I made my own Tagliatelle and Tortelloni

Tagliatelle al Ragu and Lambrusco Wine

I thought I finally had the perfect excuse to buy an Imperia pasta-making machine. But la maestra killed it. We were told this morning that the best pasta has to be made a mano. So that it will not be too smooth and will allow the sauce to stick to it. Hub will be happy to know that. Consider that his Christmas present.

Beautiful day at Il Piccolo Mugnaio

We were a group of mainly Swedish women from the school who attended a Tagliatelle and Tortelloni-making class at Le Piccolo Mugnaio this morning. It is impossible to live in Italy and not at least learn how to make pasta. And it's actually an easy, if a little time-consuming, exercise.

Not an animal-free kitchen

It was good fun doing it with a bunch of friends and I think we spent more time talking among ourselves than listening to our instructor. But we made our own pasta. And after this, it'll be difficult eating industrially-made ones, they really taste different!

Freshly-made Tagliatelle and Tortelloni

Tagliatelle (for 10-12 persons) :

1 Kg tipo "0" Flour

9-10 medium Eggs

You need about 1 egg and 100g of flour per person if you're making tagliatelle. You start with 9 eggs to make the dough as you do not want it to be too humid. You get a yellower yolk especially during winter as the chickens are mostly indoors and will eat mainly corn. And in Emilia Romagna, they don't add salt in their pasta though in Tuscany they do so. The opposite is true for bread.

Basically just mix the eggs and flour and knead for a few minutes till you get a dough. Then pick out a fist-size ball, knead it some more on a flat surface and keep rolling it (this is the part that may get you really obsessed) till you get a really thin flat round.

My Tagliatelle!

Leave it to dry for between 10 minutes and 4 hours depending on the temperature and humidity of the room. Otherwise the dough will stick together as you try to cut it.

Demo from la Maestra

Boil a pot of water with salt in it. You do not add oil or it'll make the pasta too smooth and the sauce wouldn't stick to it. When the water is boiling, add in the pasta. Stir a little. It will slowly come to the boil again and the pasta will start to float to the surface. That's when it's ready. You don't time it like on the supermarket packet, but I timed this and it was between 2 and 3 minutes. Drain.

Has to be this thin...

Making tortelloni is like making wontons - even down to folding the dumpling. But you don't need to seal it with water or egg like we usually do with wontons - the fresh pasta just needs some pressure on it to be sealed properly. Those Italians, they stole more than just their noodles from us.

Filling the Tortelloni

The filling was simple : 500g of ricotta cheese and 350g of parmesan cheese. In some places, they will add breadcrumbs to cut costs - but it wouldn't be as good, of course.

Tortelloni vs Tortellini

Maria made a ragu sauce to go with the tagliatelle : onions, carrots, celery, olive oil, vegetable stock, tomato sauce and meat (a mix of beef, pork, veal and sausage filling) that she cooked for 3 hours.

For the Tortelloni, it was a butter and sage sauce. Simple, fattening and yummy.

Tortelloni Burro e Salvia

Voilà now I know how to make my own pasta. And I do not need an Imperia pasta machine for it. Shucks.