'Now they can see who the real chef is'

And with that joking compliment from my instructor, I completed Federico Crova’s cooking class, having created a tartra (a savory flan), risotto alla milanese, fresh pasta with sage and butter sauce, and a caramel and chocolate cake called Piemontese bunet. The whole thing took a little over four hours.

The pasta dries, Italian-style. I must remember to buy eight wooden spoons for this step. :) Making fresh pasta wasn’t as tough as I thought it might be. Three attachments for your KitchenAid mixer make it pretty simple.


The finished pasta dish. I can’t see forsaking boxes of the dried stuff for this approach; maybe once or twice to impress. Federico's axiom: The fresher the pasta, the more simple the sauce must be.


The tartra. Eggs, milk, cream, breadcrumbs, and a soffrito of shallots, rosemary and sage, followed by an abundance of Parmesan, make it what it is. The sauce consists of butter, cream and anchovies. "Pretty good," says Federico. "It could be a little moister." The cooking time wasn't the problem, he explained. They simply sat too long before we ate them.


The bunet. A thing of beauty, really. Crushed-up amaretti cookies are used in this, along with milk, eggs, sugar, unsweetened cocoa. Aside from the soft caramel on top (formerly on the bottom), it’s not sweet.


I have my doubts about whether I can go home and just make this stuff. It’s a lot easier in this great kitchen. The squeeze bottle contains olive oil. Just some small, inexpensive tools like this would make my life easier. A football field of counterspace wouldn't hurt either.


Oh, yes, the risotto. Another intimidating dish is made less so. It doesn’t need quite as much attention while cooking as I had believed, though you probably shouldn’t step away for more than a half-minute or so. The color here is achieved with maybe a quarter-teaspoon of saffron threads. This is the consistency you’re striving for:

milanese.risotto from Sluggh McGee on Vimeo.

My classmate, Jamie, from Charlotte, is in Turin for her husband’s business. They leave Saturday for Abu Dhabi. She was cool. When Federico insisted that you have to melt the butter and apply it to a mold with a brush, she assented, but whispered to me in her Southern drawl: “For 60 years, my grandmother just rubbed a stick of butter around there. Nuthin’ ever got stuck.”


We sat around a good while, eating, drinking wine and talking about our favorite TV chefs. Jamie and I agreed that ordering food and drink in Italy can be daunting. She tells of asking for a latte and being handed a glass of milk, which is what she had coming, technically. Federico asks for a little more trust in Italians' good nature. "We're nice people," he says, suggesting some spots for an early evening aperitivo. The atmosphere is light.

Ten things I learned today:

1. When making a vegetable stock, add the vegetables before the water gets hot.

2. A single vanilla bean can be used a dozen times for flavoring. Just rinse it off and put it away till the next time you need it.

3. To control the temperature of your custards and flans, use a shallow pan of hot water called a bain-marie.

4. Your best friend in the kitchen is cheap white wine.

5. Never cover a pot after your cheap white wine has been added.

6. It’s not enough to butter a mold; you must flour it as well and put it in the freezer before filling it. Aluminum molds are best.

7. Use a fan to dry your fresh pasta. Moisture is its enemy.

8. Clean up as you go. This concept is expressed by the French as mise en place.

9. One medium egg per 100 grams of flour will get you the northern Italian pasta dough you desire. Digital scales are cheap. Get one.

10. The more Parmesan cheese, the better.

Feeling bloated, I leave the Cook in Italy school and do the only thing that makes sense: Haul Bessie out of the garage.


Two nights of rain have really cleared the air. Buon appetito!