Vegetables

Not going to lie, I am not the biggest fan of vegetables in the whole entire world. I don't mind them, I just don't love them. That said, as I approached the day, I began to think that I would not like what we did; but I stand corrected.

The amount of vegetables and vegetable cookery the Italians do is insane. We had over 15 different recipes that were given to us, and we were given the ones that we wanted. We got Scarola Brassata, a braised Escarole dish, and Tiella di Funghi e Patate, which was a layered mushroom and potato casserole. I got the job of making a beautiful bitter orange jam; no I did not add anything to make the jam bitter, the oranges that I used were the bitter ones! As you ate one, the flesh was semi-sweet and then sour, with a hint of bitterness, such a beautiful flavor to use in a jam. As I cooked the oranges down in a mixture of water and sugar, I helped my group prepare the rest of the items. I sliced potatoes thin as possible, and shingled them onto a baking dish. I then followed them up with thinly sliced oyster mushrooms, and layered potatoes, then mushrooms, and so on and so on, until the dish was full and there was no room. We then covered the top of the dish in breadcrumbs, and baked it low and slow. I then finished my jam, which had a beautiful sweet taste with bitter hints at the end. As I jarred the Jam, my team finished the Mushroom and Potatoes and the Braised Escarole, plated and we ate veggies, only.... veggies.....

The dishes showed that even with just veggies, there can be so many different preparations of them. From baking to frying to sauteeing, each dish the class made today was very different, but within each was the same simple ingredient: veggies.

Italian word of the Day: Marche, a region of Italy
Marche is the center and east most part of Italy. From this region, we get a lot of the legumes and small vegetables that are processed and shipped to all around Italy. From this region, we can also see many different cultural influences, such as the people of the Piceni, which sent their young out to explore and create different civilizations around the area.