TASTE’s interactive Grana Padano cooking experience is a hit!

Thirty lucky TASTE fans recently enjoyed an exclusive interactive cooking experience with TASTE’s food director, Abigail Donnelly, featuring Grana Padano cheese. The hands-on event was supported by Rialto Foods, which supplies Woolworths with this premium product. Grana Padano is a hard cheese originating from Italy's Po Valley around the year 1 000 and was originally crafted by Benedictine monks. It boasts a rich, full-bodied profile with a distinctive nutty flavour. This iconic cheese, aged for between nine and 25 months, is celebrated for its versatility and flavour. The cheese was featured in dishes on a menu tailored to showcase its versatility and full-bodied flavour.

For starters

On arrival at The Homestead in Cape Town, guests were treated to canapés and cocktails in the lush garden. They included deliciously oozy arancini filled with Parma ham, Grana Padano and mozzarella; bruschetta with Grana Padano, basil and tomato; as well as polpette di pesce – crispy deep-fried fish cakes – with a roasted garlic aïoli, and thinly sliced sweet orange melon paired with salty Coppa. Food director Abigail interacted with guests, explaining her inspiration behind the dishes. As guest Divan van Loggerenberg remarked, “These are all so good, I can’t stop eating them!” Annick and Shaun Sephton agreed, trying to resist just one more bite before the next phase of the event kicked off.

In the kitchen

Guests then moved to the kitchen, where workstations had been set up for them with everything required to create featherlight gnocchi and home-made pasta. Before they got stuck in, Abigail delved a little deeper into the history of Grana Padano, explaining its provenance and unique characteristics, and the best ways to enjoy it. Then it was time to learn about making gnocchi. Abigail explained the best way to make this Italian favourite from scratch – the secret lies in baking the potatoes on a bed of coarse salt rather than boiling them so that they are as dry as possible. If they absorb water, the mixture will be too wet, resulting in heavy gnocchi rather than melt-in-the-mouth dumplings.

Guests got stuck into scooping the cooked potatoes onto their work benches and making their dough, with Abigail on hand to provide tips and pointers on how to get it right. There was much laughterand excitement as they got their hands dirty. Once they’d perfected their dumplings, they handed them to the kitchen team, ready to be cooked and enjoyed later.

Next up was the pasta. Once again, Abigail explained the do’s and don’ts of mastering this staple, and guests were soon kneading dough like real professionals. Once the right texture was achieved, they allowed the dough to rest before heading out to a harvest table set up in the quaint courtyard to relax while the team rolled the pasta and cooked it and the gnocchi until perfectly al dente.

The main event

After all the hard work in the kitchen, it was time for the guests to enjoy the fruits of their labour. Before the gnocchi and pasta were served, they enjoyed slabs of home-made focaccia with Woolworths’ spicy ’nduja paste, which is made with Calabrian pork and chilli. This was soon followed by two bountiful salads – Italian radicchio with artichokes and generous amounts of shaved Grana Padano, and cannellini beans with brinjal caponata, anchovies, pine nuts, crispy fried capers, olives, fragrant tomatoes and fresh basil. The guests’ cooked gnocchi and pasta soon followed and were declared a resounding success! The gnocchi was served with a roasted tomato-and-butter sauce and the pasta with a traditional cacio e pepe sauce featuring lashings of Grana Padano. The platters were soon clean and bellies full.

The grand finale

The evening wasn’t over before the final flourish: pistachio panettone bombes Alaska, the pillowy white Italian meringue exterior brûléed to toasty perfection. Despite protests of being far too full to indulge, it didn’t take long before guests were tempted to a slice. And that wasn’t all: an enormous wheel of Grana Padano was served with traditional Italian preserved mustard fruit – and a large knife! One guest enjoyed the experience so much that she made an impromptu speech, saying “This event was so special, and it’s because of Rialto Foods and TASTE that we have access to these amazing ingredients.” Before they left, guests were treated to a goodie bag containing magazines, a recipe book, a bottle of wine, Italian ingredients and a generous wedge of Grana Padano, of course.