On Monday night, I went to a cooking class at the cutest little kitchen store, Orange Tree Imports. The class was taught by Francesco Mangano, the chef of Osteria Papavero. His restaurant is one that Dan and I often frequent on date nights, including the night we got engaged, because of the high quality and reasonable prices. We love Francesco’s traditional Tuscany and Sicily dishes!
Over the course of the 2-hour class, we learned to make four traditional Italian soups.
First up, Zuppa di Fagioli e Farro (or, Bean, Porcini, and Farro Soup).
- Water + starch from vegetables in the soup
- Water + starch from legumes/beans in the soup
- Bread
Only one of these recipes used the typical vegetable or chicken stock that you see in many recipes. Instead, they started with a soffritto, which is basically a sauteed olive oil, celery, carrots, garlic, and onion mix. The soffritto and all the other ingredients added plenty of flavor to the soup, without having to use stock. Good to know!
The Zuppa di Pane e Aglio (Garlic and Bread Soup) was probably the most unique of the soups Francesco made, and also one of the tastiest! There was a LOT of garlic in it. And by a lot, I mean about 3 cups of garlic cloves (!!), but he blanched it three times to make the garlic flavor more subtle. Really, once it was blanched and mixed with the bread and soffritto, the garlic flavor was not overpowering. I loved this soup!
While watching the chef make this soup, we learned that anytime you are cooking vegetables in a fat like olive oil or butter in a skillet, you should add a little salt. It will make the veggies release some water, and the food will not burn! I can’t use nonstick pans, because the coatings are toxic to Dan’s birds, so this tip will really come in handy… I have burned many pans in my time!
After a little break, we came back for Zuppa di Zucca (Squash Soup). Though the recipe calls for Kabocha or Butternut, we used an Acorn Squash. I thought it tasted pretty good, but according to Francesco, it would taste better with one of the other, more flavorful squashes!
Tip: Add a few drops of a fruit vinegar to each bowl when you serve squash soup. It cuts a bit of the sweetness. I thought it made a huge difference, but wouldn’t have thought to do that myself.
We ended the class with Passatelli in Brodo (Passatelli Pasta in Aromatic Broth). Which is, admittedly, not the most photogenic.
The pasta was delicious, and appeared to be easy to make, and the broth was a combination of chicken and beef and was very flavorful. However, I don’t think I should have taken more than a bite or two. My body was not ready to handle that much meat in the broth, and I did not feel well the next day.
Note to self
: Either don’t eat meat on the honeymoon, or eat a little more meat in the weeks leading up to the trip. Feeling ill while biking through Italian countryside = not ideal.
All in all, I had a lot of fun at the class. My fellow classmates were all very friendly, the chef was willing to answer all of our questions, and the soups were delicious. Plus, I came away with a lot of cooking tips and tricks, and four soup recipes!
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