Sabina

Sabina is an Italian chef, and owner of Pizzica'ndo Trattoria in the Calabria province in Italy. She was in the States for three weeks, paying for her trip by giving Italian cooking lessons -- at friends' homes. Sabina's trattoria is a 50-seater, which she runs with just one other person. She uses only local fresh ingredients and prepares everything by hand at each serving: she's open lunch and dinner during the high season (May-October) and dinner only at other times -- 7 days a week. A hard worker would be an understatement!

I was lucky to attend one of these sessions at a friend's house and have a new appreciation for real Italian cooking (I'll probably never set foot again in an Italian restaurant on this side of the ocean…). We learned to do fresh dough for taggliatelli and added a pinto bean sauce, and for ravioli and its fillings, over freshly made tomato sauce. We fried artichokes and onion strings in a delightfully light and crunchy doughWe capped the dinner with a homemade orange zest bunt cake. What a fun day!