This week in my cooking class we learned all about coffee. It's a HUGE deal here in Italy and so 2 of the dishes we made we "cooked" with it. The first was a pretty traditional way, we made Tiramisu alla ricotta (normally you use Mascarpone which is a much fattier cheese). You dip the ladyfingers in the coffee to coat them. The second dish we made with the coffee was Linguine spinaci, figgiolini e caffe or Linguine with spinach, green beans and coffee. It sounds so gross but it was actually very tasty. You boil the pasta in the coffee to give it kind of an earthier taste. Very interesting and definetly not something I would have come up with or even tried had I not been in the class. The 2 non coffee dishes were Mousse de ricotta alla mediterranea and Scaloppine con nicciole. I didn't help or taste with the meat dish but the mousse was really good on bread and was very easy to make. Cooking is by far my favorite class here and one of my roommates has it with me which makes it more fun too!

Other interesting things I have observed out about Italy/Italians while I have been here...

1. They love our 90's pop music and you hear it everywhere.
2. They love the Clintons/ Hillary. They know so much about our politics, and I often hear "It's too bad about Hillary". They also don't think Obama is "American enough" to be elected. 
3. They have no problem telling you exactly how to eat EVERYTHING, ex. Not allowing my roommate to order mousse in a cone, Not allowing me to buy a certain cheese when I mention I was making pizza with it, Certain Pastas go with certain sauces, ect. It makes sense now why my Mom never let me mix 2 different kinds of pastas together when I was little.
4. Trash lines the street and doorways at night and a million mini garbage trucks come out and collect it all.
5. My women teachers look like they could go straight to the clubs after class. Women have a "If you've got it, flaunt it" attitude here, no matter their age. In general the women here are much smaller than us Americans.
6. The McDonalds here (We have 2) does not serve breakfast. I found this out the hard way when I was craving a greasy egg and cheese biscuit and it was closed! At 9 am! I don't know what they serve for lunch or dinner but I'm sure I'll find out one of these day.