Today, I just don’t know where to start so I will start with this. If you enjoy this blog and aren’t a subscriber, just do it. Its easy. At the right there is a box. Type in your email and “bam” you will get a reminder immediately whenever I click “publish”. Also, do me a favor and forward the blog or a link on to your email contacts. Not everybody is interested in this type of writing but you never know.
LIGURIA
Today was food history about the region of Liguria a thin strip of Italy between the mountains and the sea, along the North Western coast, close to France. Our guest Chef Flavio Costa, owns a Michelin Star restaurant named Ristorante L’Arco Antico in Savona.
Chef Flavio Costa and our teacher Chef Bruno Ruffini.
He cooked and presented for 6 hours a total of 7 dishes from Liguria. We got to sample each one. His website is http://www.ristorantearcoantico.it/home. Check it out. These are just a few of the dishes we sampled.
Insalata di Crostacei e ortaggi con brodetto di agrumi.
Triglie, foie gras, mandarin tardivi canditi e salsa agrodolce allo sherry.
The food from Liguria is really special. I suppose I will feel that way about all 20 food regions in Italy after we learn about them and of course Liguria is the first so right now it is on my mind. But we will see. Having a very long coast line and being the location of well known and ancient seafaring cities such as Genova, Savona, Portofino and Imperia you assume that the focus of the cuisine would be seafood.
No doubt the most well known dishes from Liguria have nothing to do with seafood. The dishes are food we have all eaten many times and knew were Italian in origin but never knew came from a specific part of Italy. As you will learn if you continue to read this blog, food in Italy is not at all confined, as we learn in America to “Northern Italian” and “Southern Italian” cuisine . Rather all 20 regions have distinct cuisine and then typically within each region the food is further defined and then food is even further delineated by season and what raw materials are available in each season and then of course every Italian’s mother has her own special recipe handed down form generation to generation.
Zuppetta di ciliegie al vino rosso e spezie con fior di latte all'extraverginine. Ouch!
Anyway back to the two most well known dishes from Liguria. They are, in my opinion, Pesto and Focaccia.
Chef Costa made two pesto dishes with exactly the same ingredients. Both used basil, extra-virgin olive oil, a small amount of garlic, pine nuts, Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino cheese and two traditional ingredients which I have never seen before in Pesto, green string beans and potatoes. How can you have two different dishes with exactly the same ingredients? Well, one was made the old fashion way with a mortar and pestle and the other the modern way with a blender. The tastes were similar but the preparation style makes a huge difference in the taste. If you do not know what I mean when I say made with a mortar and pestle make sure to check out the video clip and the end of this post.
VIDEO.
Time to close for tonight. Tomorrow starts at 8:00 am and ends at 6:30 pm. TGIF.
For Tamara's Mom.
For Sofia's Mom.
Chefs, Baltimore
Hi, Anthony’s mom, never named him Tony, Anton would be OK, would love to see a photo of her first born. Please, Mama Dukes
I have some good ones of Ante’. See tonights blog.
Can I call you Carl, instead of Mr. Vahl? I just fall in love with your website, it is a nice way of keeping in touch with our love ones. In my culture we crush garlic in a mortat, the saying is food tastes better
oooo myyyy goodness does that stuff look good. make sure you learn how to make all this good stuff so you can cook it for me!!!!!
[...] all really cool and like most of the American students very young. I posted a photo of Sofia on June 3, 2010. The others are: Diana Diana eating. We do a lot of that [...]