It’s official, OKC fans! We are cooking up a storm in our new kitchen in Albania!!!
Before we left Italy, we promised you a little surprise. Well, here it is–our new kitchen uniforms!
On a stroll through the streets of Florence, Our Little Sous and I happened upon the cutest little shop near the Duomo. It’s called Ricami Veronica, and the staff there were so friendly and helpful. Our Little Sous chose the apron style and colors he liked, then we watched as they created the most beautiful cursive embroidery just for us!
Now that we’re getting settled in a new kitchen in a new country, we are ready to don those aprons and get messy!!!
We’ve already begun to PLAY with some of the new-to-us ingredients we’re finding all around us. AND, we’ve been listening to your feedback, too. One of the most popular questions was this: How do you make that incredible looking pizza that you showed on all those wooden boards from the castle?
The answer? Well, first of all, it’s not exactly pizza. It’s called Schiacciata, and it comes from the Italian verb schiacciare. Although my online dictionary defines this as “crushing,” it was more aptly demonstrated to me as a gentle pushing and pressing of the dough, less forceful than the conventional pounding or kneading that you might see in bread making or pizza rolling.
Our Little Sous decided he wanted to hop on camera to show you what it looks like.
After all that pressing, we actually decided we would like to use the tomato sauce we mixed up after all. So, I guess this could more accurately be described as a deep-dish pizza or, for the true purists, a flatbread topped with lots of stuff in the Italian tradition. No matter what you might want to call it, it was absolutely delicious! It was also the perfect way for us to break in our new aprons and get comfortable working in our new kitchen!
We have a feeling that this tasty treat will make a regular appearance on our dinner table here in Tirana, Albania. What toppings would you put on your Schiacciata? What other Italian dishes would you like to learn more about from Our Kitchen Classroom? Let us know in the comments below, and we’ll happily add your request to the list of yumminess we’ve got lined up to share in the days, weeks, and months ahead.
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Until then, ciao and ditën e mirë!