Me, an Italian Chef? Lesson 2; Fresh pasta - Ravioli, Spaghetti, Neopolitana Sauce

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I think it was pretty clear from last week’s article that I will never be a particularly successful Italian chef, however I am not COMPLETELY inept and with plenty of guidance and more than a spoon full of help, I can cook! Last week I cooked pizza and this week I cooked homemade pasta and even if I do say so myself it was very good! I was under the impression that cooking homemade pasta would be extremely challenging and in fact it turned out to be remarkably easily – although I’m sure if I attempted to cook it on my own it would be an absolute disaster!

This week’s class again began with kneading and massaging and pummeling of dough to create the pasta dough, I’m virtually an expert at this now!

Then we had to prepare the chicken for the ravioli filling. The recipe said ‘chicken breast’ which in England means a piece of chicken breast, without the bone. In this country I discovered that chicken breast comes with the actual breast bone, which meant I had to remove it. Not a good idea. When Lisa handed me a knife as long as my arm, I’m not sure who was more terrified, me, Lisa or the poor chicken breast.

Here I am looking not overly confident…

But I did it! Wow. I boned a chicken breast, eat your heart out Julia Child, next I will bone a duck!

Following the chicken-cutting near death disaster the rest of the class went very smoothly and was very enjoyable. My favourite part was definitely the rolling of the pasta with the pasta-making machine. Using the machine makes you feel (and look) like a real pasta making professional and it requires almost no skill at all! Wonderful, exactly my kind of thing!

In the end I was THRILLED with my creations and I felt like I had learnt so much, although I’m not going to rush out and buy a pasta making machine just yet….

To read all about my first cooking lesson, click here and to find out more about the course, which continues next week, click here.

Spinach and Chicken Ravioli in fresh tomato sauce: