So my stay all starts with 1 italian teacher, 2 italian cooking instructors, 3 different pastas, 2 sauces and 5 very full students...here.
That's my lovely little ball of pasta dough waiting for help from the teacher.
Me trying to figure out why my circle of pasta dough is not getting any bigger. Psst...you're not supposed to roll it at an angle like that.
Some of our handiwork. Yes we made this tortelloni!
A few Bolognese food tidbits
-tortellini are small (7 to a tablespoon) filled with meat served in broth. Tortelloni are bigger, filed with ricotta and parsley (or spinach outside bologna)
-uses onions not garlic
-pork used to be the primary meat, all of it, due to availability. Now there is often a combination of pork and beef in ragu for example.
-a perfect dollop of sauce on your pure white pasta is all wrong
-they put Parmigiano cheese on everything, "yes, even in our toothpaste" chides our cooking instructor.
Our teacher demonstrating how to shape gnocchi.
One finished product: tagliatelle with ragu-wow
Now, I have ordered gnocchi many times at various restaurants in the states, it sounds like a good idea right? Dumpling-like pasta made from potatoes. But, I have to admit, I have always been disappointed with heavy gummy unsatisfying little lumps. Then I had this...
This is what gnocchi is supposed to taste like: light, fluffy little pillows of heaven. If I can recreate this at home you're all coming over for dinner.
You can start the gnocchi trials at my house... ;) THIS is my kind of heaven.
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DeleteLove this post! I took a cooking class in Florence a few years ago, and we were so surprised that there was NO garlic in the few dishes we made! The chef laughed at us a little and explained that American Italian food has WAY more garlic in it than most Italians actually use. I have GOT to try making my own pasta one of these days.
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