I've been in the Amalfi Coast, which explains the absence of posts of late.
I love Italian food, and the Amalfi Coast had a lot to offer for food lovers. Tomatoes that tasted of the sun, figs that were ripe and juicy and the biggest lemons you have ever seen. As well as visiting many amazing restaurants (and one really bad one) and trying pizza marinara fresh from a wood fired over I also loved going to the local supermarket and buying a big bag of tomatoes, figs and some basil. Fixing up a great salad, and heading down to the beach. Summer on a plate, and all for under 3 Euros. I was in tomato heaven.
After Indian my favourite cuisine is Italian. I love them both for the opposite reasons. Italian food is best because of its simplicity; simple ingredients married together to make fantastic dishes. Indian food I love because of the complexity of many spices that makes a great taste.
So while I was in Sorrento I decided to check out a cooking class. Sorrento Cooking School, offered a three hour class making four dishes; a pizzette, ravioli, a fish course and tiramasu. Two courses; the pizzette and fish course, the chef demonstrated how to make and then the other two; ravioli and tiramasu, we got to make. Personally I really enjoy getting my hands dirty and want to make everything, so for me this class didn't offer me enough hands on cooking. But I have picked up some great tips and will defiantly be making the ravioli and pizzette and tweaking my tomato sauce to how Mina the chef makes it. However this is a great class for novice cooks.
The pizzette was something new for me. Its a small pizza topped with tomato sauce, basil and parmesan cheese. Its different from a pizza as the dough is rolled out into a small circle and then fried in peanut oil rather than baked in an oven. After the chef made the dough, we then got to each have a portion of dough and make our own pizzette. Now you would think that they would be slightly greasy once cooked. But they weren't, they were soft, light and extremely tasty. We got to have these with a glass of prosecco sitting underneath an orange tree. Bliss.The ravioli was also surprisingly simple to make. We all got to make our own ravioli dough, roll it out and make cheese ravioli. I haven't made any of the recipes at home yet, but once I do, I will post the recipes. In the meantime here is Mina's tomato sauce.
Mina's Tomato Sauce
Two bottles of passata
1 clove of garlic; peeled,
Some salt
3-4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
A good handful of basil
Method
Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a big pan. Get the garlic and squash with your hand or the back of a knife so it breaks a little. Add this to the pan, then fry until the garlic goes golden on both sides, but make sure it doesn't burn. Take the garlic out. (Mina said that once the oil has flavoured itself with the garlic you don't need it anymore). Add the two bottles of passata. (Top Tip: Do not rinse out the bottles with water and then add this to the pan. Passata is concentrated tomatoes and by adding water to it you are defeating its purpose.).
