1. Sending message to
@DomenicoDodaro: I'm ready with all the technology we need! (I later noticed the computer says Domenico is already in the waiting room!) I haven't cooked in 25 years except for survival assembling of food, so Domenico offered to coach me through the process.
2. Teacher online, cookbook (that Domenico and friends made) open to the recipe (obviously in Italian so I needed translation).
3. Three different knives later, Bill's gigantic heavy-duty knife prevailed (although Domenico was worried I might injure myself trying to use it). Butternut Squash is hard to cut.
4. Squash weighed: 600 grams
5. Cooking the squash in 40 grams of olive oil (Domenico supervising every step from a safe distance) Add 3 grams of turmeric powder to the squash.
6. When squash is cooked, drain but save the liquid and keep it hot on very low heat.
7. In this act of juggling many pots at once, you should heat 200 grams of white wine (Domenico recommended the Chardonnay on the left), and let it reach boiling and then turn it off.
8. Meanwhile, melt 2/3 of 50 grams of butter in a large pot and be careful not to burn it. Add 150 grams of risotto and 10 fresh sage leaves, thinly cut.
9. While making sure the rice does not get burned in the butter, blend the squash until it makes a smooth puree (I think a stick blender was used in the Rome kitchen and I'd use that next time for one less thing to wash). Add 3 grams of salt, 1 gram of pepper.
10. Add one ladleful of the squash broth and one of the squash puree to the rice and keep stirring it, adding more as the rice cooks and gets drier. And when it is fully cooked, add the remaining 1/3 of the butter. Meanwhile — in yet another pan, put 1/3 of the 80 grams of finely grated parmesan and gently let it brown until it makes a thin parmesan toast. Repeat this to make two more -- one for each serving.
11. Miraculously, it all works out if you have an online coach guiding you through every step and reminding you how to keep all three burners going without ignoring any for too long. And there we have it — the finished dish with two spoonfuls of risotto on the parmesan toast -- with Mrs. D looking on and admiring our effort.
12. Then clean the kitchen. The End. (Well, I hope there's another lesson in my future but this one is finished.)
** Oh, and there was something about 50 grams of onion and 1/2 of 1 "davvero piccolo" — but since I can’t digest onions I ignored that part and used that time to try to catch up a bit while Domenico did this part in the Rome kitchen.
Finished dish:
https://365project.org/jyokota/365/2020-05-15
@golftragic Today you’ll have the first recipe... lookout for the sideways album!
@ludwigsdiana unfortunately, no English translation, but it’s available on Amazon: “Almanacco Alimentare 2020” ;)
@summerfield we should do one zoom/teams/whatever global reunion cooking, that would be fun!
Spaghetti al Limone, Rigatoni Cacio e Pepe, Rösti di Patate e Carote Con Le Uova, Uova in Barattolo con Funghi, Spaghetti Burro e Alici are possibilities from my end as all ingredients are possible.
@Weezilou -- there couldn't have been a better way to learn how to cook this amazing dish. hmmm . . . I know you are a fancy desert maker and I've been thinking about your pavlova . . . maybe there's a pavlova lesson in our future?
@danette -- it WAS wonderful, indeed -- how could it not be with a delicious dish and a coach to guide you in making it?
@taffy -- thank you for noticing the small photos as well as the story. And yes -- you know I'm not a dishwashing person so it was a challenge that took me hours off and on.
@jgpittenger -- it was fabulous, indeed, and now I am anxious to learn how to cook more out of his cookbook.
@summerfield -- that was a different kind of cheese than this one. The one Mrs D and Greta made in Chicago was Oscypek (or that's what its called in Poland). This one is parmesan.
@dide -- thank you for your enthusiastic appreciation -- I'm ready for more cooking lessons now.
@golftragic - Social distancing is bringing about new ways of doing things, and suddenly Zoom has gone from being a teaching and meeting tool I've used for over five years, to now being a social and cooking lesson tool! And yes, I'm also waiting for Domenico's historical fiction to be translated into English. Meanwhile, he's already at work on another!
@redy4et -- cooking school, yes! "Zoom Cook with Domenico" a 365 cooking school series.
@ludwigsdiana -- I think you can follow the recipe above because I tried to be detailed with what I remembered, but be sure to see Domenico's addition on the onion/leeks bit that I didn't use. Oh and this is already a second volume and there's a third in the making. @quietpurplehaze -- such an interesting observation because the squash and cheese and turmeric made the dish very orange, and my kitchen comes across as orange-ish, but the blue tones you picked out are all the technology, which is precisely what made this whole experience work!
@pamknowler It WAS delicious, and I've already had it twice, with one or two more remaining portions. I just make the cheese part fresh each time and warm up the portion of the risotto to put on top of it.
@domenicododaro -- thank you for adding the missing onion/leek information. I'm glad I remembered it correctly. I looked at the cookbook page while I was writing to get the ingredient amounts right, and to admire the anti-inflammatory properties of the nutritional information for this dish.
Hugs,
Jan
(For a fun detail, when she visited here a year ago, everywhere we went, people were mistaking her for English Chef/cook, Mary Berry. I'd never heard of her, but when I looked on Google, I was shocked! They're dead ringers!)