking class on March 18 at 6pm.

In this brand new class devoted to Italian seafood cooking, we'll learn to make five fabulous dishes that are ideal for entertaining since they can easily be prepared ahead. We'll begin with fresh cavatelli pasta in a hearty mussel-laced tomato sauce, a classic first course in coastal Puglia. Our succulent main course is Sicilian in spirit: fillets of branzino (Mediterranean sea bass) cooked to perfection with a scattering of raisins, olives, pine nuts, capers, and onions, quite lovely served with a colorful medley of string beans, sweet peppers, and zucchini roasted with white wine, and a chive-scented shrimp risotto. For a sweet finale, we'll whip creamy, fresh Mascarpone cheese with a secret ingredient and serve it over fresh berries and liqueur-soaked ladyfingers as a lovely ending to our seafood feast.

Menu, March 18:

Homemade Cavatelli with Mussels in Light Tomato Sauce
Sea Bass Sicilian Style with Olives, Raisins, & Pine Nuts
Roasted String Beans, Sweet Peppers & Zucchini with White Wine
Shrimp, Lemon, & Chive Risotto
Light-as-Air Limoncello Mousse with Fresh Berries

This hands-on cooking class lasts from 6PM to 9PM. The cost is $110 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 Taste of Trentino Cooking Class on April 8 at 6pm... In this class, we'll learn to make five delicious dishes from the northern Italian region of Trentino. To begin, we'll make canederli, plump bread gnocchi flavored with chives and a smoked Prosciutto called Speck; you can serve these gnocchi in broth, or (the way we prefer them), panfried with sage and butter until they get crisp and golden on the outside. Next, we'll roast an herb-marinated pork tenderloin to perfection and make a succulent sauce for it using wild mushrooms, cream, and a splash of white wine. Slow-roasted string beans and layered potatoes with Pancetta, tomatoes, and onions make the perfect accompaniment to the pork. And for dessert, we'll make amazingly light Ricotta fritters featuring rum-soaked raisins and Ricotta... a dusting of confectioner's sugar is all you need to enjoy this delectable dessert, but a rum-spiked chocolate sauce won't hurt either! You can sign up here for our Taste of Trentino Cooking Class.

We've also posted our online class calendar through May 2013 here.

Private Cooking Parties & Team-Building Events NYC

For those of you looking for a memorable team-building event, bachelorette party, or birthday celebration, 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, HBO, Unilever, Google, Colgate Palmolive, Credit Suisse, David Yurman, 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 company's team-building event at RUSTICO COOKING: "I want to take the time to thank you both for your continual communication, patience and organization for our event on February 7th. Not only was the space and event exactly what we were looking for, but the entire staff was courteous, knowledgeable and extremely friendly. Everyone is still talking about what a wonderful time they had, and how much they thoroughly enjoyed the experience and delicious food! Speaking of the food... it was amazingly delicious and we are all patting ourselves on the back on a job well done. Everyone left wanting the recipes and to try them at home with our brand new aprons! This was a wonderful team-building experience! I think your staff could tell from the constant laughter how much fun we truly had. Also, we wanted to comment on how impressed we were with the staff's organization and preparedness, and the cleanliness and sanitation of your facility. It is obvious you hold your kitchen to very high standards!! Thank you both so very much for this experience and we will be sure to recommend Rustico Cooking to others!!" Mary Joy B., Louis Vuitton-Moet Hennessy

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 to our site: a spicy salt cod salad and a classic Pugliese pasta with broccoli raab. Let us know which dishes you prepare! These are perfect recipes for entertaining. And consult our complete recipe index here.

Here are links to this month's recipes: