In addition to the classes I am taking in my CEA Global Education program, I participate in various cultural excursions in order to get a better understanding of Roman culture and Italy overall. One of these activities was a cooking class. As you can see in the pictures below, we learned how to make pasta
from scratch.
There were 7 people in this class, so we all had our own bag flour, and 10 eggs to make the dough
Our teacher told us to make a mountain of flour and make a circle in the middle of it, until there was enough room to fit the 10 eggs
Once we put the eggs in the middle, we had to carefully mix it with our hands until the consistency was smooth enough for the kneading of the dough
Once the dough was flat, we cut in into long rectangles. Once we had the long strips, we rolled them until they looked like egg rolls, then we cut them in thin slices
Once we had all the slices cut out, we unrolled them in order to make Fettuccine
In order for the strands of Fettuccine not to stick, we added flour until all the pasta was separated
To make Tortellini, we stared with the long stands like we did for the Fettuccine
We cut them into small squares and put the stuffing in the middle of it. For the purpose of this class, we used mashed potatoes, but you can stuff Tortellini with meat, spinach cheese, or anything else worth experimenting
Once the stuffing was in the middle of small squares, we then folded them, which make them into triangles. We then used our pinky to tie up the ends to make the Tortellini look like the picture above
Lastly, we got to take our pasta and left-over dough home so we could make dinner. As you can see in the picture above, I created a beautiful dish with what I learned that day.
I took the Fettuccine I made and boiled it while I sautéed some garlic, onions, green peppers, and onions in a different pan. After it was done I mixed the sauteed vegetables with the pasta. To add some finishing touches, I added some red crushed peppers and basil
Addis Tesfaye, Senior at University of Minnesota: your CEA MOJO from Rome