I think our family has a history of failures when it comes to trying to make gnocchi - which our chef emphasised really must be pronounced "njoki" rather than "ghenoki". Always falling apart or a bit soggy, the art of this dish really seems to fall through our hands - and so we've endeavoured to learn the professional way. This morning Katherine and I attended a cooking class which, for us, focused on learning how to make gnocchi. At 9 am we met at Campo de Fiori (translating to Field of Flowers) which is a local market selling fresh and organic produce from the local regions. There we met our leading chef, Francesco, and an English couple whom we were going to learn to cook with. First things first we grabbed some coffee and a croissant whilst Francesco bargained his way with the local stallsmen for fresh zucchini, eggplant, roquette, onions and cherry tomatoes. Steak cuts were also involved but that isn't exactly my forte.
We were then taken to the cooking school which was lovely, situated in the centre of Rome only a 5 minute walk from the market. For our first dish, we made the chef's grandma's traditional eggplant parmigiana with a modern twist. The eggplant was cubed, tossed into mixing container and coated with flour. Crushed garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and a generous amount of olive oil followed. I then cooked the seasoned eggplant down in a frypan, and transferred it into a bowl of tomato sauce and stirred. Parmesan and fior di latte were added for thickness and flavour. Interestingly, fior di latte and mozzarella are virtually the same in Italy except one comes from a cow, the other one from a buffalo - "buffalo mozzarella" therefore now seems a bit redundant.
The mixture was spooned into a baking tray and promptly covered in more parmesan, fior di latte and torn basil. They stayed in the oven at about 160 degrees for half an hour or so - their readiness judged by the eye. This seems to be a slight problem with Italian cooking - everything is judged "by the eye", just a "pinch" of this or a "handful" of that, making it difficult to replicate at home. The eggplant parmigiana was served with a salad of avocado, roquette, cherry tomatoes and a dressing of vinegar and olive oil. For others, it involved a steak cooked in butter and rosemary. Not for me.
Moving on to the gnocchi was our main goal. We boiled floury potatoes until they were very soft and let them cool down - Francesco suggested doing this step the night before. Parmesan, parsley, salt and pepper as well as 50/50 mixture of semolina and flour were added. This was then kneaded until the dough sprang back when pushed. We excitedly started to make the little gnocchi beads, using semolina flour to stop them from joining up. To cook them, they were popped into boiling water, gently stirred and then fished out with a strainer after they had all bobbed up to the surface.
For the sauce, we chopped zucchini and onion and fried it in olive oil, adding prosecco and letting it simmer for some time until all the alcohol had evaporated and the zucchini was soft. After throwing in some lemon zest, the vegetables were whizzed up in a food processor to form a thick sauce and left to cool. The pasta was then topped with more fried slices of zucchini seasoned with smoked paprika. This all formed a very delicious zucchini gnocchi dish!
And finally for dessert, we made cherry ice cream - or what Katherine refers to as semifreddo as it wasn't churned. It was pretty simple - two egg yolks, two heaped spoonfuls of sugar which was mixed with an electric beater for a few minutes. Then we added some cherry syrup from canned cherries for flavour, and folded in some previously prepared whipped cream. This was then put into the freeze blaster, which basically just freezes everything faster. It was super sweet and maybe a bit too much for me, but still delicious!
After all the food and wine, Katherine and I rolled out of the cooking school and down the road to pick up our luggage from the hotel. David and the boys have left to fly back to Dubai, and now it's just us so we're staying at a hotel downtown in Testaccio, which is more local and casual. We're staying right above the market complex (Mercato Testaccio), and tomorrow we'll be looking at all the food and gelato that is available. I also bought this apron (sorry Nana and Grandpa if you see this) and a small lime-green Moka pot for my coffee adventures in Denmark.
Tomorrow is my birthday, and on Sunday I fly to Helsinki!
Ciao!
Happy Birthday Sophie!! We miss you.