Pasta Puffet with Antacids.

I recently hosted a cooking class in my home entitled "Pasta Puffet".  The class advertisement being:  learn the technique of serving perfect pasta "al dente".  Build sauces from simple to extravagant, using your own creativity.  There were 12 students, and upon arriving, I told them to wash their hands thoroughly, put on one of my many aprons, and get ready to put together an array of pasta sauces.  I put them in groups of four, in order to give everyone a chance to participate. We started with the Pasta with fresh Basil and Tomatoes,  and while some were chopping up the fresh basil, another group was peeling and dicing up the fresh garlic.  We used the vine-ripe tomatoes, and that group was dipping the tomatoes in boiling water, peeling and coring.  This dish goes so fast, that the group over boiling the pasta wanted me to come quick and check "al dente".  They knew everyone was in trouble if they overcooked the pasta.  The one thing I'm emphatic about is boiling the pasta to "al dente".  I told them all right off, "don't boil the pasta to death", or I'll have to kill you.  It is the one thing that will totally kill your dish!.  I emphasize this in my book and since this dish called for angel hair, I knew 3-4 minutes was the limit.  So everyone was buzzing around, while the large pasta bowl was ready with the basil, tomatoes, garlic and extra virgin olive oil. Using a spaghetti spoon, I had them lift the pasta right out of the boiling water and into the bowl.  That way we saved the pasta water to moisten the dish.  We then covered the dish with freshly grated cheese and freshly ground black pepper.  Since this dish must be eaten immediately for the best flavor, they all dug in and had a bowl.  I cautioned them to just sample, since we had five more dishes to prepare.  They all assured me this was the "best" and the complete pound of pasta and sauce vanished. As the evening went on we made Alfredo sauces:  plain, Fettuccine Alfredo,with chicken and spinach, ( Pasta Florentine) with broccoli and mushrooms(Pasta Con Broccoli ), etc. Of course we stop after each dish to "sample".  Next, the red sauces:  Marinara over Stuffed Jumbo Shells, and a Light Red Meat Sauce over linguine.  Mid way through this, one of the young students, who was soon to be married,and so enjoying the class, says "Can we make a dessert"?.  I stopped amid all the buzzing around and said,  "well, I guess so".  So I quickly got the Pineapple Upsidedown Cake going, since I knew we could at least put this together in about 10 minutes.  Because so much was packed into this one session, I could see the class going on forever.  I said, "well girls, maybe we should cut down on some of these dishes".  "Oh, no", they replied", "we can stay late since this is the night class".  This of course was okay with me, and since they were content to cook and eat, cook and eat, and cook and eat, who was I to stop the fun.?  The class started at 5:30pm  It was now 9:00pm, and someone was making coffee for their freshly out-of-the-oven dessert.  Reflecting back on the last 31/2 hours, they consumed 6 pasta dishes and now they were on the dessert.  I could just visualize my name in a class-action law suit for exploding abdomens at Rosalie's Cooking Class.  I guess the one thing that might save me was the fact they paid for it.  But, at $30 a student, and me paying for the ingredients, I can tell you right up, this one was definitely a loss.  Something tells me, I'd better revise my fee.  All in fun, what a memory!

 

Arriverderci mia amicos

Goodbye for now.