Sfoglia
We couldn’t come to Italy without taking a cooking class. The first one we took in Piemonte was a little unusual in that we didn’t learn to make any pasta. The food we made there was regional, traditional “summer” food which didn’t include too many things that had to be cooked for a long time in order to keep the kitchen cool. While the dishes were interesting, I’m not sure that I’ll be replicating them any time soon for guests back home. The one exception was a dolce/dessert called Mottone, which means ” the brick” and is made with about a pound of Mascarpone cheese. (We already made it again the first time we had an apartment with a kitchen.)
While that class was fun, it still left us unfulfilled in our quest to learn how to make pasta. Our route east from France brought us near Bologna, so we decdided to stay there a few days and try another cooking class. This one was at a bigger cooking school and was all about fresh pasta, in particular a type called Sfoglia that is made in this region. While I need a lot more practice with the rolling pin, I’m still pretty proud of my first attempt. We spent a lot of time learning to make the dough, the techniques for rolling it out, and how to make different shapes, including Tortelloni, Tortellini, Farfalle, Tagliatelle, and Garganelli. The Tortellini are particularly tricky, but ours survived the cooking and tasted great.
Here is the “before” picture of the Tortelloni. I got a bit too excited and ate them, so there is no “after” picture.
halftime
June 15th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Looks like a 12inch wafer with oversized die.