In the morning we travelled to Fullone, another Agriturismo to cook. This time we made the pasta from scratch and instead of making the long macaroni shape of the night before we made Cavetella. With this pasta you roll long snakes, cut these into 2cm lengths and then using 2 fingers, roll and pull the dough towards you. Sounds simple? Probably not. You can even using a piece of decking timber to roll lines into it. Look carefully at the pasta photo below. It is likely that you'll notice about 6 different interpretations of this technique. There is the Australian version, the Chrissy and Barb American style and Cherrye's wonky version. Sorry Cherrye but you were having trouble with this. Check out the photos below.
We also made Italain biscuits. I'm pretty sure they are called Chiachere. More photos to follow. These were lots of fun. We worked directly onto the tabletop with our own individual pile of ingredients. First we made a well of flour (perhaps a cup and a bit more of plain 00 flour plus 1/4 - 1/3 cup of semolina flour). To this we added an egg, one heaped dessert spoon of sugar, about a tablespoon of grappa and approximately 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. I nearly forgot the lemon zest. This is an important ingredient in getting the flavour just right. I imagine orange or lime zest would work too. I was even thinking that adding a little custard powder and vanilla instead of grappa would work nicely. At present there is no grappa in my Australian kitchen. Next we added water to mix with our hands into a dough. Getting the water right was the tricky part. Too much and you had a mess, too little and the dough was unworkable. Ideally the dough needed resting, but with no time to spare we started rolling. Of course the dough was still too elastic and kept springing back. Two of us persisted and the other 2 sensibly opted to use the pasta machine to roll the dough thinly. After cutting the dough into attractive pieces (random creations) we deep fried the biscuits, drained them and added a heavy coating of sifted icing sugar. Just in case you're wondering, we sampled them immediately whilst they were warm and again later when they were cold, all in the name of research.
Apologies for going round in circles (reminds me of some of the driving we did), sorry Andrea! With the pasta dough we added no eggs! Looks like almost anything goes with pasta. We used 2 flours, semolina and 00 in the approx ratio of 4:1 respectively. Apparently the more semolina flour the less need there is for eggs. Making pasta dough with just flour and water reflects hard times and the need to feed large families on tight budgets. Do try it. I have been converted. The texture is more al dente and it is probably harder to overcook and turn to mush. Using eggs is more important with pasta such as ravioli as you need more moisture to enclose the filling. One last point: allow the pasta dough to rest for about an hour before rolling and shaping. After shaping, place on a tray in a single layer and allow to dry out for another hour.
Next we all made a simple batter of flour and water, and dipped in different ingredients, such as: elderberry, zucchinis, sage leaves (yum), porcini mushrooms, etc and deep fried them all. At this point we've all about given up low fat and portion control stretchy waistbands are much more practical.
We also made Italain biscuits. I'm pretty sure they are called Chiachere. More photos to follow. These were lots of fun. We worked directly onto the tabletop with our own individual pile of ingredients. First we made a well of flour (perhaps a cup and a bit more of plain 00 flour plus 1/4 - 1/3 cup of semolina flour). To this we added an egg, one heaped dessert spoon of sugar, about a tablespoon of grappa and approximately 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. I nearly forgot the lemon zest. This is an important ingredient in getting the flavour just right. I imagine orange or lime zest would work too. I was even thinking that adding a little custard powder and vanilla instead of grappa would work nicely. At present there is no grappa in my Australian kitchen. Next we added water to mix with our hands into a dough. Getting the water right was the tricky part. Too much and you had a mess, too little and the dough was unworkable. Ideally the dough needed resting, but with no time to spare we started rolling. Of course the dough was still too elastic and kept springing back. Two of us persisted and the other 2 sensibly opted to use the pasta machine to roll the dough thinly. After cutting the dough into attractive pieces (random creations) we deep fried the biscuits, drained them and added a heavy coating of sifted icing sugar. Just in case you're wondering, we sampled them immediately whilst they were warm and again later when they were cold, all in the name of research.
Apologies for going round in circles (reminds me of some of the driving we did), sorry Andrea! With the pasta dough we added no eggs! Looks like almost anything goes with pasta. We used 2 flours, semolina and 00 in the approx ratio of 4:1 respectively. Apparently the more semolina flour the less need there is for eggs. Making pasta dough with just flour and water reflects hard times and the need to feed large families on tight budgets. Do try it. I have been converted. The texture is more al dente and it is probably harder to overcook and turn to mush. Using eggs is more important with pasta such as ravioli as you need more moisture to enclose the filling. One last point: allow the pasta dough to rest for about an hour before rolling and shaping. After shaping, place on a tray in a single layer and allow to dry out for another hour.
Next we all made a simple batter of flour and water, and dipped in different ingredients, such as: elderberry, zucchinis, sage leaves (yum), porcini mushrooms, etc and deep fried them all. At this point we've all about given up low fat and portion control stretchy waistbands are much more practical.
Before signing off I'd just like to add my thanks to this mother and daughter team. We were made so very welcome in their home and had a fantastic time in their kitchen. They didn't even mind when one of us, he who shall remain nameless, set fire to their cloth!!!!! At this point we retired to the dining room to await our delicious lunch. This has certainly been my highlight activity so far. Bring on more cooking fun.
Later that day we went back into the Pollino mountains to a remote Albanian Restaurant and were treated to Albanian delights. We are so privileged to walk into a restaurant and have a chef cook all of his specialty dishes. Tonight was no exception. The prosciutto was outstanding. How will I ever go back to she supermarket garden-variety? Just to be different we tried wild boar. It wasn't my favourite but it was great to try.
As group we have promised to eat less tomorrow (unless of course we are presented with yet more new tastes to experience). We shall see!
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