As everyone experiences, it gets really busy around the holidays. However, Ernie and I always make time for Chef Davide's cooking class at Amici Miei. We love to attend this monthly event for a number of reasons - great food (complete with the recipes), excellent wine, and wonderful camaraderie from the attendees. Ernie gets inspired to add more dishes to his repertoire, and I love to try the new wines that Roberto chooses to go along with the foods.

Anticipation - the menu for this month's cooking class.

This month, Chef Davide shared some special holiday recipes from the Piemonte, which is his home region of Italy. Lots of special recipes, and not terribly difficult (as you will see at the end). And, of course, lots of joking and teasing amongst those of us who were watching the cooking. Jim and his lovely wife, Karen, were the helpers this particular Saturday.

Jim, Chef Davide, Karen, and Chef's helper Denis prep the Bonet.

As usual, cooking started with the last dish since dessert needs to bake and then cool for sufficient time. The Bonet is a chocolate amaretto flan. The name means "hat", since that is the last thing you put on before you leave someone's home. Since dessert is the last thing you eat, ergo the name Bonet. A hot caramel mix goes in the bottom of the flan molds to create a base for the flan. The flan mixture contains eggs, chocolate, and crushed amaretto cookies for texture, which is then combined with hot milk. The flan is then poured over the hardened caramel, and it is then baked in a double bath.

Chef pouring the flan mixture into the caramel-coated molds.

Next longest to prepare was the Chicken Marengo. This particular chicken recipe was created by the town of Marengo in Piemonte on the 14th of June in 1800. Napoleon had just defeated armies in the area and he wanted to celebrate, so he ordered up a special dinner. This chicken recipe was what the town created for him.

Prepping the cremini mushrooms, onions, and herbs for the Chicken Marengo.

This dish is actually fairly simple to put together. The chicken was browned to give a lovely golden color. Then cremini mushrooms, onions, and herbs such as garlic, thyme, oregano, and parsley were browned. The chicken and the vegetables were then braised with plum tomatoes in a combination of white wine and chicken stock. At the very end of the cooking, crayfish tails were added to give more of a festive touch. Chef and his helpers chopped and browned and then combined, then off to the ovens went the chicken.

Karen in charge of browning the chicken.

Chef pouring stock over the chicken for braising.

As a special touch in honor of the holidays, Chef decided to share recipes for five Piemontese antipasti. He told us that typically people can share up to 20 or more antipasti ahead of a special celebration such as the holidays; however, since we were also having other wonderful food, he would stay with five for this dinner. First to be prepared - the veal for Vitello Tonnato. A lovely piece of veal was browned on the stove along with diced vegetables, and herbs. After browning, the veal was baked.

Homemade mayonnaise was prepared for both the Tonnato sauce and also for the Insalata Russo. To flavor the Tonnato sauce, Chef added tuna, white wine, capers, and anchovies for the characteristic flavor.

Creating mayonnaise for both the Vitello Tonnato and Insalata Russa.

The homemade mayonnaise was also used in the Insalata Russo. This salad actually gets its name from a French chef who was working in a Russian hotel. Lots of fresh vegetables were combined along with boiled potatoes to create the Insalata. The homemade mayonnaise was added to this to hold it all together.

Veggies and potatoes for Insalata Russa.

Chef prepared a Bagna Cauda sauce to go along with red peppers that he had roasted previously. While the sauce was simmering, Chef showed all of us the beef tongue, which he had cooked earlier. He would then serve this sliced very thinly with a flavorful salsa verde, made of parsley, garlic, anchovies, ketchup (yes, ketchup), olive oil and bread soaked in red wine vinegar.

The last appetizer was veal tartar, or Carne Cruda in Italian. Chef took pieces of extremely lean veal and ground them up, then mixed the ground veal with seasonings, olive oil, and truffle oil. When served, he would top this with shaved parmesan cheese and garnish.

Two beautiful pieces of veal to be ground into tartar...

...and the finished product being mixed with seasonings.

And finally the last dish, the Panissa Vercellese, which is a kind of risotto. The Piemontese add their touch to this dish through the addition of cotechino sausage and borlotti beans. The sausage adds a beautiful smokiness and saltiness that compliments the risotto and the borlotti beans. In contrast to traditional risotto, this dish is made with red wine rather than white, which gives more of a rusty color to the dish.

Borlotti beans for the Panissa Vercellese.

Stirring the Panissa Vercellese with cotechino sausage.

Cooking complete, we sat down to eat. While we awaited the first course, we had a delightful surprise. Jim and Karen had brought in a very large bottle of Pol Roger, which is their favorite champagne. Gorgeous fine bubbles, lovely yeasty scent, and beautiful peachy fruits. Cheers to Jim and Karen and to everyone joining the class - we were off to a great start.

A holiday toast, courtesy of Jim and Karen.

Roberto chose a wine from an area west of Lake Garda to go with the appetizers, Provenza's 2013 Classico Groppello Garda. It is made from the native Gropello grape, which is unique to that area around Lake Garda. Gropello is a lighter wine, bright, few tannins, and tasting of mulberry and berries from the forest. The flavors of the wine were bold enough to go along with the strong flavors of the beef tongue and the saltiness of the anchovies in both the Bagna Cauda sauce (on the roasted peppers) and the Tonnato sauce on the Vitello, yet not overpower the beautiful Insalata Russa. Great combinations, and all the appetizers were very "interesting". Some people couldn't quite get past the thought of the tongue - I am proud to say that I did eat all the appetizers. The salsa verde with the beef tongue helped me mentally - it actually was all quite good. (No surprise, actually, Chef Davide is an excellent chef!!)

The five completed appetizers: Vitello Tonnato (top), Beef tongue with Salsa Verde (right), Veal Tartar with parmigiana (bottom), Peppers and Bagna Cauda (left), and Insalata Russa (middle).

The next wine Roberto chose was from the same general area, west of Lake Garda. The 2011 Provenza Maiolo Giomè Rosso is a Bordeaux blend, Cabernet Saugivnon and Merlot. This was a much bolder wine than the first, velvety tannins and dark fruit flavors. The wine went perfectly with the smoky flavors of the Panissa created by the cotechino sausage. Everyone loved this pairing!

Provenza's Giomè, also from the Garda area.

And then the secondi - the Chicken Marengo. Roberto chose a 2012 Rocche Costamagna Barbera d'Alba to accompany the chicken. The Barbera has more acidity and is a bold wine with cherry flavors, and that went very well with the combination of the tomatoes the the hint of sweetness from the crayfish tails in the Chicken Marengo. And in true Piemontese style, Chef served the dish with a fried egg and garlic bread, which is exactly how the dish was served to Napoleon! We all enjoyed this dish very much - yummy!

A lovely Barbera d'Alba to go with the Chicken Marengo.

The very traditional serving of Chicken Marengo - complete with a fried egg and toasted garlic bread.

And the topper for the afternoon, the Bonet. The flan was delicious, the slight caramel crunchiness on the top, the amaretti cookies ground inside, and then the decoration of the amaretto cookie also on top. It was a lovely presentation, and it tasted even better. A great way to end the December cooking class and get the holiday season underway.

We couldn't wait to start devouring the Bonet, topped with an amaretto cookie.

And to follow up, we now jump to Christmas Day. Ernie and I wanted something a bit special, but not too heavy since we would have had the Feast of Seven Fishes the night before (see the other entry!). So we decided to try the Chicken Marengo for our Christmas Day dinner. And yes, it was indeed as simple as it had looked when Chef Davide prepared it. Instead of adding the fried egg, we poured the sauce over a bit of pasta, and then put a whole shrimp with the dish (we couldn't find crayfish!).

Ernie's and my rendition of Chicken Marengo on Christmas Day.

To stay in the style that Chef and Roberto had suggested, we paired our chicken with a beautiful Monferrato Rosso 2000, made by the phenomenal La Spinetta. An incredible bottle of wine, with the slightly rusty color, velvety tannins, higher acidity, and bold flavors to complement the chicken.

A perfect special bottle for the holiday meal - La Spinetta's Monferrato Rosso 2000.

Cheers to all my readers, and cheers to the fantastic Amici Miei staff, who have provided us so many fantastic meals over the years. May you enjoy many wonderful meals and toast with your perfect bottles of wine. Cin! Cin!