pasta making class.

this post is long overdue. like two months overdue -.-

several (and i mean SEVERAL) months ago, christina sent me a message telling me to check out this pasta making class deal by cooking fools that was featured on groupon. we bought us the groupon since we enjoyed the other cooking class we went to at bespoke cuisine.

as far as i can remember, i have never had fresh pasta before and always wondered how it differs from those boxed dry pastas from the grocery store. i was super excited to learn something new since i've always seen chef ann burrell make her pasta from scratch on food network.

as we entered cooking fools, we walked pass a small deli/specialty food store on the way towards our "classroom".  since it was byob and if you forget to bring a bottle of wine, you can buy a bottle or two at their specialty store so you can enjoy a glass of wine as you cook.

we managed to find a table for the four of us and it was almost like a private class. lol. (and no we aren't antisocial) and i thought, "perfect! marble table!" our table was kinda special because everyone else's were metal tables. hehe.

i knew it was gonna be uber fun since this would be more hands on. our instructor informed us that we were going to make spinach and ricotta ravioli and pappardelle. when she said ravioli i almost shrieked with joy since i think it would be fun to be able to make it at home. the way this class works is, the instructor would demonstrate how it's supposed to be done and we have to return to our table to try it out on our own.

so to start a pasta dough, we weighed out the all purpose flour and semolina flour. mix both flour and then make a deep well in the middle of the pile of flour so we can break an egg in there without it spilling onto the ground. beat the egg with a fork and slowly incorporate the flour with the egg which eventually forms into a dough.

i kept saying it's like how chef ann burrell does it on tv as i went through each step! lol. i felt like a pro just for a moment until i realize it was somewhat tricky to get a feel how the dough should feel  - it could be too dry or it could be too sticky. but eventually i got my dough to be almost right. lol.

the instructors walked around the class to see how all the participants are doing. there are only two of them so it was occasionally difficult to get their attention for some guidance.

we left our dough to rest as they taught us how to make spinach and ricotta filling and basil pesto for ravioli and the tomato vodka cream sauce for the pappardelle.

after all that is done, we let the sauce simmer to let the flavors all meld together. we returned our attentions to our dough and finished the remaining steps to shape them into ravioli and pappardelle. in order to do that, we need a pasta machine to get a thin sheet of pasta which made me a lil nervous since i was worried i was going to tear it as it was so delicate.

but i sure was proud of my hand made pasta. :) they look like what they are supposed to! one good tip is to make sure there aren't air bubbles as you encase the filling with the pasta sheet to ensure that it doesn't pop when you boil your pasta in hot, salted water.

one thing that disappointed me a lil bit is that we didn't get to cook the pasta on our own. and i don't even know if the end product was what i personally made since they mixed all the batches together.

overall, the pasta flavors weren't as what i imagined. texturally, it wasn't as dough-y as i'd imagine and it was almost somewhat slightly grainy. it might be because the dough was overworked or something. but i couldn't compare this freshly made pasta to anything else because i haven't had it anywhere else before. the filling for the ravioli was slightly bland (not the fault of the instructor, more like the volunteer who admits she doesn't always salt her food -.-) and both the pastas were quite filling so i was full very quickly.

nonetheless, this class was super fun and it's especially an awesome experience since i went with a group of friends who enjoys cooking as much as i do. i am proud to say i can make pasta from scratch now - not that i would make it often but i can if i wanted to!

p.s. i took some pictures on my cell phone because it's kinda hard to take a ton of pictures with bits of dough stuck on my hands.