Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Cooking Class in Door County, WI

Welcome back from the long weekend.  Hope you all enjoyed the extra day off! 
While on my vacation in Door County, Wisconsin a bunch of us were able to take an Italian cooking class at The Savory Spoon.  I was pretty excited to learn a couple new tricks of the trade, also to spend some time in the kitchen with my Mom and old friends. 
I got even more excited when I saw where we'd be cooking.  Hello dream kitchen!
The instructors gave us all a quick run down of all the dishes we'd be making, and then we split into groups and made the different meals.  My Mom and I chose a mushroom pasta, and we teamed up with a couple ladies from the Milwaukee area.  We had a great time!
The rest of the group split up making the dishes that most appealed to them.  Kacy choose a Thai dish that I'm anxious to share with you.
Our pasta ready to go in the oven!
My Mom and I getting hungry.
We had quite a bit of food when everything was finished cooking.  I think we made a pretty good dent in it all though :)
Yummy!!!  This was a creamy Italian dish and if you enjoy mushrooms you'll really like it.  It was my favorite dish out of all of them, and it's not just because I made, it's because of the full flavor!  I will definitely be making this for dinner again very soon.

Conchigle al Forno with Mushrooms & Radicchio
Serves 8
Adapted from Amy Rebhan Savory Spoon

6 oz. shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed
1 stick unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups finely shredded radicchio, or endive
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 cup coarsely shredded Fontinia
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola
2 teaspoons ricotta
6 leaves fresh sage, chopped*
1 pound pasta shells

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Remove the stems from the mushrooms and slice the caps about 1/4 inch thick.
Heat six tablespoons of butter in a large skillet.
Add mushrooms and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
Saute over medium heat, stirring frequently, until they're cooking through.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the mushrooms, radicchio, cream, cheese, sage and remaining salt.
Boil the pasta shells for around five minutes, drain and add to the ingredients in a mixing bowl.
Toss to combine.
Divide the pasta mixture into a shallow dish, and dot with remaining two tablespoons of butter.
Bake until bubbly and brown on top, around 8 minutes.
Enjoy!

*If you don't have fresh sage, use 1 tablespoon of fresh tarragon, thyme, or rosemary.

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