• 

• 

It’s Italian recipe week!!! Since travel plans this year have essentially been #canceled, I wanted to share some of our pictures from last year’s travels and part of that was a pasta class we signed up for on Airbnb Experiences!

Our chef/instructor Giuseppe had a beautiful home outside of Rome near the Appian Way, and he welcomed a group of us and taught us how to make pasta like fettuccine and gnocchi, and REAL Italian pizza. Below are a few pictures from that class!

• 

• 

• 

I enjoyed the class so much, I wanted to try some pasta recipes at home! Pinterest is a great source of inspiration, so I wanted to try these recipes for spinach fettuccine and a beet ravioli pasta mix from scratch.

Disclaimer: I did NOT use a pasta maker/ravioli maker, so it is possible to make these without those tools, BUT having made pasta with a machine before, I will say it’s MUCH easier with a pasta maker or ravioli cutters. I used a rolling pin and my forearms were BURNING. 

Preparation:

The base ingredients for each type of pasta are very similar: Flour and eggs. From there, I blended fresh spinach leaves from our garden in a food processor and added it in to the fettuccine mixture, and I pureed some cooked beets to get the beautiful pink coloring in the beet ravioli pasta.

• 

• 

Fettuccine:

Once you mix the dough thoroughly and let it sit, you can roll it out with a rolling pin or a pasta machine (recommended) so you can get long, thin strips of fettuccine. If you’re using a rolling pin, you can put flour on the top, roll the dough up and cut into strips.

• 

• 

• 

• 

After cutting the noodles, I sprinkled flour on them as needed and put them in boiling water for 4-6 minutes. Mine were a little too thick, so they admittedly didn’t cook so well, so if you use a rolling pin like I did, make sure your noodles are very thin!

• 

• 

• 

After boiling, I tossed them in olive oil with some almonds and topped with tomato, mozzarella cheese, and chopped basil.

Beet ravioli:

These turned out SO much better, and I think it’s partially due to the fact that the pureed beets added some much-needed moisture to the dough.

• 

• 

• 

For the ravioli filling, I mixed some ricotta cheese, fresh oregano, lemon pepper, salt, parmesan and lemon zest in a bowl and put small (1 1/2 tsp.) sized scoops on the dough, then folded it over and cut out a square shape, pressing the sides closed.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Next time, I will definitely use a pasta machine and ravioli cutters, because the flavor was amazing but I think they would have been much prettier and consistent if I had.

• 

• 

• 

• 

I boiled the raviolis for 3-5 minutes, until the pasta cooked, and tossed them with olive oil like the fettuccine. The beet ravioli tasted AMAZING, and I enjoyed each pasta with a nice white wine.

• 

• 

• 

Takeaways: 

• Use a pasta maker and ravioli cutter for ease, consistency, and a more professional look
• Beet flavored pasta is really tasty
• Work the dough well or it will be tough when cooked
• Food tastes way better when you make it from scratch!

Next week I’ll be sharing ALLLLLL the Italy pictures from Venice, Burano, Verona, Cinque Terre, and Rome!

Never want to miss one of my weekly blog posts? Sign up below to have them delivered straight to your inbox