this event took place on Saturday, November 1, 2014
We attended this event in 2013 with Kris and Kevin (K2) and had a blast, we had arrived right before the event was to begin and discovered a generous spread of charcuterie, cheeses, vegetables, and breads. So this year, we knew to get here a bit early – we had purchased six tickets for this event and were happy that Lisa & Andy and Lisa & Rick could join us.
Prepping the room for class, this is the same room where we had the Sake & Sushi class the night before
Along with the recipe booklet (another beautiful little takeaway), we all got aprons to wear during the demonstration. Unfortunately, I handed everyone aprons from the “below the waist” basket instead of the “full body” basket – that was soon corrected.
We really enjoyed the (non-pasta) food. We were able to get a table for four and we just pulled up two more chairs so we could all sit. The next day, Rick was still talking about how good the food was.
variety of salami and pickled vegetables
lovely soft cheeses and ham
more cheeses, grilled vegetables, pickled onions, rolls
I mainly stuck to the cured meats, pickles, breads and preserves
I had never heard of Hen of the Woods Mushrooms, these were delicious and I went back for more
In addition to the food, there were three wines: a cabernet sauvignon (I had a glass and it was quite good, I think this was Lisa & Andy’s favorite), the Paul Hobbs Crossroads Pinot Noir (that was our favorite), and a white wine (I don’t have the details, Lisa drank this while Rick drank water).
watching Chef Cib work (this is another of the instructors, waiting for his instructions)… notice the electric pasta sheeting machine, that’s going to come in very handy very soon
Chef Cib says that since he’s ex-miliatry, he likes to keep on time (and that’s a good attribute for a chef too). So, the pasta making soon started. About 15 of the guests, I’d guess there were about 40 guests at the event, went over to the gnocchi table. Our group basically stood up, turned around, and we were at the long pasta table.
Chef Cib, that’s Lisa in the foreground – it was really difficult to get good photos and I didn’t even attempt to make notes
I was a bit concerned that Lisa and Andy would be a bit bored by this part of the event – they’ve done lots of pasta making demos on cruise ships and Lisa already makes her own pasta (she’s Italian) – however, they had a really good time and learned a lot.
Kneading the dough, this is the most important step because you want to get it smooth and elastic – meaning that the glutens are doing what they should be doing
One thing I learned, after kneading the dough enough to get all the wet incorporated into the dry, Chef Cib lifted the ball of dough and scraped away all of the flour and nubby bits – leaving those on the table while he continues to knead the dough will leave hard bits in the final product. So, fresh flour and we’re back to kneading.
more kneading, told you this was important
There was a lot of touching the dough at various stages of the kneading process so that we could understand what the feel is. Rick was a bit put off by everybody touching the dough, I assured him that nobody would be eating this particular batch of pasta dough.
Chef Cib took a pre-done and already rested batch of pasta dough and cut off a good sized hunk, time to start using the pasta machine
sheeting the pasta
One lump of dough went through the pasta machine a lot of times (like 15 or so, changing the thickness every 2 or 3 turns) while another lump of dough was sheeted in only about 5 runs through the pasta machine… more touching to feel the difference and looking at it to see the difference in color. I think that the first sheet of pasta was smoother and paler in color.
Chef Cib demonstrated how to make angliotti – little bitty pope hats stuffed with white bean filling
here, Chef is showing us how to make ravioli with the same filling
I was really taken by the circular cutters that Chef was using (Matfer Exoglass, in the photo below), I went on amazon prime right then and there and ordered myself a set. Dishwasher safe, they never get dull, they don’t dent or get misshapen like metal dough cutters… they’re just cool.
more pasta being sheeted and Lisa is making Angilotti
the filling has been piped on, next step is to pull the pasta over the filling
Lisa with her tray of angliotti, next up, cooking and eating them
Lisa’s angliotti with mushroom sauce, more mushrooms and peas – very tasty!
ravioli with a wonderful Bolognese sauce
gnocchi with mushrooms and mushroom sauce – no one at our table tried the marinara sauce
Our pastas were very good. After the class ended, we said good-bye to Rick and Lisa (they were heading out to explore the resort area). Chef Cib implored everyone to stay and eat and drink if we wanted to. We hung around for a little while and Chef Cib was more than happy to show Lisa some of the fine points of his grandma’s gnocchi.
Chef Cib making his granma’s gnocchi
We had a blast at this event again this year. It started a bit earlier this year, and that’s a very good thing. The food was amazing, the instructors were engaging and pleasant. The wine was just as good as we remembered from last year. No need to eat anything else after this one either.
This is definitely something that Nick and I want to do again… Lisa and Andy enjoyed it so much, that they wouldn’t mind coming again and again.
Thank you to Chef Cib, his whole team of chefs and servers. This was really amazing.
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