Ma Ma Mia! No Pizzeria? Just Limone!

Holidays are around the corner and it’s time to entertain friends and folks. My girlfriend and I thought some cooking lessons would help us impress our guests, instead of frightening our guests.

The Cookshop & Cookschool in City Square caught our eyes with their 3 for the price of 2 promotion. We chose to attend the “Passport to Italy: Rome” class on Friday. This class featured a few recipes commonly found in or around Lazio (Rome), Italy. That evening was a Full House! The school’s kitchen was filled with hungry students, Tuscan tunes and the aroma of lemons and herbs.

On the menu:

• Fettucine alla carbonara – the classic pasta sauce with cream, proscuitto, egg, pecorino romano
  
• Fava beans and escarole salad, with pancetta, artichoke hearts, peas, onions, olive oil
  
• Roman-style leg of lamb, cooked with orange and olives
  
• Chicken scaloppini al limone – chicken slices with lemon and white wine
  
• Lazio dolce al limone – lemon cake

Chef Pepe started off with the preparation of the Roman-style leg of Lamb, while the lamb was in the oven he continued on with the Fava Bean and Escarole Salad followed by Fettucine Alla Carbonara. After intermission, the leg of lamb was ready and served, while we enjoyed your zesty lamb, Chef Pepe moved on the the Chicken Scaloppini Al Limone and Lazio Dolce Al Limone.

Some things I learned from Chef Pepe:

• Pasta time saver tip: You can pre-cook pasta 1/2 way, rinse through cold water, separate into portions, refrigerate portions. When you are ready for dinner, reboil the 1/2 cooked pasta add sauce and serve.
  
• Don’t add salt to pasta water when it’s cold… add salt to water when it’s boiling. Why?? heating the salt at the bottom of the pot may cause corrosion and you’ll go through pasta pots a lot quicker.
  
• SING! sing to your food! While Chef Pepe cooks be serenades his cooking with song. If this whole chef and catering business doesn’t workout for him, he should definitely try Canadian Idol… Pavarotti better watch out.
  

My personal favorites were:

Fava Beans and Escarole Salad, Chicken Scaloppini and of course… DESSERT! Lazio Dolce Al Limone (Sorry no photo of the dessert…I ate it too fast!)

Since I was a little piggish with the Dolce Al Limone (lemon tiramisu) below is the recipe that was given to us.

Dolce Al Limone

Serves 8

Ingredients:

3 layers of sponge cake
1lbs of Mascarpone Cheese
250g Sugar
4 eggs
5 Lemons
50g White Chocolate
1/2 cup Water

Method:
Zest one lemon and put aside. Juice all the lemons and strain through sieve, the yield should be 3/4 cup.
In a small pot, combine lemon juice, 100g sugar and water.
Bring to a boil and reduce to low heat and let cool.

Separate egg yolks and whites, beat yolks with remaining sugar for 2-3 minutes with an electric mixer
Add the mascarpone a little at a time while mixing on low speed until creamy. DO NOT Over Mix
Add zest and white chocolate in small pieces. Blend well.
Place layer of sponge cake and brush with lemon syrup. Spread cream over cake and repeat to form layers.
Cover cake wit remaining cream.
Cover and refrigerate overnight before serving (at least 8 hours)

There are many types of cooking lessons the Cookshop offers and other Italian cooking sessions with Chef Pepe.
I’m already scoping out their December schedule!