November.
Hearty grains!
We will be cooking with rice, spelt, barley and pasta, creating satisfying but balanced meals with the season’s delicious vegetables. We will be using cheese or cured meats for flavouring, showing you how they easily substitute stocks, if there isn’t any fresh stock at hand. We will be cooking a main dish, typically a “primo”, as well as an accompanying course, as is the custom in the traditional Italian kitchen.
Pumpkin and Sausage Pasta.
2nd November.
An incredibly simple and flavourful pasta dish made with a stewed sausage and pumpkin sauce and topped with pecorino. Pumpkin and pasta are a perfect autumn combo, and good quality sausages are an easy and quick way to flavouring sauces, soups or rice. Delicious topped with a creamy and piquant cheese.
Chestnut, Thyme and Toma Risotto.
8 and 9th of November
This is a very delicate risotto and a very gentle way to use autumn’s chestnuts. The combination of a smooth, pale-white risotto made with a creamy, mountainous cheese, lightly picked up with a small hint of lemon and honey, then sprinkled with melt- in-your-mouth chestnuts and finished with fresh thyme leaves makes this a delightful warming savoury course with a just a hint of sweetness.
Serving suggestion: chicory, pear and hazelnut salad.
Spelt and Prosciutto Minestra
15th and 16th November
Spelt is a very nutritious ancient grain, higher in protein and fibre and lower in gluten than other common grains. It grows particularly well in Britain and is a delicious base for soups and salads alike. This is an all-season soup which can be brightened with tomatoes when in season, and served topped with celery leaves and Parmesan.
Serving suggestion: a cauliflower salad.
Trentino Pearl Barley, Potato and Pancetta Soup
22nd and 23rd November
Barley is a lovely delicate grain, and this is a traditional soup from the high altitude, North-Eastern region of Italy is timeless way of serving it. Adding a potato to a barley soup makes it extra creamy, and flavouring it with various cured meats makes it very hearty. This is a slow-cook soup, which improves over the course of the days.
Serving suggestions: a fennel gratin.
October.
Perfect Pastas!
Learn how to make some of the most loved veggie pasta dishes, the proper Italian way. We will be starting with two Southern Italian classics, followed by a couple of Sicilian pasta recipes. Over these four sessions we will be cooking extra, to give you the possibility to try your hand at another much-loved Italian culinary repertoire – La Cucina degli Avanzi. In Italy leftover pasta is almost never eaten the same way the next day, and each has its own way of being repurposed. You will be receiving instructions on how to rework each of these into another dish, which can be made and eaten over the next couple of days.
