Food: Cooking Class At Ristorante Delfino

I've been meaning to share these photos with you for some time now. They were taken at a cooking lesson at Ristorante Delfino, on Isola Bella. Fabri sent them to me after the lesson, which he had organized for these visitors. He brought them to the island on his private motoscafo, water taxi, they then took their private cooking class with Andrea in the kitchen of his restaurant, and then they all enjoyed pranzo, lunch, with the dish they prepared.

On this day, the dish is pasta Maltagliati con Salsiccia e Zucchini. Mal, meaning bad, and tagliati, meaning cut. Maltagliati is pasta that is very roughly cut from the rolled out sheets of flat dough into random shapes and sizes, and then quickly cooked. Above, Andrea worked with the women forming the dough, and below, a rolling knife is used to cut it into pieces.

Next, fresh zucchini squash and the salciccia, the sausage, are cooked, and eventually all ingredients are mixed together to create the dish.

After the preparation and the cooking -- of course the eating! The pasta lunch was enjoyed with wine, water, and dessert. Aprons were awarded to the apprentice chefs for their efforts, and then they were transported back to the mainland with Fabri and the motoscafo again.

Ristorante Delfino is in its second century of business on Isola Bella. 

It is a large restaurant that can accomodate up to 500 guests in several different dining rooms, including a beautiful outdoor dining terrace.

By the way, these women taking the cooking class were visiting Stresa all the way from Cape Town, South Africa, and this was their fifth trip here! Proof again that once is never enough to visit Stresa.