In Cucina con Silvia: ITALIAN COOKING CLASSES

Learn how to cook delicious, seasonal Italian dishes at the Crozet home of Italian teacher and culinary expert Silvia Dupont. Each day you’ll prepare a different 3-course meal using seasonal ingredients and Italian recipes from different regions. Dishes will include: risotto alla milanese, gnocchi alla romana and torta mantovana – to name a few! Each class will culminate in a delicious lunch. No Italian necessary – but you’ll surely learn a bit!

Tre giorni in cucina con Silvia – 3 Day Italian Cooking Course in Crozet

Wed, Thu and Fri 9:30am-12:30pm (June 2-4)
Tuition: $195

Due giorni in cucina con Silvia – 2 Day Italian Cooking Courses

Thu and Fri 9:30am-12:30pm (#1 July 22-23; #2 August 12-13)
Tuition: $150

Enroll on-line

Food Courses · May 26, 11:03 AM

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DC Food Fest Feb 11-14 – Spanish Wines, Chef Demos and more!

Our partner in food and travel, Jane Gregg of Epicurean Ways, just told us that she can offer Speak! fans, too, a discount price to the Grand Tasting event at the DC Food Festival on Saturday, February 13 – $65 instead of $85 per person!

We’re forming a group to travel (likely by train) with Jane from Charlottesville to DC for this flavor-filled day, which will include lunch at Jose’ Andres’ Jaleo restaurant, and the Grand Tasting Event from 2-6pm: “Whether you’re a seasoned oenophile or a new wine lover, the Festival’s main event will delight your palate with 100 international wineries pouring more than 600 wines and a plethora of non-winery participants, including food, for you to sample. Throughout the afternoon, you can taste your way through some of the world’s great wine producing regions including; Spain, France, Italy, Greece, New Zealand, and the U.S.”

For more info on the Saturday, Feb 13 excursion and how to book your spot, open this info sheet

Food Food · Feb 5, 02:56 PM

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My Bread, by Jim Lahey (and me)

Like the holy grail, that perfect loaf of rustic bread has eluded me for decades. I’ve certainly tasted perfection in bakeries and restaurants from New York City to Rome, but baking a loaf of my own that would make my Italian husband smile only became possible thanks to Jim Lahey’s newly published book, My Bread . As he describes in the introductory chapters, Lahey, a baker and the founder of Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC, was aiming to recreate the flavor and texture of breads he enjoyed while working (at a Rome bakery) and traveling in Italy. After years of experimentation, Lahey came up with a no-knead, long-rise recipe that involves simply mixing together flour, salt, yeast and water, covering the bowl and letting it sit (ideally overnight) for 12-18 hours. One more short rise (1 hour) later and the ball of dough is sprinkled with cornmeal (to prevent sticking) and placed inside a heated cast-iron Dutch oven inside a heated (500 degrees) oven. 45 minutes later, and out comes the perfect loaf – crunchy on the outside and moist and chewy on the inside, just as if it came out of a brick oven. Now that I’ve created at least 15 loaves, I can finally call it “my bread”, too. Simple, so satisfying, making this bread has become my evening (mixing) and morning (baking) ritual. If you’re a bread lover, I urge you to try it, too. I’ve also tried the many pizza recipes and can’t wait to make a batch of pancetta rolls!

I’m compiling a list of my favorite Italian food-related books on our Speak! amazon store. Please let me know if you have a favorite that I need to know about!

Food Food · Jan 30, 05:19 PM

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Salumi and much more – Cesare Casella’s Salumeria Rosi in Manhattan

When the Tuscan-inspired Maremma closed over a year ago, I was afraid I’d have to live without chef Cesare Casella’s simple, pure cooking during visits to New York City. I had fallen in love, in particular, with his heirloom legume salad – sette fagioli – made with beans he grows at a farm in upstate New York using seeds he brought over from the Old World. (You can buy Cesare’s beans and much more – including the elusive ancient grain, farro, at his site – Republic of Beans)

I read about his new venture – Salumeria Rosi – which opened 13 months ago on the upper West Side on Amsterdam between 73rd+74th Streets and knew I would fall in love all over again. And so I did on New Year’s Eve at a memorable lunch I shared with my Tuscan husband, Enrico, my sister, Marisa, and her husband Mark. The tiny little space was full of activity at 1pm and when we noticed the “dining room”‘s diminutive size (it seats about 30 at a strip of tables and a few marble counters) we were thankful for our reservation. As its name suggests, Salumeria Rosi, named after the owners – the Rosi family of Parma – specializes in that fine art of cured pork and thus I wasn’t surprised to find a row of prosciutti hanging from the ceiling above a glass case displaying a fine array of the finest cured meats – prosciutto crudo (cured), Parmacotto prosiutto cotto (the Rosi family’s specialty – steamed ham injected with brine), mortadella, capicolla, speck and much more. New Yorkers can here shop the Old World way, picking up a quarter pound of this, a few slices of that, some olives, cheese, but we were set on lunch.

We took our seats under an enormous ceramic sculpture depicting the gastronomic topography of Italy which clings to the dark walls and glass ceiling. I was worried a chunk of salami might land on my head, but the craftsmanship in the design is clearly as stellar as the cuisine (I overheard Casella telling a table of Italians next to us that an Oscar-winning set designer is responsible for the restaurant’s simple but dramatic decor). Eager to sample the restaurant’s star product, we began with a plate of mixed salumi – Parmacotto, mortadella and a few others – together with a bottle of negroamaro – Neprica – from Puglia. I was back in Italy with the first salty pink bite, the first sip of earthy red.

From my seat, I had a perfect view of the little galley kitchen, which looked to be as small as my favorite enoteca in Todi (Enoteca Oberdan). Casella was in there when we arrived and moved about the place – chatting on the phone, overseeing the kitchen activity, reading e-mails, greeting diners and talking cheerfully with his well-trained staff. A bouquet of rosemary had been stuffed into the breast pocket of his black-and-white checkered shirt, together with a standard no. 2 pencil. Our server told us he’s generally always present at the Salumeria, which makes me wonder how he can also act as the Dean of the Italian Culinary Academy and sit on numerous boards and charities. Passion and purpose clearly drive him.

After the salumi and a toasted crostino topped with a bit of stracciatella cheese(the creamy inside of burrata), olive oil and salt, we each picked two items from the menu and prepared to share and sample. I was thankful that my sister ordered the bean salad – a colorful (purple! beet red! golden!), jewel-like combination of the most gorgeous beans you’ve ever seen or tasted, perfectly cooked, both tender and firm. She earned more points for ordering Cesare’s signature salad – Insalata Pontormo – soft scrambled eggs and pancetta tossed with fresh arugula and radicchio. I couldn’t stop stabbing intro Mark’s pancetta-roasted Brussel Sprouts, but he didn’t seem to mind. Enrico and I both ordered soups – a minestrone that was 100% vegetables and an amazing, cant-get-more-Tuscan-than-this soup reminiscent of farro but made with wheatberries and tiny, pearl-like Coco di Mamma beans. Other highlights included the lightest lasagna I’ve ever tasted

and a spicy porchetta (roasted suckling pig) sandwich that could’ve come from my favorite porchetta trailer in Todi.

We lingered for a long while, finishing up the bottle of wine and then enjoying bites of warm apple cake and perfect macchiati before strolling through Central Park on our way to the Whitney Museum. Next time, I’ll return to Salumeria Rosi for dinner – and I hope you will try it, too!

Salumeria Rosi
Salumeria Rosi
283 Amsterdam Ave. (73rd / 74th St)
New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-877-4800
Hours:

Travel Food · Jan 2, 05:29 PM