Skills- Starches!

Today we made all kinds of pastas, grains and combinations of both. The results were expected and unexpected.

Our first dish was to make egg pasta from scratch. This takes much arm strength. First there is a pile of flour with a well in the middle. In the well one places eggs, water and oil. Slowly the two are incorporated by pulling in and mixing flour into the middle section with a fork. Finally when all is incorporated, the dough is kneaded. This can take some time to fully incorporate the flour into the dough. Next the dough sits to allow the gluton to bond to the other ingredients. After sitting the dough is rolled out, or put through a pasta roller as we did, and then cut into its desired shape. This was later cooked up with butter and parmesan. Dalliscious! BWOOP!

After pasta, we made polenta. This was made with stock and parmesan. It was not terribly thick, but tasty. Chef says he often includes milk. I think that would have enhanced the dish. He also mentioned marscapone. I need to try that! It sounds dalliscious!

Following polenta were traditional potato gnocchi and semolina gnocchi. The potato gnocchi was tasty, fairly pillowy, nothing out of the ordinary. In contrast, the semolina gnocchi was quite Dalliscious. It was baked in long 'tubes' and then cut after baking. It tasted like ultra creamy whipped polenta. It was GOOD! Dalliscious!! (I snuck some seconds.)

Next was spatzle. I expected it to taste like gummy bits of flour. Rather it was sauteed in brown butter and tasted much like mac 'n cheese without all the cheese. It was the highlight of the day. All I needed was a pounded pork cutlet to go with it. (I snuck some seconds again and wanted thirds but didn't want to appear piggy.) Dalliscious Again! BWOOP!

We also made wild rice. This is a staple at holidays in our household so it wasn't as revolutionary tasting, but still Dalliscious. I love the texture. Chef should have added some nuts. That would have made the nutter flavor more apparent.

We made couscous and tried it plain and in a salad with fruits and toasted almonds. While the salad was good, there was a wee bit too much orange zest and it took away from some of the other flavors.

Last we made pasta carbonara. This is a personal favorite. We made it slightly differently than I would have in that Chef didn't include any oil in his sauce. I like to include a little. The sauce was cooked up too quickly by the student and thus it didn't create that creamy yumminess that it should have. Still it was devoured by my classmates. Guess bad carbonara isn't so bad.