Per cuocere la pasta? No, per fare la pasta!

To cook pasta? No, to make pasta!

On October 25 I learned to make pasta. Yes, real Italian pasta from the basic ingredients of eggs and flour!

I never realized how much of a workout for your arms making pasta can be, my muscles definitely felt it the next day. You start with a mound of flour with a hole in the middle, crack 4 eggs and gradually combine the eggs and flour together. After forming a tight ball with the ingredients, you let is sit for a bit.

While the dough was sitting, the instructors allowed the group to aid in making tortellini. I wasn't very good at it, many times I was tsk-ed for touching it too much. You are supposed to fold it over in one quick movement, but unfortunately I just couldn't grasp that concept, so I would fold it, but the press the edges to ensure it was closed properly. After a couple of tries, my attempts improved, but they definitely were nothing impressive.

After the tortellini experience, we went back to our pasta dough. It was warm and ready to be made into a thin sheet of pasta. The rolling pin was so tall, it spanned the length of the table. Up the table you roll, keeping a portion of the pasta on the edge of the table, so gravity aids in expanding the dough. You roll and turn the dough, making an attempted circle shape, then forming a longer oval shape. I had quite a bit of assistance from the instructor, thankfully!

My finished product turned out nicely, so while the others finished their pasta and helped with the tortellini, I was given another mound of fresh dough, but this had been in the refrigerator. It was so much tougher to roll that dough out because it was cold. I didn't get very far with that one.

Here is my finished product!

And here is me being silly with my sliced finished product!

My flatmate Manuel and I enjoyed the finished product a few nights after making the pasta, allowing it to dry. He cooked a wonderful dish of peas and ham with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. It was delicious!