On Sunday's menu was a positively droolsome salami, breasola, parma ham and anchovy pizza with mozzarella and precorino cheeses--our morning snack--followed by a lengthy lunch of wild mushroom risotto, pumpkin ravioli with fresh pesto and zabaglione with polenta biscuits. We were also to make some foccacia with rosemary and olives to take home.
The first thing we needed to do was make the bread dough that would double up as both pizza base and foccacia. Now, without wishing to sound too smug, I much prefer my own foccacia recipe. It's wetter and uses lashings of oil to create a lovely moist bread with a fairly open texture. What we made tasted nice, but just not at all like my idea of foccacia. The dough did, however, make a great pizza base.
While the dough had its first rise, we cracked on with a few other things. Roasting squash for the ravioli--Crown Prince squash are a really funky shape--making pancetta crisps to decorate the mushroom risotto, and baking some gorgeous little polenta biscuits. (Lucas loved the extra biscuits I took home. He does love crunchy stuff.) We also made an extraordinary crunchy pesto in the group, passing the pestle and mortar around and pounding away until we had an almost smooth pesto. We then added in some extra pine nuts and crushed them lightly to keep the texture chunky. So fresh, and zingy, and peppery, and good. Finally we completed the ravioli filling. Unlike the butternut squash tortelli I've made, the filling for these ravioli contained finely chopped parma ham which provided a delicious savoury contrast to the intense sweetness of the squash. Plenty of chopped basil and parsley also went into the mixture which was chilled lightly before we used it to stuff the ravioli.
By the time we'd finished our prep the dough had risen nicely so we divided it in half and shaped some oval focaccias which we studded with small sprigs of rosemary and black olives. We left that to rise while we rolled out the other half of the dough for our pizza.
I'm really quite carnivorous these days, so after spreading the pizza with some more of the rich tomato sauce from the previous day, Lucy and I tore strips and chunks of salami, bresalo and Parma ham all over the pizza. We tucked some plump anchovies under the meat here and there and topped it off with plenty of roughly torn mozzarella and a few shavings of pecorino. Sublime. (Alas, no picture. I was dying to taste it.)
After sweltering in the hot kitchen it was a real relief to get out into the relative cool of the dining room. I can't imagine how hot it must be in a professional kitchen in the heat of summer. We had six ovens on, on a cold day in February, and we were all melting. I suspect that I won't be working in a professional kitchen any time soon.
Replete and refreshed, we bounded back into the kitchen and set to work with our pasta machines. You'd think that making ravioli in pairs would be easier than doing it at home, but I actually found it really difficult to coordinate what I was doing with what Lucy was doing. Still, we did manage to turn out some very respectable looking little sombreros of ravioli. (The less said about my attempts at tortellini the better.)
We then moved on to prepare the wild mushrooms for the risotto. I've made plenty of mushroom risottos in my time, but I've never been fortunate enough to work with actual wild mushrooms. We carefully brushed chanterelles, tromp de mort and three other varieties clean with little pastry brushes then tore them into bite-sized pieces. They had a wonderfully earthy smell and I felt really privileged to be working with such great produce.
Interestingly, Stuart had us prepare the risotto using cold stock (the vegetable stock from Saturday, of course) rather than boiling stock. He felt that this kept more of the delicate flavour of the stock. I think most of us felt a bit odd about making a risotto in this way, but the results were stunning.
After polishing off our bowls of risotto we returned to the kitchen to finish the ravioli. We tossed the cooked ravioli with a few spoonfuls of the pesto and attempted an artistic final adornment of balsamic glaze. Clearly I needed more practice with a squeezy bottle, but the tortellini tasted fantastic! And as for the pesto... this was by far the nicest pesto I've ever had and it was the primary motivation behind my decision to grow basil this year. I must have more of that pesto! The chunky texture ensured that every mouthful tasted subtly different, which I loved.
While we dined on the ravioli Stuart was busy in the kitchen whisking up enough zabaglione for ten people. By hand. Zabaglione is tiring enough when you're just making a couple of portions, and he must have been whisking away for at least 20 minutes!
Once the zabaglione was beautifully thick it was piled into martini glasses (pictured above) then topped with a spoonful of marsala-soaked sultanas which slowly sank through the thick foam. The polenta biscuits that we made earlier were the perfect contrast to the airy, boozy zabaglione. It was really boozy, so I didn't finish my portion as I was a bit worried about driving after an entire glass! If I make this at home, then I'll be sending my guests home in taxis.
And then it was time to go home. We all trailed out reluctantly, clutching various bags of leftovers, foccacia and purchases from the shop. I picked up a lame as I've wanted one for ages and a roll of gripper matting to replace the damp tea towel that I use to keep my chopping board steady. It's amazing stuff... makes cooking that little bit more fun (and safer.)
I would definitely go back to Ashburton for more courses. I'm still hopeful that I'll be able to go back and do the Chef Skills weekend later this year. While the Italian course isn't hugely technical--we chatted over breakfast to students on the French course who were a bit frazzled at the skills they were learning--I still learned various little things and refined some of my techniques. Most importantly of all, I ate some fabulous food and had great fun!
Ashburton Cookery School
Hare's Lane Cottage
76 East Street
Ashburton
TQ13 7AX
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