Jessie & Giada starring Meryl Streep

This Fall I signed up for two cooking classes offered by Keefe Tech's Continuing Education programming. I chose cooking classes because beyond studying cookbooks and googling cooking times and temperatures, I do not feel that I have much mastery in something that I love to do. I chose Italian Inspirations and Indian Kebabs, Chaats and Tandoor because I knew I would learn about two types of foods that both me and my much more picky husband already enjoy. I can make a decent chicken parm and a curry chicken (compliments of my Mom's recipe), respectively, but I don't really know a lot about other dishes, typical ingredients, or methods of cooking that are common to Italian or Indian cooking.

The teacher of the Italian course was Laura Ziman who:

hails from NY where she was a chef for over 20 years. She graduated from SUNY Purchase with a degree in Art History and then was off to Paris to attend La Varenne, the acclaimed cooking school. She owned the first gourmet food shop/restaurant in Albany, NY, the Unlimited Feast, and has been teaching cooking classes to all ages since then. When she is not cooking, Laura teaches art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 

 

There were 11 people in the class last night and we were making 4 dishes in three hours: Eggplant parmigiana, tortellini with squash filling, arancini (fried rice balls), and zuppe inglese (a cake layered with custard, etc.). 

We informally broke into four groups and began working on our dish while Laura circulated, instructed, and gave some background on the dishes she chose. When there was waiting time while things cooked, we all could watch or work with the other groups.

I told my two fellow chefs that I wanted to make anything besides the cake. This is because I came here to learn how to make things that I can eat for dinner, not for breakfast dessert.  We volunteered for tortellini's first, which I  consider a major triumph. I really was dreaming of making tortellini's because a) we like to eat those in my house b) I've watched Giada make ravioli's a million times with a time-lapse video editing  that makes it look effortless, even though I was certain it was impossible for normal people.

First, we made chicken broth which just required boiling chicken thighs with some onion  for two hours

 

Then we made the dough: 2 cups of flour, 3 eggs plus and extra yolk, 1 tbsp of oil, salt. You make the flour into a little well and then having beaten the eggs you add the equivalent of one egg at a time into the flour and incorporate it in

 

 

When it turns into a doughy pile, you knead it until it's soft and then let it hang out in saran wrap for 30 minutes

Before hand, we had peeled and chopped up a butternut squash and some onion, added some olive oil and baked until it was soft and browned

 

Then you take a masher that is approximately the size of either your head or a wildebeest and mash the squash/onion plus one clove of mashed garlic, chopped sage, nutmeg, and salt and pepper

When our dough was done resting, we used the pasta roller beginning at the thickest setting and rolling it out thinner and thinner until the second to thinnest setting. We had three long segments of dough

 

Then, we cut the dough into squares of approximately the same size (not really), and put a small forkful of filling in the middle. To make tortellini, you fold the square diagonally across, forming a lump of the filling at the bottom of the triangle you've made. Then you fold that lump over and then put the little legs together. As we did this we had cups of water to dab at the edges to help keep the dough stuck to itself.

My first tortellini was Barilla (or Stop and Shop brand, depending on your mood)-style perfection

 

The very last tortellini I made looked like a rejected vomit McGee

We then boiled half the tortellini at a time in water + salt. As they rose to the top--about 7-8 minutes later, we transferred them over the chicken broth that we had made (chicken removed). The tortellinis were then served in the broth

All of the dishes essentially came together at the same time and were set out and we all made plates and enjoyed our winnings.

Eggplant Parmigiana

Arancini

Zuppe Ingleses (Laura told me off the record that this was supposed to be a bit more puffy looking)

 

I enjoyed the process of the class itself as well as the specific dish that I got to make. I probably won't make homemade tortellini frequently, but I know that I can if I want to.