Yes, chef!
The Poosh team recently took a class together at IMPASTIAMO, an LA-based, female-founded company offering both online and in-person cooking classes. (NGL, that lesson turned a few of us into budding foodies.)
We were a bit intimidated to make pasta from scratch, but it was surprisingly easy, once we got the hang of it. The chef turned up the energy by making each meal a friendly competition, from kneading dough to grinding fresh pesto.
During the class, we learned a few tips we just had to share.
You can find them below, along with one of the recipes we made—Cavatelli Arrabbiata, a short, shell-shaped pasta with a spicy sauce.
Top pasta tips:
- “Salt the water like it’s the ocean.” There’s no salt in pasta dough, so salting the cooking water is super important.
- After taking the pasta out of the water, don’t add olive oil to it before the sauce. If you add any kind of oil or don’t strain the pasta well before adding your sauce, the sauce will just slide right off. You want it dry, so the sauce sticks to the pasta.
- The pasta shape matters. The entire purpose of different pasta shapes is to catch the sauce for the perfect balance of sauce per bite.
Cavatelli Arrabbiata
Recipe Type:Lunch, Dinner
Dietary Info:Vegan
Serving Size:2-3
Prep Time:40 mins
Cook Time:20 mins
Total Time:1 hour
Ingredients:
Cavatelli pasta:
2 cups (250 g) semola rimacinata flour
1/2 cup (120 ml) lukewarm water
Arrabbiata sauce:
2 ounces (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, whole or finely minced
1 teaspoon chili flakes or fresh chili pepper
9 ounces (255 g) whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand
salt to taste
Chef’s tip: For best results, IMPASTIAMO highly recommends using a kitchen scale and following the metric measurements when possible.
Instructions:
Pasta dough:
1. Stir flour in a large bowl, and make a well in the center.
2. Pour water into the well, a little at a time, three times, mixing it with the flour until it becomes a shaggy mass of dough.
3.Knead the dough with your hands by flattening the ball, stretching it, and folding the top towards the center.
4. Continue kneading for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and bounces back when poked.
5. Shape the dough into a ball, and place it in a bowl covered with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen cloth. Let rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before using and up to two hours. For a longer rest, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside in the refrigerator.
6. Work with one portion of the dough at a time, keeping the remaining dough covered to keep it from drying out. Roll out the dough to make a rope, about 1/3-inch thick.
7. Cut off small, 1/3-inch-thick pieces. Press and gently drag the small piece of dough towards you with your index or first finger. The two sides will curl inwards, leaving hollow spaces.
8. Proceed the same way with the rest of the dough. Transfer cavatelli to a floured surface and sprinkle with more semolina flour. Do not overlap the cavatelli, or they will stick together.
Arrabiata sauce:
1. Place a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add the olive oil and garlic, and saute until fragrant and golden, about one minute.
3. Stir in the chili flakes.
4. Add the crushed tomatoes, and season with a pinch of salt.
5. Cover the saucepan, and let the sauce cook for 15 minutes.
6. Salt to taste, and then set aside.
Assembly:
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
3. Add the cavatelli, and cook for four to six minutes, checking one to make sure they are fully cooked before straining.
3. Strain pasta, and mix with the arrabbiata sauce.
4. Transfer to a serving dish or bowl, and top with any fresh herbs you may have at home.
Chef’s tip: Add grated Parmigiano Reggiano on top for extra delicious flavor.
At the end, we got to sit down and enjoy the results of our hard work—a most delicious meal of fresh pastas and sauces. So satisfying!
IMPASTIAMO founder Silvia Carluccio was born in Busto Arsizio, Italy. She moved to Los Angeles in 2011 and soon began working at Live Nation Entertainment organizing concerts. In the spring of 2020 she started IMPASTIAMO—combining her love of music and her love of food—with the goal of helping the struggling food industry. Since then, they have hosted over 450 online and in-person cooking classes with chefs from all around the world (like Italy, Costa Rica, Spain, and India) and supported over 30 small businesses, including restaurants, private chefs, and nonprofits.
Book online or in-person classes here.
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