River Cafe Jan 18th & 19th

I think I was a little ambitious for this one.
Picking the menu for a class is a simple recipe. There is two and a half hours to cook a four course meal for ten people. Pick recipes that fit into the allotted time and pick recipes using techniques and ingredients people may not be familiar with.
Flipping through the newest book by the famed River Cafe in London, i got a bit excited. The River Cafe Cookbook Classic Italian Cookbook is so full of amazing looking and sounding recipes, it was difficult to narrow it down to just four. Luckily for me, there was two nights to try out as many as I could fit in.
Jan 18th:

Tuscan Kale and Polenta Soup
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Pizza Frita
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Bollito Misto
Rich Lentils
Salsa Verde
Horseradish Sauce
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Torta di Capri

Lets start with the soup. Tuscan Kale is a great ingredient to use in general. That's why this soup was really appealing. It's not an easy vegetable to find. With it's dark leaves and great crunchy texture, it just screams "good for you"! Adding it to a polenta along with carrots, celery, onion, potato and garlic surly makes it a hearty, wintry soup. Perfect for the middle of January. When I cook polenta in classes, i tend to opt for instant polenta due to time constraints. The problem is that when it cooks, it gets really sticky and stiff FAST. So for this soup, i went with a regular cornmeal, and I'm glad i did. The book says to cook it a total of one and a half hours. You braise the kale in water , along with the other vegetable, for an hour, then add the cornmeal and simmer for another thirty minutes. I cut down the cooking time for the kale by half because i don't like the idea of cooking greens for that long. I also cut down the cooking time for the polenta because i like my polenta with a little bit of texture, not completely smooth. It had a great texture and people loved it. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. The kale added a great look and texture. So far off to a great start.

Second course was the Pizza Frita. This was basically pizza fried in a pan. Pretty good idea right? The picture in the book looked great and the recipe sounded simple enough. I started making the pizza dough earlier in the afternoon. While making it, it seemed really familiar. The use of rye flour in the sponge reminded me of my favorite pizza dough recipe from Chez Panise. Going back and reading the blurb before the recipe the authors mention its a variation of the Chez Panise pizza dough. Pretty good memory Jonathan. Now you just have to remember what you had for breakfast.
The pizza dough was easy to put together. I found it a bit wet, but this could all be because of the type of flour i used and not knowing exactly the texture or wetness/dryness they want. That's the thing with breads, they can't really tell you what the exact moisture of the dough, so you usually are guessing. Maybe that's why home made bread usually sucks. Anyways, because i found the dough to be a tad moist, it fermented a lot faster that the two hours mentioned. But that's OK, it came out pretty good in the end. One recipe yields ten thin crust pizzas. We rolled out the dough and placed it in the pan with a bit of olive oil. On medium heat, I cooked one side til sort of brown and flipped, dressed with thinly sliced potato, boconchini and fresh basil. Put a lid on the pan and cooked another 2 minutes.

Voila! Pizza Frita.
Not really what i was expecting. But pizza is always a hit. I thought the dough would puff more, or get more crispy, but it didn't. Maybe it needed more olive oil and higher temperature. It was a cool concept and I would for sure try it again.

Main Course was Bolitto Misto. The picture in the book is what inspired me to make it. Table side Bolitto Misto looked like a thing of wonder. Essentially boiled meats and vegetables with a rich meaty stock and a variety of sauces and side dishes to go along. It was a hard sell this boiled meat concept, but i assured everyone that they have to try it first.
I followed the recipe pretty closely. Using brisket, chicken, veal tongue, and sausage. The recipe called to use Cotechino sausage which i couldn't find. I opted for sweet Italian sausage instead. The Brisket and tongue took a total of three hours to simmer in water along with carrots, celery and onion. The chicken only and hour and the sausage ten minutes. I altering the recipe slightly, i cooked the brisket and tongue in one pot and the chicken and sausage in another. The brisket and tongue was melt in your mouth and everything was served with two very simple sauces of Horseradish cream and salsa verde. Both brought the meats to life with a little heat and freshness.

On the side we made lentils that were cooked with carrots, celery, onion, pancetta and lots of red wine and stock. Very rich and was a hit with everyone.
after the first bite, the people who were sceptical of the idea of boiled meat were excited to recreate it on the weekend. I hope they do. Although cooking time is long, it's so easy to throw together and is a great dish to entertain with.

Dessert was a chocolate torte that had no picture so there were no preconceived ideas of how it would turn out. It's a flourless cake using lots of ground almonds and bits of chocolate. Easy enough to put together. I liked the bits of chocolate strewn throughout. when it came out of the oven it looked like big chocolate chip cookie. after about one hour at 300*, the cake came out looking really rich and delicious. But being a bit worm while eating, it was very light on the palate and not as rich as it looked. I like those kinds of desserts.
All in all the class was a success. People had a great time eating and watching me run around. It was a very consuming class because all the dishes were very time consuming. I didn't have time to wash dishes in between courses. So once everyone left with full bellies it was a late night washing all the pots and pans, which i don't mind. Keeps me grounded. I may be a cook, but I'll always be a dishwasher at heart.

Jan 19th:

Potato, Rosemary, Pecorino Pizza
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Tagliatelle with Porcini
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Bollito Misto
Rich Lentils
Salsa Verde
Horseradish Sauce
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Almond, Ricotta and Polenta Tart

I was ready for this one. More organized and practised.
Pizza this time was done in the oven. I didn't own a pizza stone so i went to Home Depot to buy something along those lines. I purchased two slate tiles for $6. Wasn't sure of it would work. Placed them in the oven and after reading up a bit on it, slowly started to heat them up in the oven. One at 450*, we were ready to make pizza.
The dough was the exact same as last night. We rolled them out and dressed the pizzas with thinly sliced potato, fresh rosemary, and pecorino. We made some variations using more boconchini and anchovies (my favorite). Pizza's came out better than last night. More crisp because of the slate tiles. Half way through the slate cracked in half though. No worries, it didn't stop is from making them.
Next time, I'll buy an unglazed ceramic tile from home depot. Apparently that will work without cracking. Good thing they only cost a couple bucks instead of the $50+ for "proper" stones at some kitchen retailers.

Next course was the pasta. I made fresh pasta in the afternoon. Haven't made fresh pasta in a while. What better class to do it. There is no fresh pasta recipe in this book. So I took a recipe from another book, Pasta Sfoglia, that I'll be doing later in the season. The dough was nice. I ran it through the pasta roller attachment for the Kitchen Aid.
The final dish was so simple to put together, as any good pasta is. After soaking some dried porcini for twenty minutes, I drained it, chopped it up, and reserved the liquid. Saute some garlic, sage and chile, then add in some of the liquid and reduce to almost nothing. Add in the chopped porcini and some heavy cream and stir together.
Because the pasta was fresh, it only took two minutes in boiling salted water. Directly from the boiling water into the pan with the sauce, a quick toss, salt and pepper and you're done. We added a bit of the pasta water to loosen up the sauce. The fresh pasta had a great texture with a little snap when you bite into it. Cooked perfectly. The sauce was rich with the cream and porcini. A meal in itself.

The main was the same as last night. And everyone loved the tongue. At least that's what they told me.

For dessert tonight, we made an Almond, Ricotta, and Polenta cake. Again, it was a flourless, using lots of ground almonds and polenta. With the incorporation of ricotta, this cake was super moist. The recipe called for fine cornmeal flour, but I used a courser grain to give it the cornbread-y kind of texture i like. Great for breakfast, with coffee in the afternoon, or dessert. Refreshingly lemony, we served it with a dollop of freshly whipped cream. Just like last night's cake, it baked for one hour at 300*. Nicely golden and a winner. If you're going to make a dessert out of this book, the Almond, Ricotta and Polenta cake would be a wise choice.

Another successful class with The River Cafe Classic Italian Cookbook. It will be a go too for solid Italian recipes from now on.



Next Class: River Cottage Everyday