Roman Holiday: Cooking Class and Some Sightseeing

Bonjour encore mes amis!
The Italian adventure continues!  Two posts in one day, I am on a blogging roll!  Ariel and I arrived in Rome on the afternoon of April 21, and wonder of wonders, the sun was out!!  We found our hostel(only about 10 min walk from the train station) and met up with our other friend Eric (also on the Sweetbriar Program).  The next morning I headed off to the Travestere area across the Tiber for my Cooking Class!

The Pasta Making Station in the corner at Cooking Classes in Rome

 Apron on and ready to cook! 

All the dishes we made were regional dishes from Latzio, where Rome is.  Italian food is quite regional (Pizza is from Naples, Cannoli are from Sicily, etc.)  I decided to spring for the wine paring for the meal too.  When in Rome....
Spoiler Alert: skip to the sightseeing part of this post if you are hungry.  Go get a snack, and then read the rest of it.  There are a LOT of food pics!  I'm getting hungry writing this and uploading my pics...

Here is our menu:
Appetizer: Deep Fried Artichokes with Southern Style Pesto
First Course: Taglioini Carbonara
Second Course: Saltimboca alla Romana
Side Dish: Sauteed Flat Beans with Cherry Tomatoes
Dessert: Chocolate and Pear Souffle

Our Ingredients

Chef Andrea explaining what 'guancaile' is.  It's pig cheek that will be used in the Carbonara sauce.  It tastes like the best bacon ever.  You can substitute with pancetta or bacon. 

Making Saltimboca!

Veal or beef wrapped around prosciutto and provolone cheese, topped with a sage leaf. 

Before and after carving artichokes.
It's tricky! I had never carved an artichoke before...

Whipping up eggs for our fresh pasta.  The flour is sprinkled in to the eggs and eventually forms a dough.  Quite the wrist workout! 

Rolling out sheets of fresh pasta...I need a pasta machine now!

 Voila!
It's really not that hard to make fresh pasta, you just need to be willing to spend some time to work with it...

And now it's time to eat...here is the southern style pesto (tomato base, not basil base) and the fried artichokes in the background.  SO GOOD

Chef Andrea prepping the carbonara.  The fresh pasta only takes about 30 seconds to cook, then you add it to the pan with the "bacon" and egg mixture, off the heat.  You want to have a creamy delicious dish, not scrambled eggs with pasta!

The finished dish of Pasta Carbonara.

Saltimbocca

Translates to "jump in the mouth"  The little parcels were sauteed in olive oil and were so good!

Chocolate and Pear Soufle: The before picture

And the after picture. nom nom nom

The group all together after our meal!  I was the youngest one there, there was a mother/daughter group, another wife who left her husband home for the day, and a group of French women on a bachelorette weekend!  I got to practice some French with them, which was fun!  I missed speaking French.

The website for Chef Andrea's Classes is here: http://www.cookingclassesinrome.com/

A must do for any food/wine enthusiasts in Rome!

Yes, that woman in the toga is brushing her friend's teeth.  She is getting married in a month and was in Rome for the weekend.  She and all of her friends are dentists.  So they were doing some bet thing that she had do demonstrate how to properly brush your teeth, and if she did a good job you could buy a toothbrush from her.  She had to sell all of them before she left Rome.  I bought one for 10 centimes. 
Overall, the cooking class was a wonderful experience and a good "vacation from my vacation".  It's exhausting walking and sightseeing everyday!  I learned a lot and the meal we made was one of the best I ever had.  It was certainly one of the highlights of my trip to Italy.  I can't wait to try out the recipes when I get home! 

After I left the cooking class, I crossed the Tiber again to meet up with Ariel and Eric.  It was a beautiful day in Rome, and I loved exploring the city.  On my way to the Pantheon, I stumbled on this little gem.......

Yes, DUFF BEER!  Shoutout to the TN MacDonalds and all you other Simpsons Fans out there. I saw a lot of people wearing Duff T-Shirts as well.  Who knew that the Simpsons were so popular in Italy???

And back to the culture/sightseeing! Here is the Pantheon!  It is one of the most intact building from Roman times, used to be a temple (to Venus I think) and is now a church.  It is an amazing example of Roman engineering. 

 back of the Pantheon

 Oculus at the roof of the building

Inside the Pantheon

 Random Ruins! They are everywhere in Rome. Eric and I passed by them on our way back to the hostel.

We both had to use the bathroom, so why not pop into a free museum to use their facilities?  There was a lot of cool religious artwork, porcelain, statues, and a lot of other stuff there!  I think the name of the building was the Palazzo Veniza, but honestly I am not sure.   

Photo Op at the Palazzo!

 Piazza Venezia

This is a massive monument in the center of Rome, I believe it's for a past King of Italy

 You can see the Colosseum in the distance!!

This was one of those "Holy Cannoli I am in Rome" moments. 

 Trevi Fountain!

Such a beautiful fountain, and so many tourists!  Legend says if you throw a coin in, you will return to Rome...

Bernini Fountain 

I think this was mentioned in the book Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (same guy who wrote the Da Vinci Code)  I need to reread the book now that I've been to Rome!

Ciao for now, I'll do my best to get up to date on my blogging!

-Allison