single courses Archives | Italian FoodLab Cooking Classes in Italy

Pizza

francesco — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 18:38:29 +0000

The origin of pizza could be placed between the 16th and 17th centuries in the Kingdom of Naples. This is the so-called “Mastunicola” pizza made with lard, squeaks, sheep’s cheese, pepper and basil. Another preparation that spread in the Kingdom of Naples was the “Cecinelli” pizza made with “bianchetti”, small white fishes (in dialect, cecinelli). To find tomato on pizza we must wait until the mid-18th century after it was imported from the American continent.

Anyway, it was with Raffaele Esposito that the history of pizza Margherita began, without doubts the most famous and celebrated pizza in the world. It was Mr. Esposito, in 1889, to dedicate a pizza to the Italian Queen Margherita of Savoy, from which it took its name. A simple preparation, which also wanted to represent the new Italian tricolour: basil for green, mozzarella for white and tomato for red.

L'articolo Pizza proviene da Italian FoodLab Cooking Classes in Italy.

Gnocchi

francesco — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 18:37:15 +0000

Vincenzo Corrado (1734-1836), in his book “Cuoco Galante”, describes the Gnocchi alla Panna and the Gnocchi alla Dama. Corrado also brings the first Italian recipe for potato gnocchi. At the end of the 19th century the gnocchi from the poor Italian cuisine passed to the bourgeois one, as evidenced by Pellegrino Artusi in his book “The science in the kitchen and the art of eating well”. In this regard, “the gnocchi family is numerous” says Artusi. In addition to those in broth there are those of potatoes and yellow flour for soup and those of semolina, and those with milk for dessert. After Artusi, gnocchi, including potatoes, became a classic of Italian cuisine and gastronomy, with the development of a large variety of condiments ranging from meat to vegetable sauces.

L'articolo Gnocchi proviene da Italian FoodLab Cooking Classes in Italy.

Tortellini

francesco — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 17:14:11 +0000

In 1200 a young and beautiful noble arrived to a guest-house called Corona in the village of Castelfranco Emilia close by the city of Bologna. The innkeeper accompanied the lady to the room and he was so attracted by her beauty that he remained to spy her from the lock and was struck by her umbilicus. At the time of preparing dinner, the image had inspired him so much that he pulled the dough by reproducing the features of the bellybutton of the young noble but not knowing what to do with the pasta alone filled it with meat. This is the legendary story of how the delicious tortellino was born.

L'articolo Tortellini proviene da Italian FoodLab Cooking Classes in Italy.

Orecchiette

francesco — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 17:11:07 +0000

Symbol of Puglia, they represent a real pillar of the culinary tradition of this region. The origin is a mystery, in fact there are no documents confirming their birth. According to local tradition, the shape of the orecchiette seems to be inspired by that of the roofs of the trulli (typical round and white houses in Puglia), while there are theories that trace them back to Jewish culture. Around the end of the 16th century, a document was found in the archives of the church of San Nicola di Bari with which a father donated the bakery to his daughter. In the notarial deed it could also be read that the most important thing left in the dowry was the ability of the daughter to prepare the “recchietedde” (orecchiette in Puglia dialect). Anyway most of Italians believe that this type of pasta has this name just because it resemble a small ear (in Italian orecchia/orecchietta).

L'articolo Orecchiette proviene da Italian FoodLab Cooking Classes in Italy.

Cavatelli

francesco — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 17:03:14 +0000

In the region of Molise it is the typical Sunday dish. Even today, after centuries, it is not a real feast if cavatelli with pork sauce are missing on the table, a tasty sauce made with ribs, sausages and tomato pulp. Obtained from three simple ingredients, durum wheat flour, warm water and a pinch of salt, they are considered, like the lagane, one of the oldest pasta shapes in Italy. Today they are widespread in almost all of southern Italy, mainly in the hinterland.

L'articolo Cavatelli proviene da Italian FoodLab Cooking Classes in Italy.

Spaghetti Espresso

francesco — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 17:01:56 +0000

In the Spaghetti Espresso course you will only prepare the sauce and cook the pasta according to Italian tradition.

Considered as the most popular type of pasta in the world, the term “spaghetti” made its first appearance in 1819 in the “Dictionary of the Italian language” by Tommaseo and Bellini. Subsequently, around 1824, this type of pasta can also be found in the playful poem “Li Maccheroni di Napoli” by Antonio Viviani. Until then the term “spaghetti” had not become part of the official nomenclature, as it belonged to popular jargon.

Legend says it was the Venetian traveller Marco Polo who imported the recipe of spaghetti from the Middle East in the 13^th century. The name of this pasta origins from its shape as it resembles a “spago” (a cord). The fame and goodness of this format did not remain limited to Italy and it spread in the United States even before Italian immigration, thanks to the favourable propaganda of the American President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), who also imported a machine to prepare them in his country.

L'articolo Spaghetti Espresso proviene da Italian FoodLab Cooking Classes in Italy.

Spaghetti Lento

francesco — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 17:00:58 +0000

In the Spaghetti Lento course you will prepare the spaghetti from scratch starting with flour and water, making the dough, stretching and shaping it. You will also prepare the sauce and finally enjoy your Italian spaghetti.

L'articolo Spaghetti Lento proviene da Italian FoodLab Cooking Classes in Italy.

Tagliatelle

francesco — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 17:00:05 +0000

Tagliatelle were invented in the 1487 by chef Zerafino from Bologna, who was asked to prepare a new dish for the wedding of 2 members of important royal families. Tradition wants that Zerafino was inspired by the blond hair of the bride. Although the legend, Tagliatelle original recipe was officially registered in 1972 at Bologna Chamber of Commerce and it specifies the size and the ingredients of the pasta.

L'articolo Tagliatelle proviene da Italian FoodLab Cooking Classes in Italy.

Bigoli

francesco — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 16:59:29 +0000

Typical pasta from the Veneto, the story of bigoli was born in the times of the Serenissima Republic of Venice, when a pasta maker from Padua, certain Abbondanza, in 1604 asked the Municipality for a patent to register a machine of his invention. With this device he managed to produce different types of pasta, but the people loved one in particular, the current bigoli. So it was that two centuries later almost all families in the north-east of Italy had this machine at home, later renamed Bigolaro. It was perfect for making long pasta.

L'articolo Bigoli proviene da Italian FoodLab Cooking Classes in Italy.

Ravioli

francesco — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 16:58:12 +0000

Marco Gavio Apicio, a Roman cook, invented a recipe formerly called “Patinam apicianam sic facies”, or “Apicius cake”, which was similar to ravioli. According to historians, however, the raviolo could have been a synonym of tortello (or a filling wrapped in pasta), or an egg-shaped dough cooked in broth. Also as regards the name, as we said, there are different hypotheses: it could derive from “rabiola”, that is a small turnip, or from “rovigliolo”, that is a tangle, or it could also derive from the name (precisely, Ravioli) of the first chef from Gavi Ligure, a town that belonged to the Republic of Genoa. In fact, there are still residents in the area with the same surname. The chef Ravioli seasoned them with a little cooking water and red wine. As far as the year of birth is concerned, we only know that the raviolo is the only stuffed pasta which we have news of in the XII and XIII centuries (written on “Agricultural landscape in Liguria”) and also that in 1100 a settler from Savona supplied his owner of ravioli-based meals. The city of Genova began to spread the ravioli around 1200, with the exchanges that it used to do in fairs and arrived in Parma before the end of the century. Even in the “Decameron”, Boccaccio talks about it by describing the delicacies of the country (year 1300).

L'articolo Ravioli proviene da Italian FoodLab Cooking Classes in Italy.