Aprons Cooking Class: Making Homemade Pasta

Aprons Cooking School in Sarasota offers assorted workshops, demonstrations and hands-on cooking classes from making Dim Sum, tackling Sous-Vide to learning the basics of making Homemade Pasta. It's been a while since I've made pasta from scratch, so pulling up my sleeves and donning a new apron, I was determined to make fresh egg pasta that would make any Italian Nonna proud. The menu included Potato Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce, fresh made Pappardelle with Ragu Bolognese, and Ricotta-Herb Ravioli with Brown Butter Sage Sauce followed by Vanilla Bean Gelato with Macerated Strawberries. The class of 12 was a collection ranging from complete novices to accomplished cooks, so it was a culinary challenge for Chef Ed and his assistant Mike to keep the evenings class on course, and keep everyone engaged. Arriving with my great friend Diane, who is a fabulous cook, it was a wonderful way to share an evening together and hopefully learn more about making pasta.  

Aprons Cooking School at University Walk in Sarasota 

Complimentary aprons for use during our cooking class

The bacon has been been cooked and the pots of water are on the boil for the start of class

Grocery items for the Ragu Bolognese laid out in the kitchen

Fresh eggs for the pasta dough

Mise en place for the Gnocchi

Our instructor the evening, Chef Ed with 'Mr. Ed' written on his apron

Chef Ed beginning the Ragu as it would need to cook the longest

While Chef Ed is making the Ragu, Mike rices the pre-baked russet potatoes for the Gnocchi

Riced pre-baked russet potatoes, parmesan cheese and sliced chives

Egg yolks, ricotta, salt, pepper and a little flour added and mixed until well blended

The potato gnocchi are hand-formed into logs then cut into small pieces 

and shaped with the tines of a fork

Everyone in the class rolled and shaped the gnocchi, 

which got the job done, but not too pretty

The next step was making the Gorgonzola Cream Sauce

Gnocchi sautéed in butter until browned

The gnocchi were sautéed but not truly browned

The Gorgonzola Cream sauce is then poured over the gnocchi

Meanwhile Chef Ed has rolled out the pasta dough we made earlier, in preparation

for us all to make pappardelle noodles and ravioli

Using a KitchenAid mixer pasta attachment, we were able to roll out the pasta dough quite efficiently

Some of the pasta dough we made was used to make ravioli

Each of us made about 6-8 ravioli filled with Ricotta Herb filling,

although some of the workmanship was more than a little haphazard

Mike drops the ravioli in boiling water, 

and once they float to the top they're cooked

Ravioli floating to the surface...they're cooked

Ricotta-Herb Ravioli with Brown Butter Sage Sauce

The remaining half of the pasta dough was used to make tagliatelle 

dough which was run through an attachment on the mixer for cutting different kind of noodles 

Chef Ed adds the noodles into boiling watering, being careful to separate the strands

and prevent the fresh pasta from sticking together

Boiled for just 2-3 minutes, the fresh pasta is done

The Ragu Bolognese which has been cooking for over a hour and a half

is ready, although it could be cooked longer if time permitted

Adding the Ragu Bolognese to the pappardelle

Liberally garnished with parmesan cheese and fresh parsley,

the Ragu Bolognese is ready to be served

Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce garnished with extra gorgonzola and fresh herbs

Ricotta-Herb Ravioli with Brown Butter Sage Sauce 

The Tagliatelle Bolognese was quite tasty, as well as the Gnocchi but it was very rich, 

and the ravioli were much too thick and would have been better if the dough 

had been rolled thinner, but the filling was very tasty 

Vanilla Bean Gelato with Macerated Strawberries

www.publix.com/aprons-cooking-school

Handmade Pappardelle

Serves 4-6

Recipe from Aprons Cooking School

3 cups all-purpose flour

4 large eggs

3 tbsp EVOO

2 tsp salt

Add 3 cups of flour, eggs, and oil to the bowl of a food processor, and process in long pulses for one minute. Add a little water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until large clumps form. Transfer the dough to flour dusted work surface and knead until dough comes together — It should be slightly tacky but hold together. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and set aside for 20 minutes or up to 4 hours.

Divide the dough into 4 even pieces and run through a pasta machine, following manufacturers instructions. Start with widest setting and repeat running dough through the machine, using thinner setting until dough is very thin. Slice dough into 1-inch wide noodles, and toss with extra flour to prevent them from sticking together. They can be chilled until ready to use.

Bring water to boil for pasta, and cook the noodles 2-3 minutes until tender. Serve with desired sauce.