Verdure Gratinate - Baked Vegetables with Bread Crumbs

Verdure Gratinate – Baked Vegetables with Bread Crumbs

That is a complete lie. I am not in Italy. But through the magic of the internet, I took an Italian cooking class today and the chef was in Italy. Live from his kitchen at La Tavola Marche, an agro-tourism inn and cooking school in Piobbico, Italy. Jason Bartner is the chef and his wife, Ashley, creates all their social media. I feel as though I know these two expats from the United States because they’ve kept me company in the car for three years. Their Podcast from Italy is an audio journal of their life in the rural Italian countryside (look it up on iTunes – it’s worth a listen).

Of course, right now King Daddy and I cannot afford to visit Jason and Ashley in person. We’ve almost got Dammit Boy out of college so the only travel we are doing is to the Daily’s for a pack of cigarettes and to the liquor store for box wine.

When I was a kid, long distance phone calls were prohibitively expensive and rare. Today, I spent all of $5 to take a cooking class from a professional chef halfway around the world. And $14 for ingredients.  I made Verdure Gratinate and Pasta alla Norcina in my kitchen watching Jason live from Italy at 10 at night his time. He didn’t even yawn once. I would not be able to teach a cooking class at 10 at night due to excessive box wine consumption.

Jason in the kitchen - that lamp-like looking thing is a second camera for close-ups of the cutting board

Jason in the kitchen – that lamp-like looking thing is a second camera for close-ups of the cutting board

The menu was simple, as I am learning most other cultures prefer to the over-wrought, ingredient-laden dishes we like to make in America. I would give you the recipes but I paid my five bucks and you did not. It wouldn’t be fair. And King Daddy will not like the fact that his Pasta alla Norcina (Pasta with Sausages and Cream) only has 6 ounces of meat to a pound of pasta. That is not the King Daddy way, but it is the Italian way and, dammit, King Daddy will just have to adapt.

Ashley - she's from Seattle so she's all excited about the Super Bowl

Ashley – she’s from Seattle so she’s all excited about the Super Bowl

So I like these two crazy kids who ventured to far-off Piobbico. I do want to visit them some day and make homemade pasta, feed the chickens, pick vegetables in their garden and go with them to the festival of the week (there’s one every week in Italy; one more reason to move there). If you want to visit them, check out their blog or visit their cooking class page on tumblr.

Ciao from Italy!



2 Comments

  1. Candy Gourlay
    January 28, 2014 at 2:29 am

    How amazing to do a cooking class by web feed! When next you’re travelling remember there’s accommodation waiting for you here in London.

    • Catherine Mayhew
      Catherine MayhewReply
      January 28, 2014 at 5:03 pm

      Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be on your doorstep. As soon as Noah gets out of college, hopefully travel will be in our future.

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