Making pasta should be a fairly innocent activity, right? Well, if you’re like me and don’t do too well with large quantities of eggs maybe think about whether or not you should be making vegan pasta instead. The pasta tasted delicious, my stomach just didn’t agree with my mouth.

For those of you who don’t know, Hostelworld not only shows hostels to stay in but also activities you can partake in. This pasta making class was actually held at my hostel in Florence, Italy. We made two types of pasta: tagliatelle and ravioli.

The tagliatelle should be 1 portion and the ravioli should be 2. Don’t quote me on the final serving quantities because, at the end, all of our prep work got mixed together. There were definitely leftovers for the ravioli though (box fulls). It’s better to make too much than too little, right? You can always have leftovers later.

Ravioli 1

• 180g Flour
• 20g Semolina Flour
• 2 Eggs
• + whatever you use for your filling (ours had more egg in… Hence my tum tum not saying yum yum)
• + whatever sauce you use (we used tomato).

Mix the first three ingredients together in a bowl using a fork. It’s going to look really crumby but that’s okay. Empty the contents of the bowl out onto a board and knead it it all together until it is malleable.

Set this aside, covered in cling film, and start working on your tagliatelle. If you aren’t working on another pasta then the ravioli pasta ball should be left for approximately 40 minutes.

Tagliatelle

• 100g Semolina Flour
• 1 Egg
• + whatever sauce you use (we used green pesto)

Mix your first two ingredients in a bowl, using a fork, then empty the contents out onto a board and knead it together until it is malleable.

Once you have the correct consistency, use a rolling pin to flatten it into a rectangular sheet, approximately 1mm thick.

Lightly fold the sheet over and over, about a hand’s breadth thick. Do NOT squish the sheet into itself. Cut the folded sheet into sections which are the width of a finger. Unfold the lengths of pasta and lightly coat them in flour before gathering them into a pasta nest.

Leave for a little while (AKA the time it takes you to do the below to the ravioli) and then boil it for approximately 5 minutes.

Add your pesto, pour yourself a glass of wine, and voila!

Ravioli 2

Slice your ravioli pasta ball into two.

Using a rolling pin, roll one of the halves into a rectangular sheet about 0.7mm thick (this is virtually impossible by hand so 1mm or slightly less is okay).

Then, roll the other half into the same shape as the one that you created above (if you ended up with a weird shape then try to replicate that weird shape).

Compress small spoonfuls of your filling into balls and place them approximately 2cm in from the edge of a sheet and away from each other.

Repeat until the sheet is full. Then place your second sheet on top.

Along the edge, and in the gaps between the filling balls, push the sheet down so that both sheets meet. Then, use a fancy curly cutting thingy (definitely the technical term) to cut your ravioli sections.

Now it’s time to give some attention to each little ravioli ‘square’ by taking it away from the others, tidying it up, and sealing up the edges using a fork.

These should be ready after about 3-5 minutes of boiling in a pan. One serving is about 5 squares. Believe me, they are a lot more filling than they look! Add some sauce for some extra flavour.

Here ends my awful instruction on how to make pasta. It’s worth trying at least once. Your taste buds might even be more satisfied after your workout as well! If you have concerns about egg then a common replacement is vegetable oil so don’t worry, this can also be made vegan!

Slight update since I first drafted this, I think I ate too much pasta and that was what my stomach was complaining about.