Cooking class in Florence

Coffee is the most important part of my day. Without it I am a empty shell of a human. Our apartment in Florence came with a moka pot. I have never used one of these but the night before I jumped on YouTube to watch a video about how they work. Apparently water sits at the bottom and as it’s heated it moves through the coffee to the top. Looks simple.

Moka pot

This morning I set it up just like the video showed me. I even heated the water before putting it in the bottom as the video had suggested. As the pot was sitting on the burner I was impatient and I lifted the lid. Just at that movement the coffee came through the bottom to the top and landed all over the kitchen. Since no one was up yet I will say my cat like reflexes dodged the hot coffee that was spraying all over the place.

Adding insult to injury I added what I thought was sugar to my coffee but it turned out to be salt. This was not my best morning but I made another cup. When the others woke up I proceeded to make Linda a cup of coffee like a pro that had been born with a moka pot out the womb.

Filming day

Today was cooking class day for Linda and myself. After our coffee and croissants we headed a couple blocks away to our designated meeting place.

When we neared the meeting place (near the Apple Store) we realized something was amiss because much of the square had been blocked off and there were film crew all over the place. I overheard that it was the Netflix film “Six Underground” being filmed. While we waited we watched a car chase scene being filmed

Market tour

Our chef showed up and took us to a market to describe what materials we would be working with and what ingredients Florentine cuisine consists of. The market was quite lovely and the members of the group oohed and aahed when a market patron bought a massive steak from one of the butchers.

Cooking class

After the market tour we were lead to a cooking classroom behind the market. Our instructors were excellent and laid the ground rules for the class to come. Our first task was to make tiramisu. I showed off my skills by mixing the egg yokes and sugar with the mascarpone. Everyone gave me compliments but Linda wasn’t buying my feats of strength. Assembly of the tiramisu was simple but the woman to my left had the sudden realization that this wasn’t cooked and there were raw eggs. The chefs assured her that they were fine. I often forget that raw eggs make people nervous.

Pasta

I have made fresh pasta once before and it was too thick. Today, we mixed the flour and egg and then let it rest in cling-film. Then we were given a bottle of Chianti. This is what I was missing the last time I made fresh pasta. I share with you all so that you know the secrets. After finishing our wine and conversing with our table partners we started to roll the dough flat. Holes in the dough are bad and I made sure to point out to my new found friends that I didn’t have any. Temporary friends.

With our pasta dough rolled out flat we were instructed how to make tagliatelle and ravioli. We took these instructions back to our table and expertly (well some of us) made these pasta delights. Once finished our pasta was taken away and cooked for us.

We cook to eat

The best part of cooking is the eating. Our pasta was delivered and we relished in our accomplishments with more wine. I noticed that one of the tables was ignoring their bottle of wine and notified my friends at my table. They immediately wanted me to go take it and I informed them I was not equipped with persuasion skills (unless I rolled a critical). The US living Brazilian woman next to me took charge and buttered them up before relieving them of their bottle of wine by bringing it back to our table.