There’s a warm apple strudel on the outside table and the aroma of fresh fruit fills the air. It’s mid-morning in the King Valley and Katrina Pizzini is cutting the strudel for her A Tavola! Cooking School guests. ‘It is Nonna Rosetta Pizzini’s recipe,’ says the vivacious Katrina, her dark eyes flashing as she gently places a thick slice of golden strudel on the plate. ‘When my husband Fred and I were first married, we lived with his parents, who came from Bolzano is Northern Italy when Fred was just three. I learned to cook so many things by Rosetta’s side. Rosetta (now 91) still is a wonderful cook. She and (husband) Roberto grow what they eat and eat what they grow.’
It is these amazing traditional cooking skills, along with some more modern and global dishes and recipes, that Katrina and Fred pass on during her cooking classes.
The programme of cooking classes ranges from Pasta, Ravioli and Gnocchi to a Whistle Stop Tour of Street Food. Today we are learning to make antipasti, starting with meatballs served with peperonata on fried slices of eggplant. Katrina’s method of teaching is remarkably clear-cut, offering practical examples and different ways to remember her methods. When making the meatballs – known for their infuriating ability to fall apart – she offers sage advice: ‘You have to mix the meat together with your hands until it becomes sticky. That way you’ll feel when the mixture changes.’ Another tip is that Katrina fries her meatballs in a mixture of butter and oil and doesn’t flip or move them for several minutes until the meat is well set.
We continue making the peperonata, starting by caramelising onions then the capsicum, fresh field tomatoes and later the garlic (burned garlic tastes bitter, says Katrina). We make the eggplant, a recipe learned from a Sicilian neighbour. ‘Every recipe has a story,’ Katrina explains. Next are fish cakes, fragrant and aromatic, made with fresh spices and Asian herbs. We move onto the arcane art of gnocchi, learning the tender technique of hand rolling the mixture of cooked onion and silver beet, nutmeg, ricotta and a little flour into a log and then creating feather light pillows we will dress with a simple but elegant cream, blue cheese and white wine sauce. Afterwards we return to the table and eat together enjoying a little glass of rosé with the fishcakes, some sangiovese shiraz with the meatballs and arneis with the gnocchi, the clouds rolling in over the Victorian Alps in the distance.
A Tavola! Cooking School offers classes towards the end of the week and cost $130-$140 per person. For dates see www.pizzini.com.au/pizzini/cooking-school.php and to book call 03 5729 8030 or email katrina@pizzini.com.au
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