Le chef/The Chef

Wednesday was the day we had our cooking lesson with our host Andrea, who amongst other things, has had a career as a chef. 

He said he would be arriving at 10am and sure enough he arrived with a whole lot of food with which to cook.   The lesson started off with a planning session for the menu he was cooking.

The menu:

Raw veal sausages

Carne cruda – raw meat

Trota – marinated trout

Taglioni – pasta with chichen liver sauce

Ravioli – pasta with ricotta and herb filling

Pannacotta with strawberry coulis

The first thing was to prepare the trout. This was something that we were going to eat later. This was crisped on the skin and then marinated in a wonderful combination of wine and vinegar.

After that we made the pasta for our ravioli and tortellini using combinations of two types of flour.  One was a softer flour and the other a durum wheat flour.  We did three types of pasta: one with only the softer flour, a 50/50 version and then a 10/90 version, i.e. 10% OO (softer) and 90% durum.  They were all egg pastas and we were able to experience the different textures ranging from a soft texture to quite a firm consistency.   It also took quite a bit of kneading to get them to the right consistency.  It was the first time I had used a pasta machine and if you want to make good pasta it is a necessity. 

Once that was done we put them in the fridge to prove.  Next was the pannacotta.  It was easy to do and I will do it in the future for some lucky people.  It was delicious.  While I chopped onions Bev helped Andrea to create a coulis.  It was also lovely.

We stopped for a moment to try some raw veal sausages, some of which were also used in the sauce for the tagliolini.  The carne cruda was then created using raw veal and seasoning.  It was interesting to watch Andea taste at each step altering the seasoning each time until it was right. 

Next it was the chicken liver sauce.  I had not thought too much about how to prepare it but he showed us how to take out the veins and blood.  Then it was all cooked with onions and some of the sausage.  One day I will make it.

It was then time to rest and enjoy part of the meal.  The carne cruda was delicious.  For most reading this the idea of eating raw meat may have no appeal but believe me this was wonderful.  It was both tasty and had a different texture to cooked meat.  This recipe in varying forms is local to the Langhe area and I suspect the wider Piemonte area.  We also ate the tagliolini with the chicken liver sauce. I had brought a bottle of Awatea to complement the food.  Andrea was very appreciative of it and the food was superb and very filling.  It was nearly 3pm before we sat down to eat. 

Then it was back to preparing the ravioli.  This included cooking the filling and then the most difficult part of making the little parcels. It was a very precise action at which I failed and Bev got a pass mark. Andrea was so quick and accurate. 

It was 6pm before we finished.  The food really was restaurant quality and true to the area. 

After Andrea left, it was still a lovely evening and apart from being on our feet all day we had not had much exercise so we decided to go for a walk to the square in the old part of town. Here we had a couple of glasses of wine and were introduced to a selection of antipasto, pizza and other goodies which was almost enough to be another meal. 

For me our cooking lesson was the highlight of the visit to Alba as Andrea also talked about being Italian and his country’s history; in particular he told us that the Piemonte area, for instance, is like a country within a country.  He was rather scathing of the politicians however. Andrea has an interesting life; he studied theatre and planned on being a professional actor but jobs were hard to come by and as he had had an interest in food he began at the bottom in a restaurant eventually running a kitchen, and then several restaurants in England before returning to Italy. Then he went to Burkino Faso where his mother was running a guest lodge that had expanded from a couple people a week to many more.  The seems to have been gifted to him by his father.

All in all a very interesting man.

Preparing pasta

Three versions of pasta

Andrea's pannacotta

Chopping onion