Cooking with Gina

Yes this is the menu that we were lucky enough to learn how to prepare guided by a wonderful Italian American chef, Gina.   She explained some of the regional differences and importance of using fresh seasonal meat & veg in her mouthwatering dishes!  (And of course which wine goes with each course...)  

It's a bit hard to read the menu, but we loved making pasta from scratch and finally understanding why artichokes are so expensive...have you ever prepared an artichoke?  Very labour intensive!  The lamb chops were soooo tender and the sauce with the pasta (pancetta, peas and onion) was amazing....Rich, Jen & I took on the cooking challenge while Gma & Papa spent the day with the boys back at the villa.  We brought them some leftovers for their babysitting services:)

Sistahs

Jen marinating the lamb which we slow roasted.

Rich hard at work

Gina made it look so easy...but now I totally want one of those pasta machines!

     Rico (I called him that at the beginning and so Gina did too) explaining to chef Gina how its done:)

                                          First course

                                          Artichoke salad...mmmm

Happy chefs:)

Such an amazing kitchen that used to be a mill

We stopped taking pictures after this and focused on the wine...