The Mystery of Pasta Making

Another great surprise in my day yesterday came when Setti, the cook, was making pasta. She showed us the freezer full of pasta shelves that she makes and then keeps ready to serve...there must be around 8-10 different kinds in there but just few are shown here. We practiced making the dough which is made of flour, eggs, salt & water.  I learned that in some parts of Italy in the southern regions, some folks make pasta without eggs b/c traditionally it was a poorer region long ago so technically you can make pasta without eggs.This was very enjoyable and it revealed the mystery of pasta making which was really cool. 

It starts off like this. 

Then you put it through a machine that flattens it out, after about 8 run throughs changing the notches gradually to make it thinner. 

This is how it's supposed to look; you can see how thin it gets. This is Setti by the way who is the cook of Monticino, who spends most of her time in the kitchen. Morning. Noon. Night. 

We mostly practiced making a pasta called, Tagliatelle. 

 It's folded into pieces like so, with flour sprinkled in between (or else it will be hard to break apart later). 

Then cut like this...

And there you have it. 

Gnocchi &Tortelli

 What looked like spaghetti is called, Tagliolini. It's laid on this bed of wire then pressed down with a rolling pin. 

This particular type is called Garganelli, which is wrapped on a stick then rolled on this board with little strings to make the creviced look and stick the sides together. Then it's pulled off the stick. 

 And then this is Cappelletti with cheese inside, then rolled together like so. 

Then, it was time to eat, "Mangiare"and we had pasta for lunch (not these pieces in particular but made previously). I definitely had a greater appreciation for every bite that I had of it knowing Setti had made it by hand. Amazing gal and amazing pasta.