One of the highlights from my study abroad trip in Italy was doing a pasta cooking class at Florence Food Studio. I have never done anything like this before, so I didn’t know what to expect going into it. All I can say is that it exceeded my expectations and was such a memorable experience that I will hold onto for the rest of my life.
The class was split up into two different sections. One part was making the sauce and the other was making the actual pasta. I started out at the sauce making station which involved us cutting up all the ingredients that made up the two different sauces. I was shocked at how simple it was to make tomato sauce and sage butter sauce. The chef allowed us to do most of the work, which I enjoyed a lot because I love to learn how to make different dishes. I also got the opportunity to talk with the chef and hear about his career in this industry. It was cool to hear how he started out as a chef for a big restaurant and then moved over to this, which is a much slower part of this industry. After finishing up the sauces, we headed over to the pasta making part of the class.
Making homemade pasta is very simple. It only takes one hundred grams of flour per egg and then you start kneading the dough until it is ready. You then transport the dough into the pasta machine which cuts the dough into the shape you want. Once we were finished with this process, the chefs cooked it and served it to us. After all our hard work, we got to just sit and enjoy the yummy pasta we just spent 2 hours preparing. This was by far one of the best meals I had during my time in Italy. It was so authentic and fresh, but the fact that we prepared it made it even better. I loved everything about this class and hope I can come back again one day!
