Making Pasta at Home

Flour & Water

Since last summer, we have been writing a cookbook focused on dinner party themes that explore the great eating and drinking regions of Italy. If you are using our online cookbook, you will find recipes and regional introductions, and access to online cooking videos where Chef Sara Hauman demonstrates every step of each dish.

In the first of our two chapters on pasta, we highlighted the famous dishes of Sicily, Liguria, Campania, and Rome (Alla Norma, Trofie with Pesto, Spaghetti and Clams, and Cacio e Pepe). In the second chapter, we visited Puglia, went back to Rome, then up to Bologna, and jetted south down to Napoli (Orecchiette, Carbonara, Bolognese, and Lasagna).

Don’t forget the drinks

Cookbook author Jordan Mackay writes at the close of his intro to our second pasta chapter, “With these extraordinarily versatile pastas, it doesn’t matter what you drink, so long as it’s wine. White wines will pair beautifully …. Red wine works well across the board – something crisp, crunchy, and not too heavy.”

As with the cooking, the wine pairing should be casual, fun, and accessible. Sara reminds us that making pasta at home isn’t an ordeal. “Just give yourself a little time, take it slow, and don’t stress about it,” she says. “Pasta doesn’t want to be worked too hard.” And, we could add, it doesn’t want you to work too hard to enjoy it.