For my birthday, my friend Ange passed on a spare voucher for the cookery school at Bordeaux Quay, so this evening I went along for an Italian Provincial Cookery workshop. I went to another workshop there, on Spanish tapas, last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Like then, this evening was really more interesting for the little hints and tips picked up from seeing a professional chef at close quarters than the actual recipes. Last time, I completely changed my chopping technique and this time, I think it was a better technique for crushing garlic that I think'll stay with me.
The evening started off with a demonstration - linguine with crab and chilli - looked quite good, but perhaps a bit too crabby for my taste!?! Then we moved onto some fresh pesto - made with basil and hazelnuts (as pine nuts are super-expensive and difficult to get at the moment). I've made my own pesto before, but it was really good to learn a bit more about balancing the flavours and the result I mixed up together with my partner was great. We then made a chunky minestrone soup which was served with a good dollop of the pesto on the top - really tasty and one to remember for summer lunches.
Next came more herb chopping, with a salsa verde to go with some lamb. It was a bit ironic that I'd made a salsa verde just back at the beginning of the week, but again interesting to see the balance of ingredients suggested for this one.
After polishing off our efforts with a glass of wine, the evening finished off with some delicious lemon polenta cake. Unfortunately, we'd run out of time for a proper demo, but there was "one he'd made earlier" to taste and the recipe to take home and try.
All round, a really enjoyable evening and a few culinary nuggets of inspiration brought home with me. Thanks, Ange!
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