The Foods of Italy

today was the longest day, but in a good way. before class i went and took pictures of the arno river, which is beautiful.

Arno River

after my two regular classes, i went to the first session of my "Food of Italy" course. I was somewhat afraid it was going to be a basic cooking class, learning to cut vegetables and things like that. Fortunately, we dove right in and cooked really good food! There are 10 of us in the class, and we split up the 4 recipes:

-Pappa al pomodoro (tomato soup using bread)

-Spiedini di sasiccia lonze e pancetta (skewers with pork, sausages, pancetta, and sage)

-Patate al rosmario (Russet potatoes with rosemary)

-Biscotti, served with Vin Santo

My cooking partner and I cooked the potatoes, which turned out really well. The soup was amazing- I'll definitely have to cook that at home. And now I have a good biscotti recipe!

Our teacher is really passionate about the food, and also about the pairing of the wines with them. I tried 2 wines in addition to the Vin Santo that we had with the biscotti. Can't wait to learn more next week!

After the class, I ran over to the theater that was showing "Dracula". Because I read the book in the english class I took this last semester, I think I appreciated it more than I would have otherwise. It was really well done, and actually pretty scary.

Tomorrow is my first Italian quiz. Gah. Hopefully it will be a rare night tomorrow when I'm not exhausted and can do something before leaving Friday morning for CINQUE TERRE!

love you all!