Yesterday morning, our cultural activity was a lecture on "Intercultural Communication." It was mostly just a professor talking to us about Italy. It was fun though, he's a funny guy. I don't have him for any regular classes but c'est la vie or I guess now that I'm in Italy, c'e la vita or something.
After the lecture, was (finally) our cooking class. It was so much fun!! We started off by going to the Mercato with our professor. He showed us all the best places to get stuff and who the right people were to talk to and stuff like that. And we got ingredients for the four recipes we were making that afternoon.
For our recipes, we made:
- Focaccia sandwiches with prosciutto, salame, pecorino (cheese), buffalo mozzarella and sage.
- Pasta with fresh pesto sauce, green beans, potatoes and tomatoes.
- Sauteed chicken with grilled eggplant, mozzarella and tomatoes.
- Chocolate tort with fruit.
Holy cow. This food was incredible. It was all fresh from the market and man, did it make a difference. There were only six of us in the class (the other UNC students had gone on Tuesday) so we got to really get into the cooking. For example, I basically made the chicken. And it was really easy too - definitely something I can do in the apartment, even without a stove. We even made the bread for the focaccia (well, the teacher had pre-made the dough but we rolled it and baked it and everything). And we made the pesto fresh, using fresh basil and cheese and all that good stuff.
I could go on and on about how we made all the separate stuff but a) it's pretty simple and b) I don't really have the patience. But if you're really curious, let me know and I'll put it up here. I don't have the recipes but I can tell you how we made everything. But I will tell you about the pasta, because it's so different.
So first of all, we put a pot of water on to boil. That's pretty normal. But then, we put snapped green beans into the water and let them cook for about 8 minutes then added cubed potatoes and let them cook for another 8 minutes before adding the pasta to cook only for a couple of minutes. Adding the specific veggies in the water helps starch the water, so the pasta is better, or some mumbo jumbo like that. So after all that is cooked, we put the pesto sauce in a big sautee pan, thinned it out with a tiny bit of the starch water from the pasta, added the pasta with green beans and potatoes, added the tomatoes and let it all come together. Bottom line: it was really good. When we finally sat down to eat, it was awesome.
After cooking class, I had Italian class again, which was fun, like always. I have a quiz in class today though, so that's not exciting. After class, I just went and got some soup and stuff at the Meta (the supermarket right next to my apartment) and had that for dinner.
Okay so, this morning. Our cultural activity was a visit to Fiesole, a nearby town on a hill with some old Etruscan and Roman things, done in various art styles. I know a little bit about it, from AP Art History but it's really cool to see it in practice. We took a bus ride up to the main square, and then walked up a HUGE HILL to see the incredible views and the churches. So here are some pictures.
After the tour, I had lunch at a self-service place with some of the other UNC people. It's kind of like a cafeteria, but Italian so the food was pretty good. Then, me and one of my roommates went to mercato to get some stuff for tonight and the weekend. I bought some fresh tortellini, sauce, green beans, chicken and some apples. They have Pink Lady apples here, how weird is that?? Pretty nice though.
And now, I'm off to study for my Italian quiz. I'm trying to keep this up-to-date, and I will continue to try. For now though,
Ciao!!
P.S. And I'm still singing that some from yesterday. But not our terrible version, the real version. "Bella" by Jovanetti. Guess I know what the soundtrack to Italy will be.
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