It's America...In Italy

It has already been two full weeks of classes here at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, and I only have eight more too go. Granted, one of those eight weeks will be me drinking and learning about wine, and another will be learning about and tasting olive oils. So, in reality it’s only six weeks of actual class left. That’s not so bad.

The two classes we’re taking; History of Cuisine, and History of Italian Cuisine will be over next week which is definitely a good thing.

“In the case of two week old History of Italian Cuisine, you are…NOT, an exciting class. In the case of two week old History of Cuisine, you are…NOT, exciting either.”

Ok so I lost some steam with that last one, but hopefully the Maury reference got the point across. See, it’s not so much that the classes are long and drawn out, I have gotten used to that. It’s that the material that we are learning is either dry, or I already know it.

In History of Cuisine we have been learning about American history with some relation to food for all but one class, and now the entire second section is devoted to it. I learned about American history in elementary school, middle school, and high school. Honestly, do I need to come to Italy to learn more about America? History of Italian Cuisine is better, but not by much. Our teacher is a genius, probable the most knowledgeable person on Italy’s food history, but for the life of him he cannot connect his thoughts. His lectors consist of him rambling on about something relating to Italy’s food history for three hours. I leave feeling more confused than when I walked in.

Now that that is out of my system, I can tell you about the most exciting part of my week, the dinner I helped make with my roommates for our good friends Paolo and Annalise. We made a four course dinner, starting with crostini and fig jam, topped with prosciutto di Parma. Second we had homemade pasta with dried roasted tomatoes and olive oil. Then came a roast beef tartar with an arugula salad and balsamic vinegar dressing, finally we had a baked and seasoned chicken breast with some awesome honey, we bought at cheese, and an arugula salad. The night was a huge hit. Paolo and Annalise also brought two amazing wines, a white Tocai Friulano, and a dessert wine Vigna del Volta.

Not much is happening until next weekend when Paolo has set up a winery tour for us. Now is the time that the vineyards are doing their grape harvesting. It is also white truffle season, awesome!