Cucinare 101

This past week we had a pretty unique team outing - an Italian cooking class in Boston's historic North End (and rumored Italian mafia stronghold) at a Peruvian - southern Italian fusion restaurant called Taranta. We were divided into teams of three - staffed at three stations - meat, mozzarella and ravioli. I stayed at the Mozzarella station and learned how to make cheese from the start - breaking the curd, melting it into hot water till its a gooey mess and finally cutting the firm cheese and seasoning it with pepper and salt. As is clear by now, cheese is definitely a favorite of mine. The whole exercise was loads of fun..especially with the wine pouring like water...

We ended the night with a five course meal complete with the most deliciously tangy key-lime mango mousse...now only if they had taught us how to make that in the class! I only wish every night, after another cooking experiment, the table would be set with candles, vintage wines would be served and plates of appetizing food would (sort of magically) appear from nowhere...and every bite of dessert would feel like I had died and gone to gourmet heaven....