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What's New? July 2007

After literally years of procrastination, I finally managed to get my act together to try some of the cookery workshops at Books for Cooks, the wonderful foodie haven in the heart of Notting Hill. www.booksforcooks.com

You do have to be incredibly quick off the mark to get on these though – they have developed such a following that as soon as new dates go up on the website, they get snaffled up by regulars in the know.

I kicked off with ‘Latin Fiesta’ given by South American food expert Sofia Craxton, who has an immense bubbling charm which makes for a very entertaining session. Although Sofia is of Mexican descent, this workshop brings in elements from all over Latin America, including a killer Sangria made with pineapple juice, mango, Cointreau and other secret ingredients J . I have made this several times since the workshop, and people can’t get enough of its tropical-holiday-feelgood-ness. If you would like to know more about Sofia’s courses click here www.fiestasofia.co.uk

Next on the list promised to be rather intriguing – a lesson by Kimiko Barber on ‘exquisite finger foods and portable feasts traditionally prepared during the Cherry Blossom Festivals and Moon Watching Seasons in Japan”. How imaginative and off the wall is that? Sadly Kimiko was not a well lady for the course which had to be pulled, but I very much hope this will be rescheduled as it is truly something original that I would like to learn more about.

Thus began my trilogy of sessions with the mighty Ursula Ferrigno, author of a dozen books on bread, pasta, vegetarian and trattoria and home cooking. We started with the ‘Verdura’ course – vegetables – in a hands-on environment. The hands-on sessions are limited to eight people, so there is plenty of time to chat and get to know each other as you cook through the morning.

We quite simply learnt to cook some stunning dishes. Top of everyone’s list was Zucchini a Scapece (sun dried courgettes with mint & garlic) with a low oven taking the place of sun-drying (although Ursula does recommend leaving the sliced courgettes on a tray on top of a car on a hot day for good effect!). A Torta di Melanzana (aubergine cake with tomatoes and oozing mozzarella) seemed labour intensive, even with four people creating it, but the results are so awesomely delicious it is absolutely worth it.

Top tip of the day for the everyday kitchen – never salt your roast potatoes before you put them in the oven, or they won’t crisp properly. Ursula’s version is quite healthy, and made with garlic, rosemary and lemon as a marinade pre-roasting.

Other dishes from that day included a classic Peperonata, Insalata della Nonna (Granny’s Salad) and Panzanella alla Minori – the village from which both Ursula and Gennaro Contaldo hail.

My second Ferrigno session was back to the traditional sit-and-watch format, which is not as much fun, but gets more bottoms on seats. It was slightly spoilt by a gaggle of sunglasses-on heads-indoors types at the back who quite literally talked all the way through her demonstrations. Ursula is not a shouty type, and these selfish women made it very difficult for us all to hear what was happening up front. The course title was ‘In and out of the kitchen in 25 minutes’, and included a bit on risotto-making, and some marvellous mozzarella fritters that would be great at any kind of party, young or old.

I will cover the next workshop with Ursula – Italian Storecupboard – in the next What’s New.

Thanks for visiting, and if you have any tips, recommendations or general foodie nonsense you’d like to share, email me at luisefinan@btinternet.com

Till next time, Luise