So as many of you know I was born with a piece of pizza crust in my mouth. I literally cut my first tooth on a crust...forget ice rings, chew toys or the like, my family used pizza crust. Granted I was kind of a little late with the whole teething, walking and hair thing so when I was teething I was old enough to eat real food, but that is a story for a different time.

Spaghetti and Clam Sauce

Anyway on Monday night when I discovered the topic of culinary school was pizza and pasta, I was pretty darn happy. I have to say I didn't learn a whole lot about making pizza and pasta dough, just because my family has been making dough for a long time. And it would be sacrilegious if I used a recipe other than the one I was raised on, however I was excited to learn how to shape and cut pasta.

As many of you know I tried to make raviolis several years ago and I had a bit of a challenge in the whole size thing. For some reason my raviolis grew in size while they cooked, growing to plate sized, and I am not talking about a cute little appetizer sized plate, I am talking dinner plate. So I was pretty excited when my raviolis on Monday night, actually looked like...well raviolis. I did learn that it is very important to get rid of the air in raviolis so they don't explode and bloat. I also learned that when making raviolis, water is your best friend, as it acts as glue and helps to seal in the filling.


These raviolis had a pumpkin filling, which was absolutely incredible! It had a cream sauce, that was just down right decadent!


I think we were all seriously in a carb coma by the end of the night. We all had to make a personal pizza and take a try at shaping pasta dough. Do you think we had enough leftover food?



I was super excited about learning how to make homemade tortellini, but I do have to say that the time it takes to make any quantity of tortellini was a little daunting for me. To make tortellini, start with a round piece of dough, add a dollop of filling and fold over in a half circle. Fold the top of the circle down, kind of like an envelope and then wrap the tortellini around your finger...voila.

Spinach Tortellini

Pasta with Edible Flowers

On Saturday we are doing a field trip to a Japanese market, so I can't wait to see what I discover. Hope everyone is having an amazing week. I am out of town so I am not doing a lot of cooking so I am missing my kitchen. Cheers!