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| The Masterpiece. |
I've started making my own fresh pasta at home since a couple of years ago. Results have been mixed. They are decent most of the time, but I've never achieved the kind of consistency I wanted. Having experienced
Sloane's masterclass a few months ago at Jamie's Italian, I jumped at the opportunity to attend their new pasta masterclass, expecting a session with professional guidance and proper hands-on practice.
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| A short chat with head chef Alex Barman before class commenced. |
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| Masterclass set-up, covering all ground to ensure a seamless hands-on experience for participants. |
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| Ready to go! |
Staying true to what Jamie Oliver and Gennaro Contaldo have preached over the years on Food Tube, the standard recipe for fresh pasta is 100g of flour to 1 egg, but as the eggs at Jamie's Italian (free-range from Sirin Farm) were huge, we were asked to use 3 eggs to 400g of flour and balance it off with a splash of water (this will make nearly 600g of pasta, good for 5-6 servings).
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| First, make a well in 400g of flour and crack in 3 large eggs, which was sufficient for my case. |
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| Use a fork to gently work the eggs and flour together. When you get something like this, it's time to use your hands. |
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| Working the dough, adjusting with more water/flour along the way if necessary. |
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| The perfect dough is supposed to be smooth and do not stick to your hands. Mine wasn't great. |
While the dough rested (usually for at least half an hour), we were shown the different ways to turn the dough into pasta. I especially appreciated the presence of both sous-chef Gone, and head-chef Alex, which ensured information was communicated effectively in both English and Thai.
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| Sous-chef Gone. |
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| Alex showing his stuff. |
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| And soon we were back to work. Start with the thickest setting on the pasta machine. It is recommended to fold the dough a few times and run it through the same thick setting to ensure a smooth silky pasta. |
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| This is what 100g of dough can give you. |
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| Once desired smoothness/thinness are achieved, cut the dough into reasonable lengths before making the pasta! |
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| Carefully removing my freshly-cut pasta. |
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| Coiling the finished product like a smart aleck. |
What I appreciate most about the Jamie's Italian masterclasses I attended, was that they were proper hands-on sessions and not merely observations. In both occasions, we were required to do every single step personally from scratch. Equipment and ingredients were meticulously prepared as well, ensuring no time was wasted looking for missing stuff in the process. I went home both times equipped with a useful new skill to take my home-cooking to a new level.
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| Pasta master Eddie. |
After all the hard work, there was only 1 thing left to do....
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| Dig in! |
Credits: All pictures in this blogpost were taken by my wife, 'cept for the last one.
