May Day, May Day -- Cooking Class Reunion

It had been over a year since the last pot luck reunion of our class from our 2006 Museo ItaloAmericano Italian cuisine terminology/Cucina Italiana class – one of the oddest and most rewarding educational experiences of my life. Although it had taken some time to find a date when our surviving class members and respective companions could all meet, we had finally settled on this past Saturday, May 1.

This time we were to gather at our place in Sausalito, and while the weather earlier in the week had been a bit on the cold and overcast side, happily Saturday was one of those Spring days that reminds one of why one chose to live in the Bay Area - the view from our deck was pretty nice.

As always, preparation for these reunions takes a bit of thought. Apart from the food and wine, what about appropriate music? Given the contrasting May Day implications (think Lei Day in Hawai’i where I grew up vs. L'Internationale) and Italian cuisine theme of the event, it is possible that no previous iPod playlist has featured the same combination of Italian, Hawaiian and international labor movement selections that we enjoyed. The seamless juxtaposition of Paolo Conte, Gabby Pahinui and the Red Army Chorus was something to behold.

One thing you can be sure of at these events is that we will all eat and drink well, and most importantly will all have a great time with some wonderful friends.

As far as I can remember, this was our menu for the evening:

Gli Antipasti

~ Ricotta with mint served with bruschetta
~ Abbaye de Belloc
~ Tomino in oil with herbs and chile
~ Fra’Mani Salume Gentile
~ Tuscan bean spread
~ Castelvetrano olives


La Cena

~ Fennel, arugula and orange salad
~ Chicken Pappardelle
~ Peperonata
~ Asparagus
~ Tartine country bread, with olio di olive
~ Lemon & chocolate hazelnut tarts

I Vini

~ Val’d’Oca Prosecco
~ Cantine Mederfil “Le Grotte” Reggiano Lambrusco
~ Vietti – 2008 Roero Arneis
~ Seghesio – 2004 Marian’s Reserve
~ La Braccesca – 2004 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
~ Cascina del Santuario (Soria Bruno) – 2006 Moscato d’Asti
~ Hauner – 2005 Malvasia delle Lipari – Passito

Twelve persons was the most we had ever had at a sit-down dinner at our place, although with a bit of creative geometry (don’t ask me what the shape of our table was) we managed to fit everyone in.


Just a few random comments on our dishes.

Thanks to Karlena and John for reading my blog and bringing one of my favorite cheeses, Abbaye de Belloc (we will forget for the moment it is French), not to mention my favorite local salume from the folks at Fra’Mani, and the Prosecco that tided us all over until the rest of the gang managed to fight through the Saturday traffic on the Golden Gate.

Alba and Michael came through with the Lambrusco that everyone knows is the perfect pairing for salume, as well as with the asparagus.

Melva and Jim deserve recognition for bringing the loaves of country bread from Tartine Bakery (is that not the best bread in the world - flavor + crust + texture ??), not to mention the vivid green olive oil all the way from their estate in Cortona.

Reidun and Angela get singled out for the handmade ricotta cheese that they learned to make a few weeks ago at their cooking class with Rosetta Costantino (note to self: buy Rosetta's new "My Calabria" cookbook!)

Barbara gets our thanks for the insalata as well as for sharing with us all the bottle of Seghesio Marian’s Reserve that she had received from our departed classmate John Demergasso, whom we toasted during the meal. John, we could not have had a more appropriate forum during which to enjoy your gift!

Veronica scored with the spectacular and contrasting lemon and chocolate/hazelnut tarts, notwithstanding a bit of ingredient sloshing on the ride out from the city.

Mega-thanks to Nancy for all of the pre and post-dinner planning, cleaning and other efforts and many dishes, not the least of which were the Chicken Pappardelle main course and the both beautiful and tasty Peperonata Tuscan onion and bell pepper stew taken from Judy Witts Francini’s recent cookbook I picked up during our recent class with Judy at Cavallo Point.

And finally kudos to Kip and Quigley who, after a bit of exuberant barking to welcome our guests, calmed down and throughout the evening performed their customary roles of patrolling the floor for dropped tidbits.

Where do we go next?

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Reunion of our Museo Cooking Class!

One of the best courses I ever took was a course on Italian cuisine given in Italian at the Museo ItaloAmericano in San Francisco during the Spring of 2006. Our class met once a week for 8 weeks – one week we would meet at the Museo to talk about some culinary topic, and the following week we would meet at the home of Paola Bagnatori, the Museo’s Managing Director, to cook! Apart from having a lot of fun, our class became very close and since the class ended we have met periodically to reconnect and explore our favorite topic further.

Last week a number of us from the class got together for dinner at the home of Dawn (aka “Alba” in our class) and Michael Isaacs for a pot luck dinner. It was great to see each other and catch up, and needless to say there was a good deal of excellent food and wine....

For our antipasti, we enjoyed:

~ Bruschetta with an eggplant caponata from Karlena and John;

~ A couple of salumi from Fra’Mani that Nancy and I brought along -- our two favorites, their Salame Gentile and Salame Rosa – per the Fra’Mani website:

Salame Gentile: A traditional salame whose origins date back to the 18th century in the province of Parma, Italy. Coarsely ground and encased in the budello gentile, with a pronounced pork aroma.

Salame Rosa: A salame cotto (cooked salame) with origins in the city of Bologna, Italy. Made from prime cuts from the shoulder, coarsely chopped to create a distinctive mosaic face and speckled with small cubes of plate fat cut from high on the hog. Dry roasted with a hint of natural fruitwood smoke. Mildly seasoned with coriander, white pepper and mace, and studded with pistachio nuts.

~ Our favorite Castelvetrano olives; and

~ Mozzarella from Bubalus Bubalis, Inc., as far as I know the only maker of mozzarella in California that is using water buffalo milk.

I had picked up the Bubalus Bubalis mozzarella at Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building earlier that day. The company is named after the Latin name of the Asian water buffalo which was long ago introduced to Southern Italy where its milk is used for the production of real mozzarella cheese. I was skeptical about the quality of the product, given the need to consume mozzarella as fresh as possible (Antonio, my friend and Italian tutor from Salerno in Campania, claims it must be within hours of production) and the fact that the Bubalus Bubalis buffalo herd is near Oroville in Northern California while their production facility is in Gardena, in Southern California. However, it was very good and there were no complaints by our dinner companions, who certainly are a discriminating group when it comes to Italian food!

Reidun and Angela had brought along a beautiful mixed beet salad with blood oranges for the evening, inspired by the cooking lessons from Giovanni della Renta at the now-sadly-closed Ristorante Mezzo Mezzo in San Rafael that Reidun and I had both taken.

We also enjoyed some wonderful asparagus that Barbara had prepared.

Our salad course was followed by a very tasty Zuppa di Vino that Alba had prepared, a Northern Italian soup using beef broth, white wine, cream, cheese and croutons

We then moved along to our main course, again care of Alba, a tender chicken marsala served with polenta and mixed vegetables.

Finally we capped off the meal with two torte care of Melva and Veronica, served with a ricotta sauce, and some tangerines.

Wine flowed throughout the evening, including some Sorella Bronca prosecco at the start, followed by Cantina Valle Isarco’s Kerner, Ca’ di Pian Barbera d’Asti from La Spinetta, and Valle dell'Acate’s Cerasuolo di Vittoria during the course of the meal, and a touch of Moscato d'Asti to end.

A wonderful evening, and we are already plotting our next outing!

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