When I visit an Italian restaurant, I will always pick a pasta dish over a pizza; the hardest decision is deciding which pasta. As I have not been able to have restaurant-made pasta in what feels like forever, I was delighted to take part in a pasta-making experience. The experience was hosted by Sicilian farmers Fabio and Annarella from their enormous farm in Italy.
I thought that the experience would be with up to 10 other people, but it was just me, Fabio and Annarella. This meant that I got their full attention as they taught me how to make my own pasta with a lemon and cheese sauce. As I was the only person on the online zoom lesson, I really got to know all about Fabio and Annarella’s lives in Sicily which was very interesting, and they even invited me to visit their farm in the future.
The class began with an introduction to the two farmers, and they gave me a tour of the farm. I even got to see their two extremely cute dogs, so that was a bonus! They had some impressive orange, lemon, and olive trees. They said that people pay monthly subscriptions to have an olive tree on their farm, and then every year they send them a bottle of olive oil from the tree.
After learning about the farm and how Fabio’s grandfather had previously owned it, we started to prepare the ingredients for the pasta dish. We started by making the sauce that was going to coat the pasta. This included Parmigiano cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, butter, salt and pepper.
I placed my sauce to the side before beginning to make the pasta. I was surprised when they told me that all I needed to make the pasta was durum wheat, semolina flour and water. If I knew it was this simple, I would have made my own pasta years ago!
I put the water in bit by bit and started to knead the pasta dough together until it formed a ball, which took roughly 3 minutes. I then rolled the dough out flat into a circle shape, and folded it in from both sides until they met in the middle. Next, I cut them into fine strips and placed them into boiling water.
The pasta only took 2 - 3 minutes to cook, during which time Annarella showed me loads of different techniques to get a variety of pasta shapes for different dishes, and which one is best for grabbing the most sauce.
Once the pasta was cooked, I used some tongs to transfer the pasta from the boiling water into the cheesy sauce, mixed it together to coat all the pasta, and added some parsley. This dish was so delicious and simple to make. I would definitely recommend it if you want a quick, 20-minute dinner.
This was a fantastic online pasta making class.
I believe this class is great value for money, as it was a private lesson for only R400. I can’t guarantee that you will get a lesson all to yourself like me, but Fabio and Annarella will make you feel just as special - and maybe even invite you to their farm in Sicily!
