Cooking Class

The inside of the restaurant was really nice! We got to go inside when it was closed, but when we left all these tables were completely full of people

Part of the kitchen

Me and Michelle with our cute little aprons on

That is the owner and head chef teaching us how to fill the sheets of pastas before we rolled them up

Mixing the biscotti! mmm

Me and Michelle at dinner =)

So we all go to a local restaurant in Siena, where the owner and head chef let us into his kitchen and cook for 4 hrs! We make the pasta from scratch, and he puts it through the machine that stretches it out and makes it thin and flat. We all think oh yay stuffed pasta! Immediately we start learning how to make tortellini, big tortellini, and ravioli in norman and green pasta. Then we realize we are making gnocchi as well! I love gnocchi!! The mix for inside the pasta was already prepared, it was a spinich and cheese, and also eggplant and cheese. We did not get to make the sauces for the dishes, but I figured it could be a secret or what really makes the restaurant popular ? So he did not show us. But with the gnocchi was wild boar! They eat the most strange meat here. (The last I heard of wild boar was researching for a project about Great Danes, learning that wild boar was the animal they used to hunt back in the day.) And of course we learned how to make dessert! We made biscotti! Oh it looked so good with the fresh almonds. After at least 2 hours of cooking we finally all got to go sit down. He gave us the entire upstairs of the restaurant all to ourselves. Immediately they started bringing us the food we all helped to prepare. First tortelinni, then the ravioli and small tortelini, which I think they called carmellos or something in Italian (they looked like pasta shaped as hard candies wrapped in plastic). Finally we had spaghetti with zuchinni and some other stuff in it, I don't really know. And even after that they brought more green pasta!! AHHHHH so much food!!!! And of course there was fresh bread and red/white wine.. But everyone ate it all of course haha. The biscotti we made was so good I just had to take some home with me. When we were all leaving we got a surprise container full of fresh made pasta. The kind that Siena is known for. I can't wait to take it home to Indiana and cook for my family!