“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one hasn't eaten well.”- Virginia Wolf

Countries are characterized by their individual and unique cultures. A main component of culture (to me) is food. When I think of food in Italy pizza and pasta immediately come to mind. Italy seems to have a plethora of pasta including all shapes and fillings (all are delicious). Food has always interested me, and I cannot remember a time where I was not in the kitchen helping my mother. You could say food is one of my passions. On Thursday I was able to take part in the ancient tradition of making homemade fresh pasta. Patrizio, the husband of the associate director of the program, came to the palazzo to instruct the group on the art of pasta. In the United States pasta comes dried in a box or plastic wrapping. The concept of fresh handmade pasta is known but never seen. Making pasta seems extremely tedious when it would be much easier to simply dump dried pasta into water. I will now stand on my soapbox and say that pasta fresca is not too difficult to prepare. It does take longer than the dried variety, but the results are well worth the time and effort!

Pasta is organized into two categories, pasta lungo and pasta corto which translates into short and long pasta. Pasta is made by mixing flour with eggs. This is similar to the ingredients for pizza which is flour, water, and yeast. It’s hard to believe that such simple ingredients can produce a versatile and tasty meal. Pasta is documented from the 5th century but the knowledge of mixing flour and water dates to ancient Greece and earlier. The shape not only provides an interesting element to the dinner plate, but also surface area for sauce to adhere to, a way to layer (lasagna), and fill (ravioli and tortellini).

To make pasta is incredibly simple, but yields amazing and quite tasty results. First on a large flat surface (we used a wooden cutting board) one kilo of flour was poured, and a well was made in the center. In the well twelve eggs are cracked but left unbeaten. The eggs were then lightly salted with about a teaspoon of salt. Patrizio then took a fork and beat the eggs, slowly folding in the flour as he did so. The way his hands skillfully moved was incredible. They were quick and precise. He was able to mix in the flour without forming any lumps. The pasta was kneaded and rolled out into a large thin circle. From the circle the thin pasta was folded into fifths and sliced. This dough could be formed into most forms of fresh pasta depending on how thin or thick the noodles were sliced. We cut the noodles about one forth of an inch thick to make tagliatelle and tagliolini (I am still not sure of the difference besides the width of the noodle).



After the tagliatelle we made another type of pasta that involved cooked potato and flour called gnocchi (personally one of my favorite types of pasta). The potatoes were boiled and put through a food mill which gave the gnocchi the correct consistency. The dough was again kneaded but this time was sliced into small rectangles instead of rolling it out flat. After all of the work it was finally time to cook the pasta! Another surprise was the time it took to cook. After adding the pasta to boiling salted water (I was told the salt is very important to add flavor) it only took about a minute for the gnocchi and tagliatelle to rise to the surface. Fresh pasta is marvelous! I know that people always say fresh tastes better, but the truth is it does!

I am excited to try making my own pasta for my friends and family (it might take some practice to get it right). Coming home with a few cooking skills from a country known and renowned for its cuisine would be the cherry on the cake of a semester of a lifetime!!