Learning to Make Pasta from a Nonna in Bologna
Flour on every surface, a rolling pin older than me, and the slow truth that good tortellini cannot be rushed.
Nonna Teresa does not measure anything, which is the first and most upsetting thing you learn in her kitchen.
Flour, eggs, a well on the board, and then your hands — that is the entire equipment list, plus a rolling pin she has used for fifty years.
The feel of the dough
Everything is done by feel. Too dry, keep working; too wet, a little more flour. The dough tells you, she says, if you bother to listen.
A few things I learned, in no particular order:
- Use your hands, not a machine, at least once.
- Rest the dough properly; impatience shows in the final bite.
- Keep the offcuts. Nothing here is wasted.
You do not learn a recipe in this kitchen. You learn a pair of hands, and then you practise for years.
I make worse tortellini than she does, and probably always will, but I make them now — which feels like the whole gift.