Making Pasta by the Pantheon

October 11, 2023

There is nothing more genuine than a classic Italian cuisine, so when I was saw a chance to take a cooking class with a chef who owned her very own family restaurant I immediately booked my seat! Her restaurant is called Enoteca Corsi, and it is a 3 minute walk from the Pantheon.

Our first dish we began making was a traditional Italian pastry called Cuddureddi. All you need is flour, olive oil, red wine, a pinch of salt, and a dash of cinnamon to make the dough. Once you have kneaded it into a solid consistency, you then create thick, spaghetti-like noodles and shape them into a circle. Then you take the circle of dough and cover it with sugar on all sides and put it into the oven for about 10 minutes on 300 degrees. These were delicious and had a very sweet flavor and crunchy texture. Typically, this pastry is eaten either dunked in red wine or milk.

Our second dish that we began making was a pesto sauce over cavatelli pasta. You begin

by separating the basil leaf from its stem in order to make the pesto sauce. For this sauce all you need is basil, Parmesan, olive oil, garlic, almonds, and pine nuts (not necessary). If you decide to add pine nuts into your sauce then you must fry them over a low heat until they appear a golden brown. Once finished, you throw all of the other ingredients into a blender/ food processor and mix until it is a smooth, green consistency. Once you have your sauce, you can keep it covered until your pasta is ready. We created a water-based pasta during this cooking class as opposed to an egg-based pasta which I found to be much simpler. The only ingredients necessary for this pasta’s dough was flour, water, and a pinch of salt. Once kneaded together, create thick like spaghetti-noodles and cut them into smaller ones about an inch thick. With the smaller noodle, press it in with your thumb and roll it along the cutting board until it curls around creating a hollow shell of pasta. Once you have gone through all of your dough you are ready to boil some water and throw in the pasta! Once the pasta is cooked mix in your pesto sauce and you have a delicious homemade pesto meal ready to eat!

Although the food was amazing, my favorite part of this evening was learning about Italian culture through the art of food making. The chef had such a passion for cooking and teaching younger people about cooking, let alone younger people not originally from Italy. I feel like food is a staple in learning new things about new cultures and I look forward to taking more cooking/ baking classes everywhere I go and bring home new recipes to share with my friends and family!