Piccola Cucina

We are still continuing our Piccola Cucina classes - Italian Cooking and Language. You can go here for all the details. My teaching partner, Christina Sbarra, an excellent Italian instructor, and I have been having as much fun as our students. What could be better than spending three hours cooking great Italian recipes, practicing our Italian (even if it is very little) and eating and laughing together.

For our last class on Tuscany, we received a generous donation of a large grocery bag full of fresh-picked fava beans grown by Christina of a Thinking Stomach. The abundance she can coax out of a city plot is amazing! We sat around and shelled the fava beans, sang old Italian songs and then enjoyed the beans with some Pecorino and a refreshing Italian white wine. Thank you Christina!

We followed that with making pici - a typical pasta of Tuscany that is hand-rolled and fun to make.

Our next classes are:

Sunday, June 8: "Primavera" featuring recipes using the new ingredients of the season like fried zucchini blossoms, artichokes and peas, crostata di verdure and more. 11 am - 2 pm.

Sunday, June 22: A regional class on the cuisine of Le Marche. Both Christina and I have family from this area, so the dishes are close to our hearts. 11 am - 2 pm.

They are in Long Beach, for all you Southern Californians reading this.

For more information, please call Christina at 562-930-9194 or email christinasbarra AT yahoo DOT com.

We are talking about putting together a Piccola Cucina trip to Italy for 2009, practicing Italian and cooking in beautiful Italy. More information to follow, but if you are interested in finding out more, drop me an email at passionatepalate AT gmail DOT com.