Making the pasta

 

Say Italian food and many people think of pasta. Although pasta certainly isn’t the totality of the Italian culinary experience, it is one aspect that I like.

I’ve been making my own pasta for a few years but not frequently or confidently. When I learned we would be making pasta in my cooking class at the Villa Bordoni, I was thrilled.

Chef Collin took us through the process step-by-step. He measures his ingredients using a scale rather than cups. Many chefs will tell you this is the more accurate way to measure. He does the kneading and shaping for the pasta on a smooth, wooden board and uses semolina flour to keep the dough from sticking.

The chef’s recipe, a basic combination of flour and eggs, came into a dough similar to what I had produced at home. Because the resulting dough is hard and extremely difficult to knead, I always thought I was doing it wrong. Maybe I need more liquid. Maybe I used too much flour. Not according to Chef Collin. We each took a turn kneading, using the palms of our hands more than our fingers, then he wrapped it in plastic and put it aside to rest.

 

After resting, pasta goes through a hand-turned pasta maker that makes it increasingly thinner. Chef Collin cut the pasta into portions. I prefer to work with dough the size of a large egg. With his expertise, however, Chef Collin used a significantly larger piece. After partially rolling it out, he began putting it through the pasta maker on its widest setting. As he cranked with one hand, he held out the other to catch the pasta as it came out, keeping it straight so it doesn’t fold on itself. One of our class members also helped with the process. Fold the pasta in three and put through again on the next setting. As the machine kneads the pasta, it comes out thinner and longer each time.

Next, it’s time to cut it into portions to fit onto a chitarra. Chitarra is the Italian word for guitar. The tool is a wooden frame with wires strung across it. When you put a sheet of pasta on top and use a French rolling pin to add more pressure, the wires begin to show through the pasta then cut them into spaghetti. And there you have one nest of spaghetti for one serving of pasta. Perfetto!
 
Our generous instructor also showed us how to sprinkle a sheet with semolina, fold and cut into the wider papparadelle pasta. He then made various shapes, for which I was most thankful because one of my favorite pastas is ravioli.

Using Chef Collin’s techniques, I made pumpkin stuffed ravioli on Sunday. The first time I tried it a few years ago, my raviolis busted open in the cooking water. Not this time. Thanks to Chef Collin’s tips, I confidently made the dough and put the pasta through the maker, I cut the raivolis then put in less filling and used water around the edges of the ravioli to seal them. I think I’ve passed pasta-making 101!

Chef Collin's pasta
600 grams '00' flour
5 eggs

Place flour on work surface. Make well in the enter. Break eggs into well and gradually incorporate the flour with the eggs with your hands. When the mixture starts to firm up, knead with the heel of your hand for about 5 minutes. Wrap in plastic and let it rest for at least an hour before proceeding.

Rediscover the dining experience

  It’s hard to believe that just two weeks ago I was sitting outside eating lunch in the Piazza del Campo in Siena, Italy. This morning I awoke to snow covering the grass and a chilly wind that sent me to my car instead of on my walk to the bakery for a morning meeting. 

Regardless of how snowy or cold it might get this winter, one thing I’m carrying with me into the season is the Italian way of eating. Here in the U.S., many of us have developed poor eating habits. We stand and stuff something into our mouths. We eat supper in front of the television. We “drive through” to pick up a meal. Doing any of these things typically diminishes our enjoyment of the food and the entire eating experience. When’s the last time you looked at your plate to truly admire its artistry? Have you appreciated the aroma of the food before you took your first bite? 

I’m as guilty as the next person of not fully participating in all of my eating experiences. Being away on vacation when I wasn’t rushed to get to a meeting or distracted by the evening news helped me rediscover the joy of the meal.

During the next few weeks, I’ll be writing about the cooking class that I attended at the Villa Bordoni in Greve in Chianti, Italy. We spent a little more than three hours working on the meal, which the chef carried to completion after he dismissed us to relax with before dinner drinks and some of the focaccia bread we made. We then had a meal that lasted more than three hours. That was a truly wonderful dining experience. 

This week, let me simply share photos of the lovely breakfast spread we had to choose from each day. Oh if only this were waiting in my own dining room every morning when I awoke!

Breakfast breads included these lovelies and small loaves from which you could cut what you wanted.

Breakfast meats

The ever-present San Marzanos

I loved this fruit salad!

Who can resist three types of cheeses?

Toppings anyone? They worked nicely with the yogurt, cereal or fruit salad.