Our Blog - Tuscany 2024 Trip - Cooking Class in Bologna, Italy

We decided to try another cooking class, this time with Bologna Cooking Class. Their website has changed since we booked it, but we basically did the "Short Class", which goes from 10am - 2pm. He also has 1-day classes and is starting up classes at a nearby farm in the summer months.

Our short-class included 3 pastas and 3 sauces, all done by hand. We started by making the pasta dough and letting it rest. Chef Luigi took a bit of time explaining the effects of the weather and seasons on the amount of flour that is needed, since the humidity impacts how wet or dry it is. He also talked about why the table we were using was untreated wood (so that it doesn't stick), which we found out later was just laid on top of a treated/stained wood tabletop that we ate on. We then took some of the dough and made the Tortelloni, which are are a stuffed pasta common in northern Italy. They have a shape similar to tortellini, but larger and with a cheese-based filling (traditionally stuffed with ricotta, Parmesan, leafy herbs or vegetables such as parsley or spinach). Here we setup the pasta maker, a Marcato Ampia 150, and rolled it out to the right thickness. Then we cut it into squares (you can see them on the 3rd picture) and made the ricotta filling. Then we carefully pinched, folded, twisted, and tucked until we had the perfect little tortelloni's!

Next up where garganelli, which are specifically from the Emiglia-Romagna area. It is similar to Penne pasta but the way you roll them means that there is a little part where the two corners of the pasta overlap. You roll the dough out and cut them into squares (this time smaller than the tortelloni), then you wrap them around a wooden rod in such a way that two corners overlap. You then roll them on a ribbed board (like some people use to make gnocchi) giving them ridges.

And lastly, tagliatelle, using the same machine to roll it out and then also cut it into the right width strips.

Here we are with all of our pastas!

We also made 3 sauces that we served with the pasta for lunch. The tortelloni was put with a butter-sage sauce, the garganelli with a tomato-basil sauce, and the tagliatelle with a ragù bolognese ... all, of course, finished off with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano. We will learn more about Parmigiano Reggiano in a couple days as we head towards Modena and Parma.