Saturday morning we walked to the S. Stae vaporetto stop and were met by Maria de Cicco, who took us back to her house for a cooking class. When we signed up online, I thought it would include a trip to the market, but soon realized that our four hours wouldn’t have allowed enough time for that plus all the cooking and eating that we had to accomplish.
Her flat is in a typical, old Venetian building, with some modern design elements tastefully incorporated. She was born in Naples, and has lived in Venice for 25 years, with a background in catering . We found out that she is also a passionate tango dancer, and spent a month in Argentina this summer dancing.
Our menu for today was typically Venetian. First course was mixed fried vegetables, followed by risotto with scampi and artichokes, sea bass baked in a salt crust and for dessert, tiramisu.
As we do at home, we started by making the dessert so it could chill. She told us that it is a relatively new dish, invented by a chef in Treviso in the 1960’s. Her version, like most Italian cooking, is very simple. Couple of eggs, sugar, and amaretti cookies soaked in vermouth. No coffee in this recipe.
While that chilled, we started the stock for the risotto.
She emphasized that the risotto is only as good as the stock. For scampi or prawn risotto, you make a stock with onions, parsley, carrot, bay leaf, and the parts of the crustacean that aren’t so appetizing – heads, shells, etc.
Next up was prepping the veggies to be battered and fried in peanut oil. One of the things I liked about the menu is that all the parts of each ingredient were used for various things. i.e. the artichokes were sliced thinly for the risotto, cut into chunks for frying, and the bottoms were used as a side dish.
The batter was utter simplicity: flour and water. Her trick was to use ice cubes to chill the batter, which will give a crispier crust when fried. Zucchini flowers, leeks, artichokes, red pepper, zucchini and fennel were the vegetables of the day. The only garnish was a little salt and pepper.
Like all the produce, the sea bass was local. It was cooked with lemons, parsley, and garlic in a salt crust. No oil, other than some extra virgin olive oil drizzled on at the end.
I was in charge of frying the vegetables, and Barb got to stir the risotto. Maria subscribes to the traditional Italian nonna technique of constantly stirring the risotto, though we’ve been told that it was just a way to keep her tied to the stove.
We had dined last night in a very nice restaurant, with a similar menu – risotto with scampi, sea bass, and tiramisu. It was no better than Maria’s version. When we asked Maria for a restaurant recommendation, she said that the best cooking in Italy is at home. She is right.
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