BOLOGNA:PASTA MAKING

We could not visit Bologna and not take at least one cooking class and there was no question in my mind that it would be making pasta. We found a chef named Leonardo Iacono through the daughter of a friend who spent a semester in college abroad in Bologna and in her free time, he taught her how to make pasta. Leonardo and I first communicated through WhatsApp, and he acknowledged that he did not speak much English, but that turned out not to be a problem as he was able to clearly communicate what we needed to do through his demonstration and then our practice. In surgery, we talk about see one, do one, then teach one. I am now ready to the teach one after my afternoon with Leonardo.

We met for our class at 11 AM and got started first with a macchiato and then on to work. In Italy, work first begins with the first cup of coffee for the day which is a syrupy Turkish style coffee, but you can also have a latte or cappuccino, but by late morning it is considered uncivilized to have much milk in your coffee and never, never, never order a latte after dinner!!!

Leonardo is the real deal with a big personality that goes with a big smile and great joy in sharing his passion for pasta making. He had been a graphic designer until in the past and had printed up for us detailed instructions, but the real teaching came from learning how to incorporate the eggs into the flour to make our dough which eventually became the tagliatelle.

Lunch was our tagliatelle and a bolognese sauce that had been simmered for hours prior to our dining. We started with the usual chacuterie and it was accompanied by these very light fluffy and puffy breads called crescentines...just delicious!!!

We had so much fun doing this and I highly recommend Leonardo as your chef/teacher if you are in Bologna. This was the recipe we used to make our tagliatelle:

And as we were finishing our lunch together and talking about food (using Google Translate), I loved this remark below from Leonardo regarding food. I have always said "food is love". In addition, I am on the board of Mama's Kitchen in San Diego where we provide meals for people with medical conditions who require improved nutrtional intake, so we say there that "food is medicine". I think Leonardo sums it up well: