A Pasta-making Class in Rome for True Italian Cuisine Lovers
Pasta, what a passion! For Italians it is the staple food, the daily protagonist of the table. Perfect for lunch, but also chosen by many for dinner. Every Italian family has a story of mothers or grandmothers who are good at making pasta and even today there are many Italians, men and women, who dedicate themselves to this activity whenever they can, perhaps on Saturday or Sunday morning. And this is why many people still want to learn how to prepare homemade pasta and choose the best pasta making class in Rome organized by Insideat to understand the secrets of this activity, having fun and relaxing in front of a plate of steaming fettuccine or explosive ravioli! The lesson takes place a few steps from the Vatican Museums, in the center of Rome, in a location with air conditioning and easily reachable also by the subway Metro A (Cipro or Ottaviano stations).
Pasta is culture, pasta is the essence of Italian cuisine. In supermarkets and delicatessens entire aisles are dedicated to it, with an infinite choice in terms of dough, quality and shapes. It ranges from classic industrial pasta perfect for everyday use to the most sophisticated pasta from artisanal pasta factories scattered throughout Italy. There is the one made only with re-milled durum wheat semolina and the whole wheat one, there is the one made with special flours or with flours from ancient grains rediscovered by the most passionate pasta makers. Then there is the one made with rice, or the one made with buckwheat, a legacy of food cultures from some parts of Italy that in past centuries could not grow wheat and specialized in alternative doughs (think of the pizzoccheri from Valtellina). Today the offer is also complete with pasta made with corn flour, ideal for celiacs and those intolerant to gluten.
What are the favorite pasta shapes of Italians?
What are the most popular pasta shapes in Italy? There is no doubt: spaghetti is on the first place, including its variants such as spaghettini, spaghettoni, etc. On the second place there is the short pasta shape par excellence: penne, also in this case with their smooth and grooved variants, shorter or longer. Immediately after come fusilli (very popular in northern Italy), followed by rigatoni and mezze maniche (chosen above all in central Italy and Rome). In the South, a lot of small or mixed pasta is also sold, chosen for typical recipes such as soups or pasta with vegetables.
But if we talk about homemade pasta, things change. In Italian homes, tradition reigns supreme. Few prepare spaghetti, penne, fusilli or rigatoni to dry. In each region, the typical local pasta is prepared. Orecchiette and cavatelli in Puglia, scialatielli in Campania, tagliatelle and lasagna in Emilia, fileja in Calabria, pici in Tuscany, and fettuccine in Lazio. But that’s not all! When we talk about homemade pasta, we must not forget the most delicious pasta there is: stuffed pasta! The kings of the table are ravioli, the most popular and simple to prepare stuffed pasta shape, a shape that unites all of Italy and that leaves a lot of room for creativity regarding the filling. Let’s not forget that Italy is very rich in stuffed pasta shapes of the highest quality, such as tortellini, cappelletti, plin and agnolotti.
Pasta making class in Rome to discover the great history of pasta
By participating in the pasta-making class in Rome offered by Insideat you will discover that behind a plate of pasta there is a thousand-year history. Water and flour were already used in ancient Greece and Magna Graecia for the dough that the Greeks called laganon (hand-rolled pasta), a term that later became laganum in Latin and has reached us in the terms lagana (in central Italy), làina (in Lazio and Campania), làiena (in Puglia and Salento) and lasagna. We know that pasta was certainly not invented by Italians, given that even in China and Arab countries there is an ancient culture of pasta, but one thing is certain: Italians have made pasta the queen of the kitchen, creating with it and around it an enormous knowledge and a living culinary tradition, enriched by an endless list of recipes. Italian first courses always include pasta and even when, for reasons of time or preferences we have to choose to eat only one dish per meal, in most cases it will be pasta.
Are you ready to discover the secrets of pasta with passionate Italian chefs? Take part in the pasta class in Rome by Insideat!
Pasta made with water and flour or egg pasta. Semolina or flour. When to use them.
When we talk about recipes, we must distinguish between pasta made with water and flour and egg pasta; the first is made with re-milled durum wheat semolina, the second is also prepared with soft wheat flour. You can rest assured, whatever you do, you will almost always get an edible, good and healthy pasta. But let’s see together what the main differences are in the use of the two flours and the two recipes:
- Semolina or flour: re-milled durum wheat semolina is perfect for fresh pasta shapes such as orecchiette, cavatelli and gnocchetti, but also for dry pasta (spaghetti, linguine, rigatoni, paccheri, penne, fusilli, etc.), that is, for doughs prepared with water. Soft wheat flour (type 00, 0, 1, 2, whole wheat) is used for hand-rolled pasta (especially in central and northern Italy) and then cut (tagliatelle, pappardelle, tagliolini, fettuccine, etc.), or for stuffed pasta (tortellini, ravioli, plin, etc.), these doughs are almost always made with eggs.
- Water or eggs: water is used especially for small fresh pasta that is not stuffed (think of fresh pasta from southern Italy), as well as for dried semolina pasta and long drawn pasta; water is used in small quantities to create the gluten, but it must then dry easily in the open air or in drying cells. Eggs are used in long, hand-cut formats and in stuffed pasta, that is, in all doughs that require great flavor, elasticity, resistance to flaking and filling and also color (think of the use of yellow-fleshed eggs).
- Proportions between liquids and flours: let’s start by saying that there are many different recipes and that the quantities of water or eggs to be added to the dough can often vary based on the absorption capacity of the semolina or flour used. Having said this, we can rely on some simple general references from which we can start to create different doughs: a. for fresh pasta made at home with semolina and water it is best not to add more than 50% water compared to the weight of the semolina (for example 500 g of water for 1 kg of semolina), since the dough must be quite tough to be worked easily and to obtain the right roughness; b. for dry extruded pasta (for those who have the possibility of making it at home with the extruder) the amount of water to add to the semolina is drastically reduced and must not exceed 40% of the weight of the semolina; the dough must be lumpy and it will be the pressure exerted by the extruder itself that will form the gluten; c. for egg pasta, generally a medium 55 g egg will be used for every 100 g of flour (type 00 or 0 are fine), therefore the dough will be a little more hydrated than the previous ones, around 55%.
Are you curious? If you want to live an immersive experience in Rome, preparing fresh pasta (fettuccine and ravioli) and an excellent tiramisu with us, you can join our Pasta, Ravioli and Tiramisu Class through this link.
If you have less time available, you can choose the 1 hour pasta class at this link, in just one hour we will prepare excellent fettuccine and serve them with the best fresh Italian sauces.
On our YouTube channel you will find the recipe and the entire procedure for preparing orecchiette to perfection and to serve them with turnip tops in the classic Apulian recipe. Here is a video for preparing egg fettuccine.
To view the full range of experiences organized by Insideat in Italy, you can consult the catalog on the website
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