Cooking in Italian

I love Italian cooking and, even better, I like cooking in Italian.  For me that may mean using a recipe written in Italian, listening to Italian music while I cook or - best of all - taking a cooking class presented entirely in Italian.  Over the past several years I have taken many classes that combine language learning and cooking at Lucca Italian School (LIS).  Some classes were held in the kitchen at LIS while others were held in a fattoria (farm) kitchen in the hills outside of Lucca. These were peak experiences for me, combining language, hands-on cooking lessons, learning about local dishes and ingredients, wine tasting, lots of laughter, and the opportunity to socialize with students from around the world.

A pre-COVID cooking class with Lucca Italian School

 And then, along came the pandemic and it became impossible for LIS to offer in-person classes.  In response to the mandatory restrictions, the staff at LIS began offering on-line language classes, both group and individual.  More recently, they have developed a variety of classes on special topics (art, music, history, local legends) which allow us to continue practicing the language while also learning about Italian culture. Last week they introduced an on-line cooking class, taught by LIS’s fantastic culinary star Eva Dal Porto. Sign me up!
I have to admit I had some reservations about on-line learning at first (having experienced some really dry continuing education classes in my prior professional life), but I have really enjoyed my weekly at-a-distance language classes with LIS, along with some of the specialty classes, and have found them to be both effective and fun.  And now that I’ve just completed my first on-line cooking class, along with 40+ other students from around the world, I can honestly say that I can’t wait to do this again!

The class was all about carciofi (artichokes) and was delivered via Zoom straight from Eva’s kitchen.  A few days before hand we received a link to the Zoom session along with 3 recipes – a marinated raw artichoke dish, a carciofi fritti (fried artichoke) appetizer, and an artichoke risotto.  

Also included was a shopping list for the ingredients.  Shopping for the ingredients was fun – especially picking out those beautiful purple Italian artichokes.  

And I learned some new words, like scalogno (shallot). With my ingredients on hand I was ready to start cooking. 

Ingredients ready to begin preparation of the risotto

Participants had the option to just watch the demonstration or to cook along with Eva.  I knew that my tiny Italian kitchen would not have enough prep space to manage all 3 dishes, so I only watched during the preparation of the salad and the fried artichokes.  But the risotto I cooked during the class.  What fun!  

The easy to follow lesson, in Italian, began with how to clean and trim the artichokes and then soak them in lemon water to prevent discoloration.  

Next came step by step instruction and demonstration of the preparation of each dish.

And if you aren’t confident using a mezzaluna, well Eva demonstrated that too. 

The on-line instructions and demonstration was easy to follow

 By the end of the lesson my kitchen smelled wonderful and I was hungry!  Luckily, my artichoke risotto was ready to eat.  A delicious ending to a fun lesson.

The finished risotto. The grains of rice remain separate and are never mushy

Artichoke Risotto  (In the class we used half of these amounts to make 2 servings)

 8 artichokes (the small purple ones are best)

1 lemon, juiced

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 shallots, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped fine

320 grams of risotto rice (about 1 ¾ cups)

1 cup dry white wine

1 liter vegetable broth (about 4 ¼ cups)

Salt and pepper to taste

2 Tablespoons butter

Grated parmesan cheese, to sprinkle on top of the finished risotto

 Clean and trim the artichokes (remove tough outer leaves, cut away top half of remaining bulb to leave the heart and tender inner leaves).

Cut each trimmed artichoke lengthwise into 8 pieces and remove the fuzzy “choke” (leaving the tender inner leaves just above it).

Immerse the cut artichokes into a bowl of lemon water until ready to cook.

Dice the garlic and the shallots and saute in the olive oil until softened.  Add the artichoke pieces, stir, and cook for another 5 minutes or so.  Add the rice and stir to coat with oil. 

Add the wine and allow it to evaporate fairly quickly over moderately high heat.  Keep stirring!

 Lower the heat, add the salt, pepper, and about 1/3 of the broth.  Stir and cook until broth is absorbed.

 Continue to add broth 1 ladle full at a time, stirring until each is absorbed.  Rice should be cooked by the end but still a bit al dente and not sticky or mushy.

Add the butter and stir well.   Serve right away sprinkled with parmesan cheese.