Cibo (chee-bow)- Food

            ….well it was food day again today J….wait, I live in italy, everyday is food day J….but today was my 4^th Cuisine class, and it was by far my most favorite meal of them all!...i loved every part of it!... the rest of my day was kinda uneventful, had classes all day (which we actually interesting so that was nice) and then we went and found the Italian equivalent to a CVS or Walgreens…so much fun….and then of course went for our daily gelato (but our gelato shop and its owner, Gianni, is his own post entirely, another day J)….

            …but cuisine class, man oh man!....so we got there a smidgen late…. 2^nd time being a few minutes late, think we should leave earlier lol….. oh well, we only have one more….but when we got there, the group was already preparing the dolce (dessert)...we continued cooking for the full two hours, taking breaks while things were cooking to talk about certain ingredients, where they come from and how Italy uses them….it was so much fun….we learned a lot today about riso (rice, for the risotto, which fun fact, isn’t the dish name because its an ingredient or something but rather because it is the name of the method used to cook it!) and its different types…and also about the ingredients that Italy uses a lot, that came from the new world…very very interesting..

 …but seriously to the real point of the post, the meal was definently my favorite, but honestly a lot of the food was stuff that I have made at home with my family….the foodJ….Antipasti (quiz what does that mean???  ----- Yes, appetizer J)…..was bruschetta and capresi….both were totally delish….the capresi was super fresh and lets be real, its made of my most favorite things, tomatoes, basil, oil, salt, pepper and mozzarella di buffalo….i could eat an entire meal of just that!....

         

           ….the bruschetta was sooo stinkin good too!....for those of you who don’t know, “bruschetta” is not the tomato topping on the bread that we get when we order it in the states…. Its actually the toasted bread itself….then you can top the bruschetta with whatever you want….essentially what we know as crostinis at my house….but we topped it normally, rubbing garlic on it when it was hot, then topping with oil, salt and pepper….or squishing a tomato then topping with basil…..and the third option was something totally new for me to see…..chicken liver….and actually…it was DELICIOUS!!....ok when she brought it out and cut it up, I was curious, even though I have already had it in a ragu at a restaurant….but we chopped it and cooked it in garlic, and butter…then ran a cool knife, mezzaluna (half moon, you use two hands for it, but its kinda like an ulu) through it to basically make it consistency of ground meat then cooked it a bit more…..then put it on bruschetta….oh my goodness I loved it!!!

            ….primi piatti (whats this???  -----first plate) was what really reminded me of home….the risotto….we made it with saffron, like my host mom had made for me before….but I volunteered to sit and add the chicken stock and cook it while our teacher was lecture, while we waited for it….and just that smell of the wine cooking off, mixed with the hot stock….that smell, just reminded me of standing at the stove finishing the risotto as dad brings in the meat from the grill and mom finishes literally everything else…and as soon as its done everyone goes to sit down……..but anyways, we made it as normal and then added the saffron to it, which is what made it the yellow color….oh me goodness its such a good flavor J….i had two helpings of this, and if this class didn’t make me feel so stuffed when I went home, I probably could’ve had more J…..

            ….the secondi piatti  (did you guess second plate?)…was also really great J….melanzane e parmigiano….eggplant parmesian….gah soo good…ive discovered since coming to Italy that I really like eggplant J….so basically we fried eggplant slices then alternated layers of these pieces with layers of mozzarella and parmigiano and sauce in a baking dish, then baked it in the oven…..man those flavors together…so stinkin good J….its like a veggie lasagna….. delicious…..we had this plate with a really good Chianti wine as well…

            …even though I ADORED every part of these dishes…the dolce was MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE THING!!!!!....i had never had it before tonight, but I will definitely be eating it more now!....so first we whipped egg yolks with powdered sugar, then separately whipped cream, and then another bowl whipped egg whites to pretty stiff peaks….we mixed the egg yolk/sugar mix with pieces of Terrone (which is a Piedmont candy…kinda between a nougat and a meringue…with hazelnuts in it…really good, just hard to explain)…then mixed that with the whipped cream….then with the egg whites…..then in a baking dish we broke up pieces of meringue into small chunks for the first layer…then covered it with half of our mix…..then another layer of meringue, and then the rest of the mix…..THEN it goes in the freezer for a long time and the mix we made, freezes to just before the consistency of ice cream….we topped it with a chocolate sauce of just melted chocolate and butter….seriously I want to eat this everyday of my life…..

            ….we finished the night with Limoncello, of which some people didn’t like so I got extra….I was sooo happy….

            …this was by far the BEST night at cuisine so far…..I was just in love with every morsel of food that I put into my mouth….i was sad to get up from the table after dinner…..we only have one more class which is pretty sad I must admit….but its totally been worth the extra money….ive had so much fun and actually learned a lot….i love this place…..oh and eating….totally love eating the cibo here J