This week, I’m traveling in Emilia Romagna, the region of Italy that is an eater’s delight of fresh pasta all’uovo (egg-based pasta) turned into tortelli, tortellini, tortelloni, cappelletti, anolini, cappellacci, lasagne, cannelloni, rosette, pappardelle, and tagliatelle. I’m currently enjoying one of these treats at every meal, except breakfast. Can I tell you how comfortingly delicious a bowl of freshly made tortellini in beef broth is? We forget (if we ever knew) what home-made stuffed pastas taste like after years of buying industrial brands. It might be from Italy, but it’s still industrial.
Over the past week, I’ve also made my own fresh pasta and turned it into rosetta, a rolled tube of pasta filled with bechamel, cheeses, and ham, then cut into one-inch pieces, arranged on their sides (so we can see the spiral) in a baking dish with more bechamel and parmesan and baked. I love dry pasta sauced with tomatoes as much as anyone, but this deep dive into eggy pasta in sheets and little shaped bundles of all kinds filled with cheeses, meats, and vegetables has been so special.
A woman in a restaurant in Italy rolls out fresh pasta. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.
I’m not simply speaking of fresh pasta in general, but “la sfoglia” in particular, the pliable thin sheet made of flour and eggs, kneaded and then rolled out and turned into innumerable stuffed treats or long flat noodles. La sfoglia is a home-based tradition developed by women trying to feed their families with meager resources. It’s endlessly interesting both to make and to eat.
Shapes like spaghetti, penne, or wagon wheels are made with a tougher dough of durum wheat flour and water that is extruded through a die into a shape in a factory setting. The flavor is more neutral and the texture is resilient.
Before we get into making it, let’s explore why it’s so alluring. First, we eat with our eyes, right? The egg yolk yellow color engages us. In texture, it’s the opposite of dry pasta, which is famously put through bronze dies to create a roughness that allows sauce to adhere and gives a toothsome mouth feel. Fresh pasta, particularly cut into noodle shapes like tagliatelle or fettuccine, are slippery and smooth. The whole experience of twirling the sauced noodles around your fork and taking the bite into your mouth is one of the great sensory pleasures of world eating. The texture has been described as silky, springy, dense, and the flavor as eggy, buttery and savory.
Making fresh pasta at home is actually pretty easy with practice. I recommend taking an in-person class and failing that, then looking to the internet for mentors. If you watch enough different people make fresh pasta, you actually get more comfortable to try it yourself since all these people arrive at the same result through many different roads albeit with certain similarities. Don’t try to make a complicated stuffed pasta your first time, and for goodness sake, don’t invite a bunch of people over for your test run unless they’re really good friends.
In LA, we have master sfoglino Evan Funke, so here’s a class from him. If you want a deep dive into older Italian women sharing their secrets, go to the Pasta Grannies’ YouTube channel and go nuts watching them. They’re charming and have the skill only a lifetime of making pasta can bring. And if you’re a nerd who needs the sciencey explanation and exploration of the process, here’s the Serious Eats version.
