Cooking class # 6--Corsica

Saturday's theme was Corsican cuisine. Corsica is a French island, just off the southern coast. Since Corsica is close to Italy, Corsican cuisine resembles that of Italy. Corsica is also known for its sheep's milk cheeses, chestnuts and dried meats, particularly that of wild boar. Emily didn't think our kids would like the wild boar (although we have had this in a restaurant before), so she settled on a meatless pasta dish.

We made a first course (cream of pumpkin soup with pancetta and roasted chestnuts), main course (cheese and swiss chard cannelloni), and a dessert (chocolate chestnut cake).

Roasting chestnuts as a garnish for the cream of pumpkin soup.

Plated cream of pumpkin soup with pancetta and roasted chestnuts.
Anna was disappointed that we used a pumpkin for soup and not pumpkin pie!

Chocolate chestnut cake. I served it with vanilla ice cream. It was not a hit because I think it could have been sweeter. It was very easy to make--melted chocolate, butter, sugar and ground chestnuts. No baking required since it hardens in the fridge.

Making fresh pasta is very fun, but you do need to have time to do it! I made long sections of pasta, cut them into rectangles and then cooked each rectangle in boiling water for 1 minute. The pasta gets transferred to a towel where it then gets filled and rolled.

The filling is made from sauteed swiss chard, brucchio, the Corsican equivalent to Italian ricotta, salt, pepper, nutmeg and some chopped mint.



The cannelloni are placed on a thin layer of tomato sauce and then covered with another thin layer of tomato sauce. Cooked in the oven for 20 minutes and the dish is finished. If you like ricotta cheese, you would like this dish. The fresh pasta was delightfully tender!