Enricos Class from Sandy's perspective

Enrico is rather a celebrity in the food circles of Italy. The night we arrived at her house she had a friend and chef visiting form Paris along with her chef from schools she runs in South Africa so there was Peter and I and 3 very experiences chefs with lots of knowledge. It was an over load there were variations and possibilities on every ingredient and it was decided on the fly as we all agreed to try some new variations . Enrico was leaving in 2 days to be with BBC4 and the Italian consulate to do a food tour of Bassilata. She is passionate about the area and its produce along with that of Venice....and Italy on the whole. As it was apparent from the start that we had extensive food knowledge and experience the class took on more the feel of experimenting with friends that a structured class. There were no recipes just flexibility and a sharing of knowledge. Needless to say it was a graze fest with tastes all Italian of course. We cooked with the reddest prawns we have ever seen from Sicily say the eat the red coral they make a beautiful soup with a prawn bisque from the shells and simmering the prawns in at the end. Topped off with a mint that is only Venetian somewhere between spearmint and basil. The bisque is made by frying onions in garlic and olive oil with some lemon peel and italian mint with wine and water, simmering all heads tails ect for 30 min them blitzing and passing though a very fine sieve....this is best popped in fridge for 24 hrs and when rewarming just bring back to heat and cook the prawns in it. It is the season for asparagus and they are so big and fantastic we really do not see them to this quality. We had a great little asparagus cream started served in a tiny coffee cup..... Very Italian. We cleaned and cooked the freshest seafood, little squids, a piece for tuna and lovely little red mullets the fish we marinated in olive oil lemon and garlic and cooked on a flat plate. The squid we cleaned and with no regard the intestines were tossed out the window in the canal below....an interesting thing to do and that seemed to be where all the organic waste went ....to feed the fish....kind of explainers the colour of the sand at Lido beach! Anyway back to the cooking. We made a great anti pasta plate consisting of grilled and stuffed eggplant rolls. We stuffed them with ricotta, lemon zest, Parmesan, olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper and just rolled them and served them cold. Then we prepared a plate of Purple tiny exclusive to Venice artichokes couldn't decide which be would be best so we do them 2 ways. They both started with peeling them, then cooking them in salted water for 15 min till they softened .cutting them in 1/4 once cooled enough to handle ..they are very woody even the small ones. They have no fur inside as they are so young. The first batch we covered in a paste of basil, garlic, parsley , olive oil, bread crumbs and Parmesan then they were baked in the oven for 20 mins ...these are the best artichokes we have had. The second ones were fried off with a little oil and garlic very simple topped with parsley and served warm. Next were the peas, they were divine all we did was peel some huge peas and really finely dice some white onion. The onion was just sweated down and the peas were added and the pot was turned down and a lid popped on no water just the gentlest of heat and they released their own juice and in 15 mins or so they were just so sweet. Top with a sprinkle of parsley and serve. The tuna was just diced finely for a tartan and with a flourish of olive oil and should we mention a splash of amazing Japanese soy sauce the only ingredient we have seen to date that is not italian.....and it was ready. To our taste really not as good a tuna as we get, it was tougher, soft pink and fishy oiler taste ... on this product we are spoilt! All topped up with bubbles and white wine. I will leave all the gossip to Peter he is having such fun with his blog!