veal, and goat cheese and pesto, oh my!

Be advised: Deliciousness ahead.

So I had my cooking class again tonight, and we actually got to do most of the cooking tonight. The previous two classes, we had mostly spent doing small tasks while watching the instructor doing most of the heavy lifting.

Tonight, we made an antipasti (that I failed to photograph) called involiti di bresaola. It's a cured and salted beef, thinly sliced almost like salami, with goat cheese and arugula mixed together and rolled up inside. Just a quick bite to whet the apetite. My first taste of goat cheese...I wasn't floored, but I did like it.

My group had spent most of the evening preparing ossobuco milanese (shin of veal, Milan style). The veal was coated in flour, then browned on both sides in butter. After simmering in white wine for 10 minutes, we continually added beef stock to the pan, refilling it as it boiled off. Eventually, we also added tomato that had been peeled and chopped.


A girl in my class, Grace, and I prepared the gremolata to top it with. Made of chopped parsley, lemon zest, and garlic, we put this on top of the veal in the pan about 5 minutes before we served it.



One of the other groups prepared a torta di cioccolato, obviously a chocolate cake which the teacher later topped with cacoa powder. It was made with a similar base to the hazelnut cake last week, with sugar, butter, flour, and egg whites. We also used very good quality dark chocolate to flavor it. Hot from the oven...



After the antipasti of the bresaola, we feasted on linguine with freshly made pesto. The pesto was a little creamier and a little stronger than I prefer, but it was still delicious. I wish I could try to make fresh pesto here, but without a blender or a food processor, it is definitely going to prove difficult. Good thing I can buy it freshly made at il centro mercato.





This is what the veal looked like after it was fully cooked and ready to eat....

My own little slice of chocolate heaven. Tasted like a super rich, dark chocolate brownie.

It is strange how my tastes here are changing. I eat way more fresh vegetables than I do at home, and way less meat. The only times I actually eat meat are in my cooking class (don't worry Mom, I'm eating eggs and beans at home to get my protein in). I've also started cooking heavily with extra virgin olive oil, and I've eaten more tomatoes in the past three weeks than I have probably in my whole life before it. I've become absolutely obsessed by balsamic vinegar, and fresh mozzarella is my new best friend. The coffee pot is almost constantly brewing a cup for someone in the house, oftentimes me. It's strange to think about returning to a world where these things are not my normal habits, and I will be interested to see how many of them stick.

Tomorrow, I have my first quiz in my Italian class, which I am finding it hard to take seriously. I am trying very hard not to allow my cockiness to get the best of me and do some actual studying tonight. I also have a character portrait as well as my major writing assignment for my Travel Writing class, and a paper on the Pazzi conspiracy for my Medici class to consider. Sounds like it is going to be superfun busy weekend for me...

We are planning to go to San Gimignano at some point this weekend, if only to experience the WORLD CHAMPION GELATERIA located there. Even though we were lied to and told it was in Florence, we decided that a short train ride was a small price to pay for the deliciousness that this little hill town promises. My roommates and I are also going to the Academia museum on Friday, to finally get a look at Michaelangelo's David (and other works of art...which I know nothing about.)