My girlfriend Rosa and I received a cool Christmas present last year. A cooking class at Toffini Academy in Naples.
It took us a long time to decide what lesson to take, based on the dishes we most like.
We ended up choosing a class on Nerano and Genovese.
Nerano is a traditional dish, pasta with fried zucchini and different cheeses, the most notable being Provolone del Monaco, adding a sharp taste to the dish named after the small town along the Sorrento Peninsula. Prawns were the extra secret ingredient.
Genovese is a historic dish from the middle ages, and no one knows for certain if it was made by Neapolitan people for the people of Genoa staying here, or the other way round, by the Genovesi for the Neapolitan people.
It is a pasta dish with a meat and onion stew. Only in this version, the meat was swapped out for octopus.
The overall experience was deeply rewarding, as the chef was also an excellent teacher.
Unexpected thrills were being able to order wine and enjoy a drink while cooking. And the most lively guest, a boy of 13, whose dream is to win MasterChef.
Cooking in a large group turned out to be really fun.
