{"id":6124,"date":"2019-01-16T11:06:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T18:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?p=6124"},"modified":"2023-04-27T17:05:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T00:05:45","slug":"calabria-dispatch-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/16\/calabria-dispatch-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Calabria Dispatch #3: Bureaucracy and Bourbon"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 16, 2019<\/p>\n

The average student gains five pounds (or is it five kilos?) during the three-month “Master of Italian Cuisine” course.\u00a0 At least that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been told.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to believe.<\/p>\n

Our first day in the classroom was Sunday, January 13th and I had barely digested the previous evening\u2019s meal from Al Fondaco.\u00a0 I was so wound up\u2014and so overly full\u2014from the meal that I couldn\u2019t even get into bed till 1:30 AM.<\/p>\n

I groaned when my alarm went off at 7:30.\u00a0 I groggily hauled myself out of bed and made what has become my daily pilgrimage to Orlando for espresso.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Orlando serves up a smile and espresso six days a week<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After my second espresso doppio I felt a bit more revived.\u00a0 Class started at 9:00.<\/p>\n

Whereas the first day was lecture combined with tasting foundational components of regional Italian cuisine, the second day was spent in the kitchen watching Chef prepare basic foods\u2014and of course tasting them, with one exception.\u00a0 Because we ran out of time before tasting olive oils on the first day, we began the day by tasting 8 Italian extra-virgin olive oils from Liguria, Veneto, Garda, Siena, Chianti, Puglia, and two from Sicily.\u00a0 To make a point, Chef also had us taste \u201colive oil,\u201d a chemically extracted oil with no olive flavor but a distinct chemical bite.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here\u2019s how the day went.\u00a0 Asterisks (*) mean that we tasted the dish as well (please excuse the English and Italian mash-up, it’s kind of how it goes in the kitchen here).<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *Simple tomato sauce (this was put into many dishes)<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Anchovy garlic paste<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *Cotechino on warm bread with a fried egg, spicy mayonnaise (maionese di bomba), and taleggio<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *Risotto alla Parmigiana con tartufo bianco (risotto with parmigiano cheese and white truffles)<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Salsa verde<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ragu di agnello (lamb ragu)<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Salted egg yolks (tuorli di uova sotto sale)<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *Spaghetti alla puttanesca<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ragu di sepia (cuttlefish sauce)<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0 *Garlic oil (this is also a component part of many dishes)<\/p>\n

11.\u00a0 Trifulata (truffle sauce)<\/p>\n

12.\u00a0 *Lupara (rigatoni with sausage, tomato sauce, and hot red pepper).\u00a0 [The dish is from Naples.\u00a0 It contains rigatoni which remind Italians of the short-barreled eight-gauge shot gun used in Naples.\u00a0 Enough said!]<\/p>\n

13.\u00a0 *Scallopine di maiale (pork scallopine) with Marsala, served with shaved lardo (salt pork)<\/p>\n

14.\u00a0 Peperonata<\/p>\n

15.\u00a0 Bollito di maiale<\/p>\n

16.\u00a0 Ragu Bolognese<\/p>\n

17.\u00a0 *Seared cubes of mortadella served with bruschetta topped with Bomba alla Calabrese (spicy conserved vegetable spread)\u00a0 [Just in case we were hungry!]<\/p>\n

18.\u00a0 *Trofie pasta with lemon, olives, shrimp and bottarga (this dish is referred to as “Profuma di Mare” [perfume of the sea]\u00a0 by the staff)<\/p>\n

19.\u00a0 *Vin santo and cantucci (biscotti)<\/p>\n

\"\"
Lupara: A Neapolitan dish named after a short-barreled 8-gauge shotgun because of the resemblance of rigatoni to the gun<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The last task of the cooking day was to start dinner for the group.\u00a0 The main part of the meal was Pollo alla Romana (Chicken Roman Style).\u00a0 It\u2019s a simple but delicious dish of chicken cooked with sweet peppers and tomato puree then finished in the oven with grated Pecorino Romano on top.\u00a0 We prepared about 50 chicken thighs since they are the best cut for braising.\u00a0 I got to prepare half of them!<\/p>\n

\"\"
Bread, Cotechino, Fried Egg, Taleggio and Spicy Mayonnaise<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After class Mariana and Chef Juan helped me complete the paperwork that I needed to submit in order to schedule an appointment to finalize my visa.\u00a0 The difficult part was completing the multi-page 178-section questionnaire for which there were three separate instruction manuals!\u00a0 Luckily most of the 178 questions did not need to be answered but it took Juan (a former attorney before he became a chef) to understand the nuances.<\/p>\n

Mariana and I then went on a journey.\u00a0 The first stop was to a tobacco shop (seriously) to buy the \u20ac16 stamp that needed to be affixed to the paperwork.\u00a0 Then we went to a shop selling magazines and office supplies to have copies made of all the documents I had been given by the Consulate General in Los Angeles (in case the originals went missing on their way to the Questura) as well as my ENTIRE passport.\u00a0 The Italians are serious.<\/p>\n

Every page of my passport needed to be photocopied including all the blank ones and the outside cover.\u00a0 The woman at the shop kept looking at me and indicating that it seemed foolish to photocopy blank pages.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t really disagree but those were the directions.\u00a0 Mariana just threw her hands up and the woman continued photocopying, making a very neat booklet, all stapled together.\u00a0 This only cost \u20ac4 which was worth the amusement value of seeing an Italian criticize Italian government bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Risotto with Parmigiano Reggiano and white truffles.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once the photocopying was done, I could complete the question on the form where I had to indicate how many additional sheets I was submitting.\u00a0 Since the shopkeeper photocopied my passport double-sided, she and Mariana had a discussion about whether the correct number was the number of pages or the number of sheets.\u00a0 Both agreed it was physical pages.<\/p>\n

The next stop was to a photo shop to get 4 passport photos.\u00a0 This was quick and efficient and only cost \u20ac7, about half the cost of 2 photos at Walgreens.\u00a0 Then we were off to the post office to submit the paperwork.\u00a0 Yep!\u00a0 The Post Office is the intermediary but first I needed more Euros since the fees could only be paid in cash.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Profuma di Mare: Trofie pasta with shrimp, mussels and cuttlefish<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfortunately, the ATM in the lobby of the post office was out of service but there was one down the street.\u00a0 Neither my ATM card, nor Mariana\u2019s would get the automatic door to open.\u00a0 Luckily it only took a few minutes for someone to come by with an ATM card that would open the door.<\/p>\n

With \u20ac200 in my pocket we went to the post office.\u00a0 Once inside, Mariana said I could fill in the date on the application form.\u00a0 Juan had cautioned not to do this until I was certain that I would be submitting the documents.\u00a0 Apparently, any error invalidates the documents and requires a whole new packet to be completed.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, Mariana and I were in front of the clerk who set about reviewing everything.\u00a0 She calculated the fee to be \u20ac100.42.\u00a0 I handed her \u20ac101.\u00a0 She gave me back a few coins then handed me \u20ac30.\u00a0 Apparently, the fee is divided into two parts.\u00a0 \u20ac70.42 goes with the application and \u20ac30 goes on the envelope as postage.\u00a0 REALLY?\u00a0 \u20ac30 for postage!<\/p>\n

A few minutes later I handed her back the \u20ac30 for the postage. \u00a0I\u2019m not really sure why she couldn\u2019t have kept it in the first place, especially since she quoted me the full amount at the outset.\u00a0 Mariana was familiar with this process.\u00a0 When the \u20ac30 was put in front of me, Mariana said to \u201cleave it\u201d because I would be \u201cgiving it back\u201d in a few moments.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A simple dessert made for our dinner: Pane di Spagna, Jam, Berries, Whipped Cream.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We walked out of the post office less than 15 minutes after we had entered and I had an appointment on February 4, 2019 at 9:00 to go to the police station to start the next step in the process.\u00a0 Mind you, I already have a visa in my passport from the Consulate General in Los Angeles.\u00a0 All of this is just the process of \u201cregistering\u201d with the Questura!<\/p>\n

I walked to dinner with a glass of bourbon in my hand, the first since getting to Italy, celebrating having negotiated just a tiny bit of the Italian bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

One of these days, I\u2019ll tell you the story of actually getting the visa in Los Angeles\u2014a saga that stretched across several months and two continents!<\/p>\n

Ciao for now.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Chef John seared mortadella and speared it on toothpicks, and served it with bruschetta topped with bomba alla Calabrese just in case we were hungry<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 16, 2019 The average student gains five pounds (or is it five kilos?) during the three-month “Master of Italian Cuisine” course.\u00a0 At least that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been told. It\u2019s not hard to believe. Our first day in the classroom was Sunday, January 13th and I had barely digested the previous evening\u2019s meal from Al … Continue reading Calabria Dispatch #3: Bureaucracy and Bourbon<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","wpupg_custom_link":[],"wpupg_custom_link_behaviour":["default"],"wpupg_custom_link_nofollow":[],"wpupg_custom_image":[],"wpupg_custom_image_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[363],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people-and-places"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6124"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8061,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6124\/revisions\/8061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}