Fresh pasta, dried pasta, stuffed pasta, every type of pasta you can think of we know how to make. Needless to say i was pretty excited about this week because more than half of my diet is pasta. Made a great fettuccine dish on tuesday, preped the lasagne on wednesday, then made the lasagne, ravioli, and tortellini on thursday. The lasagne, which as it happens i am eating some right now as i type, is the typical northern Italian lasagne with a meat ragu, besciemelle sauce, grated parmaggiano reggiano and grana padano cheeses and pasta verde. Pasta verde is fresh spinach pasta rolled out into lasagne noodles. The ravioli had a ricotta mixture in it and the tortelli all bolognese was stuffed with a mixture of ground turkey, pork, veal, prosciutto, mortadella and herbs and spices that we cooked earlier in the week. These later two we made with a simple butter, sage reduction sauce. The sauce is relatively easy because all you need is butter, sage, and some of your pasta water but the tricky part is the timing: too short and its all buttery, too long and its burnt butter and burnt pasta but just right and its a creamy, light, and very delicious sauce.
Another exciting part of this week was witnessing chef extraordinaire Jacques Pepin work his magic. He dismantled a duck with surgical precision and then used every part of it creating four amazing dishes.
1.) Zuppa di Farro except in French and with duck just can't remember the name of it but it was made with the duck carcass and a bunch of different vegetables and herbs. It was amazing.
2.) Duck pate served on toasted baguette, also amazing and i am not a big fan of pate
3.) Chinese pancakes with roasted duck skin, celery, cucumber and carrot with a miso glaze
4.)Seared duck breast
All was amazing and i don't think i can truely say that enough to get my point across. It truely was a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch, listen, and taste from the hands of one of the greatest chefs to ever walk on this planet.
One last thing I wanted to mention is that I will be interning at Salumeria Rosi. The restaurant and salumeria is located on the upper west side at 73rd and Amesterdam. I will get to work both in the kitchen and at the counter of the salumeria. It is definitely one of the best restaurants i have ever eaten at and i am so excited to have the chance to work there and get some real experience in a new york kitchen. It is also owned by the dean of my program, Cesere Casella, who grew up in italy and learned from some of italy's finest chefs. I start this wednesday and i am sure i will have stories to tell so stay tuned.
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