Food!

This has been a busy week of food!  I went to an Italian cooking class a couple of days ago and this morning I got to watch how mozzarella is made by hand!

In the cooking class, I learned how to make authentic Italian pizza.  Just as in the States, there are certain consistent varieties that one can buy:
* margherita: plain old cheese pizza
* capricciosa: mozzarella, tomatoes, mushrooms, ham, artichokes, olives, olive oil
* caprese (my favorite!): mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, basil, olive oil
* bianca: no tomatoes; mozzarella, olive oil, salt, rosemary

You can also buy pizza with certain toppings that are very different from our own.  It is normal to have pizza topped with zucchini, corn, hot dogs, cured beef or ham, salmon, or raw onions.

Making pizza is actually a very simple process once you have your dough ready.  However getting the perfect dough can be a challenge.  You need the perfect type of flour!  I was not aware that so many kinds of flour exist, but they do!  Once you have the right flour, you must mix in all the needed ingredients for the dough and then knead it perfectly.  I learned that if your dough has bubbles, the best thing to do is knead around and over the bubble until it goes away... or just take a fork and puncture it when the chef isn't looking!  The class was amazing!  Especially since everyone creates their own pizza and then shares it with everyone else.  I ate SO much, but it was so yummy.  They also had us try 3 different types of locally made beer.  Even though I'm not a beer person, I actually liked 2 of them!

This morning, we went to a cheese shop and were invited in the back where the owner was in the middle of hand-making mozzarella cheese.  The process is amazing; a true art!  It was incredible because there were no artificial flavors added to the cheese and there was one man making it with his own hands!  He started with milk delivered earlier in the day and ended up with the most delicious cheese.  The process depends mostly on the temperature of the water and the handling of the cheese.  It starts out in very hot water, ends up very curdled, and then is literally stretched and palmed by hand.  The movement is very gentle and very soothing. It reminded me of a sculptor molding clay.  Once the cheese was as soft as silk and stretched flat, Giuseppe (the cheese-maker) would mold the cheese into the different shapes he wanted and then put the cheese in very cold water.  You end up with incredibly soft cheese that has a very creamy texture.  It was DELICIOUS and I ate so much, my stomach hurt, but it was incredibly worth it!  I will be visiting that cheese shop and buying mozzarella from Giuseppe as much as possible!