Cooking Class's Prato de Angelo

Yesterday it was a nice easy and low stress 2 hour trip down from Venice around the ring road of Bologna to Castle San Petrdo then 20mins on a small narrow country to our family at Prato de Angela arriving around 5pm thanks to my black sleek one sitting on around 130 to 150km on the autostrada it was a breeze.

The family had arrange to take us up to the local pizza joint for dinner. Lucky they drove as the roads were even narrower as we weaved our way even further out off the tourist track.

Today we start back in the kitchen as we did last year, but this time as it is autumn we will be doing some lessons on fruit and vege preserving + some hearty winter fair.
Theresa, Christena and Bea all want to show Sandy as much as they can so it is coming at us from all directions....Italian loud and fast so no time is wasted.

Firstly we make nocky or Gnocchi
Cook buttery potatoes with a good amount of salt. Drain and while still hot use a potato ricer or masher don't overwork. For every 1 kg of potatoes add 600 grams of plain flour and 75 mls extra virgin olive oil.
The potatoes here are so yellow and buttery and I can't stop eating them prior to the process, so whenever my little Italian chefs turn around like a naughty boy the fingers are in the steamer!! Yumo

OK "alora" back to it Pete so let's continue.....this is how it is done
Mix the flour and potatoes together gently don't over work.  Turn out onto a floured surface.You will have to knead slightly to bring it together in a dough. Roll into snakes and cut in to little pillows. If you like you can then push them down a folk tine to make them turn inside out forming a cute shape....very fiddley. But done with love are really cute! (And actually they did taste better as the nocky in thinner, cooks through and the sauce is trapped).

Bring salted water to a rapid boil and pop in gnocchi when they pop to the top cook for a further 1-2 mins gentle remove and drain...stir in sauce.

Porchinni sauce...
Cut roughly 1kg of mushrooms. Today we used frozen porchinni both Sandy and I didn't realise that you could freeze mushrooms ... These they collected in summer and what a treat for us to have ones that are not dried like we get in good old Tamworth.
In a pan add olive oil and a tablespoon of garlic fry until just colouring. Add the mushrooms and cook slowly for 30 mins. Add salt to taste.
We will use the remaining mushroom mix tomorrow as part of a dish recipe to follow. This afternoon it's back to the agrotourism up the hill to use the Zona Relaxa the heated indoor pool, spa and and sauna as nobody else is booked in it will be all ours.