Thanks Pasta Man – it’s homemade pasta making time

Today I will take you on a little excursion with me. After seeing many, many, many videos of making pasta on a social media feeds - I think you know where this is going - I finally took the day and courage to try my hand at it. I can say that I do not have any Italian blood running through my veins, which is a shame - they are so very talented. All that wine and pasta - cue character faint - it is just superbly delicious. Now onto my own adventure of creating a dish well enough to eat this evening. If this doesn’t work out, it will be a take out kind of night.

I follow a head chef, Mateo Zielonka, that creates pasta nearly everyday at 180 Studios in the Strand, Simpon’s in the Strand - one of London’s oldest traditional English restaurants. He fell in love with making pasta in London while on a two-week trip away from his home in Poland, and ended up taking a job in a kitchen at a Jewish deli in Soho. He then kept his love alive by making his pasta and created his chance that he could do what he loved for a living day in and day out. Watching his mini-videos (reels) on SnapChat and Instagram I am imbued with the confidence that it looks easy enough to make, and fun. All it is is flour and egg yolks, and lots of them, kneaded together - I could do that.

Onto Mateo’s (aka “the pasta man”) website and to the recipes I go. Wow, there were a lot there of different ones and they all sound very Italian-y; i.e. agnolini mantovani, campanelle, busiate, cappellacci dei briganti, etc. Alas, the “Classic Egg Dough” data is finally found and brought to the screen. I know I will need flour and I have an onslaught of different kinds, due to the adventures that were never fully accomplished which left behind regular all-purpose white flour and... millet, wheat, coconut, almond, and cake flour. (Next, I think I should finally take on making some type of bread). The recipe calls for 00 (double-zero) flour and my eyes did not see any of that in my stash so a trip to the market is the next step.

Armed with my knowledge of the distinct flour type I must find I traverse to the market quickly on bike, as it is only a short jaunt. To the baking aisle and the flour section. My eyes again search for the 00 flour and, did I miss it? Does the market not carry the flour? It has all sorts of other kinds. Oh no... well, there is semolina flour that I have seen others use and it says “for superb pasta.” It must be close so that is the one. A quick internet search for the difference between the two and now more intel fills my head. Semolina is more coarse than 00 but they both can be used for pasta. They are both ground durum wheat flour. Now, to get some “fresh” eggs and some sauce, then home.

It is time for the magic. I prepare my space and then realize that the recipe is mostly in metric measurements... ok, I can adjust. I don’t have a scale so I suppose conversion charts must do. I find what is about the same as 300 g of semolina flour and make a little valley to place the three eggs in. Starting to whisk them together and I believe finesse will come with time. The eggs break through the flour barrier and I am off to the races as I scramble the mixture together on my counter top. It comes together and now it is the time to knead the dough for about eight minutes. I don’t think I added enough flour as it keeps sticking to my hands. More flour is added and finally there is a dough ball. It says to leave it at least thirty minutes and I do.

I made a yummy filling that was ground beef, garlic, and ricotta cheese for the attempts of ravioli I will make. Back to the dough that has been resting. I section the dough to make it more manageable and start to roll it out. First attempts are to make the ravioli. Helpful tip: don’t fill them with so much filling. The other section of dough is for a fettuccine. And, it worked!

Overall, this adventure was so much fun and it definitely gave me more respect for those chefs out there, whether the “chef” is just your mom, dad, Nonna (Grandmother in Italian), or you. Making a dish from scratch gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment and now that I know how to make pasta, you will be sure that I will be playing around with all the different fun named ones. Who knows, my blood might have some Italian from many generations past.

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