My Cook In Milano Cookery Class!

While in Milan I took a cookery class with the wonderful Clara at Cook In Milano.  During the class I learned to make pasta, pesto, gnocchi, macaroni cheese and ice cream.  It was great fun and everything was delicious and I highly recommend taking a class with Clara!  I have done several classes at home, in Paris and now in Milan and I have to say the ones in Milan were by far the best organised - so good I went back for a second one!  Below is the class I did first.

First job was to prepare all the

ingredients needed for the recipes - 

we grated cheese, chopped up ham, 

prepared basil etc..

Flour & eggs ready to make pasta

Pesto ingredients ready to be blitzed!

The pesto being made.

Here we blitzed some ham to make a filling for the gnocchi!

A little coffee break...

with delicious home made biscuits.

The gnocchi being shaped.

The gnocchi being left to dry a little before cooking.

I made spinach pasta 

We rolled it up ready to cut into tagliatelle

The pasta strips are hung out to dry so 

they do not stick when cooking.

Everything we made - the pasta and 

gnocchi ready to cook and 

the macaroni cheese.  

The ice cream is churning in the 

background with strawberries 

ready to accompany it!

The ice cream churning and a nice prosecco aperitif while we wait:-)

The prosecco & red wine for our meal.

Lunch is served!

My lunch - it was all delicious!

The pesto was mixed into the

tagliatelle, and we made a sauce 

for the gnocchi, plus the macaroni

cheese.

  

And the fabulous home made 

ice cream with strawberries 
yummy - plus a shot of home 
made limoncello;-)

If you are ever in Milan and want to learn to cook in an authentic italian home setting and meet other visitors to Milan then look no further than Cook In Milano and you can even combine a cookery class with a market visit!  Clara offers a great selection of different classes and her website has lots of recipes to try.

www.cookinmilano.com

Foodie Finds in Milan

So somewhat belatedly following on from the last post - my apologies - here are some of the yummy things I ate in Milan.

                                   

I was keen to try out Tigellas which I had read about on Tripadvisor

                                                  

Basically it is a cold cuts board served with "tigelle" which are little round Italian flatbreads and a version of fried gnocchi patties which blow up like little pillows, and lots of dips - including Nutella to finish with LOL!  The tigelle are served warm in a paper bag and they can even do gluten free ones.  The prices were very reasonable here too and it was very popular with locals.

                                                      

I put a selection of the meats and cheese on a plate and the tigelle pockets (top) and fried gnocchi patties (bottom) for me are those on the right, the gluten free ones are in the middle photo.

I really enjoyed the food at Tigella's as it was different.

On the day of my cookery class I did not need much to eat as I had eaten what I cooked for lunch.  So in the evening before the ballet we found a nice restaurant in the Galleria Vittorio

Emanuele II called Il Gatta Rosso - The Red Cat.                                                                   

The cover charge was expensive at €4 but
the fantastic basket of artisan breads made
up for it, they were all delicious. 

I had a beautiful pumpkin soup with croutons - just
looking at it again is making my mouth water!  The
restaurant even provided ladies with those handbag
hooks to hand on the table - I was impressed!

The only time I have drunk coffee in 

years was in Milan and the hotel 

receptionist made this 

cute face in my cappuccino!

On my 2nd visit to Milan I found this great pizza place where you 

can buy just a slice and a drink for €5.50 and it was perfect 

for an informal, inexpensive meal, especially being on my 

own and did not always feel like going to a restaurant.

No trip to Italy is ever complete without ICE CREAM!

Some of the gorgeous "coppas" I had from my favourite 

gelateria Vaniglia (below)!  They were only €5!  The middle 

bottom one was just a tub of ice cream I got on my way home 

from the ballet!

Next time I will report on my cooking classes!  Hope you enjoyed seeing some of the lovely food you have in Milan.

Market Trip in Milan

Following on from my last post, Milan is a foodie heaven.  You do not have to look far to find beautiful produce.  On my last day I headed for the small fresh market of Largo V Alpini in the north west of Milan.  It was very small but oh I was in fresh market heaven!

A huge display of fabulous fruit and veg!

I love the presentation of uniform vegetables:- round

courgettes, artichokes, radicchio and white onions

Courgette flowers - something of a delicacy - tomatoes, 

peppers and the fabulous tree shaped romanescu 

cauliflowers.

Every fruit imaginable pineapples, apples,
strawberries, oranges....

I loved these rosettes of Chicorino they
were beautiful and I have never seen them before.

Smaller vegetables/salad leaves and herbs.

Nuts

Various preserved fish, capers, sun dried
tomatoes, nuts etc..

Colourful pulses.

Salted Fish here and preserves and honey in
the background.

Every kind of olive imaginable!

A lovely cheese shop sold a huge variety of cheese.

A lovely colourful plant shop.

In amongst the plants the must have Basil!!

And finally the florist.

Next time we'll have a look at some the yummy finds I made!

Ciao Milano!

Way back in March I went to Milan to see my favourite ballet Don Quixote at La Scala Milan. I have always wanted to visit that theatre, so I was thrilled to actually get hold of some tickets to see DonQ! My latest favourite holiday activity is cooking so I was thrilled to find a cookery class with the wonderful Cook In Milano.  Milan is quite an industrial city - not as scenic as perhaps Venice or Paris but I liked it - so much so I returned in July for another ballet - Swan Lake.

La Scala Milan

Hmm not impressed by the safety rail 

blocking my view!

The lovely chandelier in the auditorium.

The lead dancers Angelo Greco (Basilio) 

and Vittoria Valerio (Kitri)

The curtain call after Don Quixote.

In the Piazza del Duomo one of the buildings 

had this lovely ballerina adorning the exterior!

The main square in Milan - Piazza del Duomo - is home to the famous Duomo Cathedral and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.

The amazing facade of the Duomo at night.

The beautiful interior of
the Duomo Cathedral.

I loved the inlaid marble floors.

Floral patterns in the marble floors.

One of the altars.

The Duomo has very ornate stained 

glass windows.

The Duomo doors were interesting too!

The traditional style headgear worn by the 

army guards outside the Duomo.

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is an imposing huge building housing high end shops and lots of restaurants.

The Galleria complex.

The central glass dome in the Galleria.

  

Another boulevard in the Galleria.

Trams are one of the main modes 

of transport in Milan.

This very grand hound 

was sitting in the Piazza, 

so regal!

A lovely piazza and fountain on the way to the 

main Piazza del Duomo, 

which you can see in the background.

One of the water outlets 

on the fountain.

It being Spring the camellias were in bloom 

in huge pots outside many buildings.

A memorial column and garden
on the way back to my hotel.

The gardens were full of lovely 

flowers - daisies and tulips 

being some of the flowers.  

They were very pretty.

The Church Campanile outside 
my window.  Thankfully the bells 
stopped ringing after 7pm!

Of course Milan being in Italy was certainly not short of foodie experiences whether restaurants, cafes, ice cream shops/cafes, markets or cookery classes....More next time!