Spring 05 Cookery Course - Days 3 and 4

The cookery course continued at full speed in the past three days and with the diligent collection of photographs this time round we have enough material to post on Via Ritiro N.7 for some time yet! For the time being we just want to post some of the highlights of Day 3 and 4. Day 3 was all about fish. We started the lesson with a walk around the herb garden to explain the differences between some of the herbs used and in particular between dried and fresh oregano.
 

Dried oregano was also the central ingredient for a cipollata di tonno - a classic Sicilian recipe which we will revisit in detail, and of which we had several different versions since everyone had a go.

We then moved on to a sea bass pasta, made more interesting by a sea bass broth prepared using ice in the process.

We also prepared 0ctopus with Nero d'Avola and finally some granitas and sorbets as well as a chocolate cake! In all quite a session.

A trip to the fishing villages rounded up the day.

The fourth day started with a further study into Sicilian granitas at the Mandolfiore pasticceria in Noto, before a wander around town.

Back at the masseria for lunch, which started with a tour through the products of the Monti Iblei and Noto. First of some olive oils and then cheese with honey. We will talk about all these varieties in more detail in the future.

For the course we started with some more Sicilian classics, arancini!

Nevertheless, some practice was required before our students reached any appropriate level of competency!

We did much more on the day, including a wonderful explanation by Bruno on how his parents prepare the tomato paste every August and the classic rabbit 'stimpirata'.