Pasta Making in Bologna

When I first got to Bologna I knew that I wanted to learn how to make fresh pasta and a traditional red sauce. Part of my love for Bologna comes from its beautiful dishes such as tortellini, lasagna, and tagliatelle. Bologna is part of the Emilia-Romanga region which is the best (in my opinion) cuisine in Italy. Other cities like Modena and Parma serve up the same traditional style and host world famous restaurants. 
I knew this task of making pasta was not something I should attempt on my own. After much research I found the Culinary Institute of Bologna or CIBO, it was here that I decided to enrolled in my first pasta making class. 

When I arrived to CIBO I was immediately greeted with a hot espresso shot, glass of my choice of wine and fresh panna cotta! It was love at first bite.. sip! 
Finding the right class for the right price was important to me, I wanted to be able to take this cooking experience with me where ever I go but not go broke in the process. Some schools run up to 500 euro a day. CIBO offers many classes that are all day, half day and an hour long to fit your price range. I chose an hour class for 60 euros focused on pasta making. 

We didn't waste anytime, I immediately started measuring flour for the four of us (class sizes at CIBO are 6 person max). Prior to my class the teacher had been making ragu bolognese or ragu sauce, but our class was focused on pasta. 

I had excellent one on one help from a professional, she insured that everyone's pasta was the precise thickness desired for tortelloni and tagliatelle. These were the two dishes we were making. 

Above is tortelloni, which is to my understanding is much larger than tortellini. It is usually filled with cheese and has a much milder taste. We cooked ours in a pan with herbs and butter to let our 3 cheese mixture be the star.  

My favorite dish was the tagliatelle with ragu alla Bolognese sauce. The taste of fresh pasta is out of this world! I never in a million years thought I'd be able to taste the difference....I was so wrong. 
We wrapped our night up with eating all of the amazing dishes we had prepared. CIBO made sure we had enough wine to last the rest of the night too. 

If you're interested in any of the recipes from my post you can check them out here or below! 

​Handmade Egg Pasta Dough
Ingredients for 3 servings:

• Whole eggs 3
• All-purpose flour 300g, 10.5oz (00 Flour is generally used in Italy)

1) Place the flour into a mound in the center of a countertop or large pasta board. Using 2 fingers make a well in the center of the flour.

2) Pour the eggs into the well and begin stirring with a fork, gradually incorporating all of the flour from the well.
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3) When the dough forms a ball and becomes too firm to stir, lightly flour your hands and being kneading–folding and pressing over and over again.
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4) After about 15 minutes you should have a smooth, soft and elastic dough. Make it into a ball and then wrap with film (clear food wrap) and let rest for 10-15 minutes.
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5) With your rolling pin, start rolling from the center to the borders, all around, pressing with energy at the beginning in order to flatten the dough. As you roll out the dough try to maintain a round shape.

6) Work fairly, quickly, until translucent (approximately 2mm, 1/16in).

Hope you enjoyed! 

xx, Abby