May 2013
gourmet today
17
On a recent trip to Bologna Italy, together with my husband John and sister-in-law Diana we attended a cooking lesson at La Vecchia Scuola Bolognese cooking school owned and run by Alessandra Spisni of La Prova del Cuoco fame on Rai TV. On arrival, we were given an apron and cap, and were introduced to our teacher for the day. He explained that we were going to learn how to make La Sfoglia – the pasta dough, which in turn we would then make into tortellini - to be stuffed with a meat filling, and served in a meat broth (brodo) and tortelloni that is bigger ‘parcels’ to be stuffed with ricotta, cheese, egg and parsley. Here are the recipes we learnt, and although quite time consuming, the difference between shop-bought and homemade is worth the effort.
D
photography by ray attard
Homemade tortellini