a pinch of salt...

Eggs n cheese!

My lovely sister gave me a very cool gift for my birthday. I didn't realize exactly how cool it was until today. We went to a cooking class at Lugano, a charming Italian restaurant in Salt Lake that idolizes local, organic food and the art of dining. We were there with about 5 other people - a small class apparently - and had no idea what to expect. The theme was "spring produce" which was made a little challenging since it had been snowing for about a week and was dumping snow the whole time we were there. Still, there was a counter full of fresh greens and cheese and eggs, a full compliment of wine and espresso to start the meal. Off to a good start! 

Asparagus flan? Sounds gross. Looks yummy.
Verdict: WAS yummy!

The asparagus flan, finished version.
The blue cheese crumble in the bottom
was the over-the-top moment.

We made asparagus flan. Disgusting, right? That's what I thought! A. I do not like flan. B. How could nasty flan be made better with chunks of asparagus? I have to say, I was happily surprised by the outcome...it was like a little fluffy omelet with a little hit of bleu cheese melted on the top. I am now a flan fan.

Then Chef Greg whipped up some appies (he must have heard my stomach growling) - bruschetta with grilled  asparagus and braised greens and mascarpone cheese. So yummy! Hard to eat but delish! By now I was starting to realize that the key to good cooking is as follows: fresh, good ingredients, a really kick-ass knife, garlic, good olive oil and salt. And then more garlic.

Speaking of olive oil, that was the first thing we did. Tasted olive oil. Yep. He passed around two BOWLS of different olive oils, one from California and one from Spain and we dipped a spoon and took a slurp. Of olive oil. I can honestly say that I never, EVER thought I would eat straight olive oil off a spoon. But it was interesting, like wine tasting interesting, where you can actually taste different intensity, finishes, spices, and so on. Don't worry. I'm not about to start serving straight olive oils at any dinner parties.

We also made a roasted beet salad. For the record, I do not like beets. I pretty much hate them. They looked beautiful going into this salad, which also had fresh basil and blue cheese. The finished product? Looked like a work of art. Still smelled like canned beets. I ate some of the yellow ones and they were pretty good. There was a woman at our class from Costa Rica and she said that she had grown up on boiled, pureed beets and hated them. This dish changed her mind. I'm not all the way there, but close.

We made a citrus/clementine salad with grilled shrimp which was amazingly simply yet delicious. My favorite dish of the day, followed closely by (never thought I would say this) the flan!

Overall, a very cool experience which I would love to do again. My only critique is that I wish the attendees had been more engaged, with the cooking and each other. There were about 3 of us from my generation, the rest were more like my parents. Most of them were feverishly taking notes, on what I'm not sure. All very cool people but I didn't feel like we got warmed up before the cooking started and so the conversation during the meal was a little stunted. No matter what, we had a ball. Highly recommend it! We are starting to plan our next class or wine pairing dinner now. Want in?

Happy cooking!