West Hollywood: Italian Cooking Classes at Al Bacio

Recently I attended a cooking class at the new Italian restaurant Al Bacio on Sunset in West Hollywood. It’s across the street from The Eveleigh and Church Key. The next class is this Sunday, March 16. Check out their Facebook page for more info on classes.

 

Chef Christian Simionato runs the tiny kitchen so it was a bit of a challenge to squeeze into it for the class but we all managed and had a lot of fun avidly watching the cooking and doing a little prep work ourselves. Plus we snacked on cheese and had some Prosecco. Not a bad way to start a Sunday!

First the octopus went into the pot for the eventual salad.

 

Backybard Bite Amy got her hands dirty working the dough for the pasta. Some of us later rolled the pasta and cut it into noodles.

 

All right, so my noodles may have been just a smidge wider than tagliatelle but I thought it was even more fun to take the scraps to make bits and ends of pasta. With sauce, it is all so delicious!

I knew I was in trouble when we later sat down to eat and it was family style. I couldn’t resist a second helping of the veal bolognese tagliatelle! Thanks to my fellow students for braving the hot stove to make the sauce!

 

Before we knew it, the octopus was done. Here’s Chef Christian seasoning every bit of it.

 

We had a taste in the kitchen. Those suckers are definitely my favorite part! Though some thought the part of the leg a bit higher was the best.

 

Besides pork, my favorite protein is seafood and in particular octopus and squid. This salad was a fresh take on a seafood salad. I’ve had shrimp salad before but never thought about tossing in a few chunks of octopus with potato, fennel, olives, carrots, tomatoes with lemon and olive oil. It was lovely and the best thing to eat while sitting on the patio watching all those tour buses go by. It just felt so L.A.

 

To round out our meal, we learned how to make an apple tart (tartelletta con mele arrosto) with orange sauce (crema all’arancio) and with a machine, it was easy to make milk gelato (gelato al fior di latte). I had a great time at the cooking class and can’t wait to go back to Al Bacio for a full meal.

 

Al Bacio

8741 West Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069  —  (310) 657-1182

© The Minty  2014