Culinary School - Q7 Week 2 European

Menu: Peperonata, Braciole, Caponata, Pomodoro Sauce, Orechetti con Carciofi, Insalata de Seppie, Calamari e Gamberi, Tunnu a Palirmitana, Torta Caprese

Summary: I love all Italian food. When I cook at home, Italian is my specialty, and Southern Italy is my favorite region.

Food: Peperonata – I thought this was tasty. Chef wants us to pay more attention to equal sized portions and make sure each dish gets the same amount of each color of peppers.

Fresh Pomodoro Sauce – I make a similar sauce at home at least once per week. This time we used it for the Braciole. Chef thought ours needed more salt. I would disagree. When paired with the Braciole I thought it was good. The Braciole had Asiago cheese in the stuffing and was quite salty on its own. If I were going to serve this by itself as a sauce for pasta I might give it a little more salt.

Braciole – Unfortunately, our pork was over cooked and thus dry. But the stuffing had a nice flavor to it. I tasted this dish from another group and theirs was quite good. Much more moist than ours.

Caponata – Chef thought our Caponata had too many capers in it, and I would have to agree. The capers drowned out the taste of everything else in the dish.

Orechietti con carfioci – Unfortunately, We were not given Orechietti to work with. We were given Penne Rigate. This is very different pasta from the Orechietti. Pasta comes in so many different shapes and sizes because they all have a specific use. While our pasta dish tasted good, the pasta was a bit too al dente for my taste. This might be because of it being the wrong shape. With the Orechietti, the sauce would have clung to the little ear shape better. Chef said the pasta had a nice texture. The Artichokes were very well cooked.

Insalata di Seppie – This salad of cuttlefish, squid and shrimp looked nice on the plate but chef said he wanted the tails off the shrimps. We thought it looked nicer for the presentation. He also said the potatoes were a little over cooked and the dish as a whole was under seasoned. I can’t vouch for that because I couldn’t taste it.

Tunnu a Palirmitana – We presented our tuna in two different ways. One was a whole tuna steak and the other was sliced in small slices. Both were served with the arugula salad. Chef said the Arugula salad needed more acid and I agree. Even just a squeeze more of lemon juice would have brightened up the whole dish.

Torta Caprese – This is one of my favorite things we have made. Chef said the taste was “very delicious!” It had great chocolate flavor and a lovely texture. I would have loved to put a dollop of whipped cream and some chocolate shavings on top of it. It reminded me of a chocolate soufflé!