Chopped Champions!

Chardy and I are huge fans of Chopped on Food Network, so we decided to have our own little Chopped-style challenge in Rome. Alli, Aaron, and Ginny were the judges and chose the secret star ingredients for each course:
Appetizer: Basil
Entree: Roma tomatoes
Dessert: Brioche

With our challenge in hand, Chardy and I each prepared a 3 course meal for our judges! The biggest challenge: we only could use what was in our kitchen, which was pretty bare since we've only been here for a week! Here's what we came up with...

Appetizer:

On the right: Chardy made fresh buffalo mozarrella cheese sticks with a basil olive oil drizzle.

L: I made a small bite of what I call: cremosa caprese with fresh basil and cherry tomatoes.

Entree:


L: Chardy made an amazing homemade pizza using the pizza bianca base from our favorite bakery (Forno Roscioli), homemade tomato sauce with peppercino oil, and of course fresh mozzarella and basil!

R: I made a spaghetti arrabiata with parmagiano.

Dessert:


L: Chardy's dessert was an Italian strawberry shortcake with a peach reduction sauce.

R: Mine was a chocolate nutella bananas foster topped with marscapone.

Happy Judges:


P.S. It's a good thing we walked 6 miles today...