Join a pasta making class for a night out of fun and friendship in the Windy City.
getty
We fill our plates with small bites—examples of dishes from other cooking school classes, find our spots at a butcher block, and don our aprons. I look around the room full of socializing pairs and feel excited that I’m here with my teenage son for a fun night out at Tutore, an Italian-centric cooking school in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood.
Focus on Technique Over Recipes
“I don’t want you to focus on the recipes per say as much as the technique, so that when you go home, you’re comfortable and you know how to make a ball of pasta, sheet it out, and make ravioli,” says long-time Chicago chef, Dean Zanella (formerly at 312 Chicago, Rhapsody). “That way when fall comes around and you want to make squash ravioli you can make it.”
My son and I inspect the pasta maker, attached to the Kitchen Aid mixer; the burner; and other cooking and pasta making doodads and we introduce ourselves to the young couple across from us who are there for the first time as well.
“Your hands are going to get really dirty, so if you’re worried about your rings getting dirty, please take them off and put them in your purse or your pocket so they go home with you,” says Zanella. “Here’s how it’s going to work: everyone is going to make a ball of pasta; from there you’ll make a simple cherry tomato sauce.”
My son and I smile at each other when we discover that we’ll be making two different kinds of pasta as well as a tomato sauce from scratch. Then the chef will make a dish on his own and demonstrate the entire process from start to finish so we can learn at a quick pace.
“You’ll get three patas to eat,” says Zanella. “Gentlemen, this is not a challenge, we have to-go containers.”
Use Fresh Ingredients, Toss the Garlic
Then it’s time to start. There are chef’s helpers milling about, ready to answer questions or offer some assistance.
“We’re heating our pans up before we put oil into it; you never put oil into a cold pan; you always have a hot pan, then add oil, and when oil is hot, you put your food in,” says Zanella. “You’ll brown your garlic, throw out the whole garlic cloves, keeping the oil—that’s going to give you your flavor, and that’s your sauce.”
A few folks raise their eyebrows, questioning.
The chef goes on to say, “Outside of Sicily, I know no region in Italy where they put garlic in food. Garlic in Italian food is a very Italian American thing. If you go to Italy, they never put garlic in food. Don’t be mad at me for telling you this.”
The students follow instructions and chat with one another—it’s an animated and entertaining environment where people are working in buzzing twosomes.
“So, I see a couple of professional chefs and a couple of rookies,” says Zanella. “The professional chefs are the ones who brought their wine with them.”
Honor Grandmas in Italian Cooking
We make the dough, mixing eggs and flour with our hands, and shape it into a ball.
“Knead dough down with your knuckles,” says Zanella. “You can use your rolling pin, but I just use my knuckles because it’s nice and easy and you can do it quick with a little bit of work and this is how my grandmothers taught me.”
Chef Zanella grew up in an Italian family and honed his craft in the restaurant industry. He knows what he’s doing, and it shows. He moves through the space with an ease, an unforced grace, and there’s a casualness in his speech that not only connects and endears students to him, but also, to the simplicity of Italian cooking.
Indulge and Fill Your Belly
“Cacio e pepe is a new hot dish here in America,” says Zanella. “It’s been around Rome for well over a century. The main ingredients are the pasta, starchy water, pecorino romano, and black pepper. That’s it, there’s no salt added except for what’s in the water—don’t salt it like the ocean.”
We watch him as he stirs the pasta at a snail’s pace. “Go slowly whenever you’re melting cheese,” Zanella says. “Even if you’re doing a cheeseburger or a grilled cheese, pull your cheese slices out of the fridge a half hour before you use them so that it’s not cold in the center and your edges are overcooked.”
Pasta is served to the delight of everyone. My teenage son takes it on as his personal challenge to eat everything put in front of him. It’s a gut-busting feeling but worth it.
