Learning the Art of Lasagna Emiliana

Mui, as the chef in our household, has been wanting to take cooking classes since arriving in Bologna in February. He wasn’t necessarily interested in the pasta-making classes that abound all around the city. Rather, he wanted to learn the kind of dishes one might make with vegetables and the like.

His search for the type of cooking class he wanted was to no avail, however. “You need to find a nonna to instruct you,” he was told. A nonna, of course, is a grandmother. He might have to borrow someone’s nonna at some point to learn what he wants to learn.

In the meantime, he gave in and went to a pasta-making class last night that also touched on the tips and tricks of making authentic ragù (Bolognese meat sauce made with 2/3 beef and 1/3 pork).

He enjoyed the small-group cooking experience. The two instructors taught the eight of them how to make spinach dough, roll it out so that it is paper thin, boil and prepare the dough to layer it with ragù, bechamel sauce, and cheese.

Although they started a ragù to learn the technique, the sauce takes hours and hours to simmer to perfection. Thus, they used the sauce started in yesterday’s class for their individual-sized lasagnas.

Of course, once the lasagnas were ready, they sat down to enjoy it at a group dinner … with extras such as individual servings of tagliere; natural, bottle-fermented sparkling white wine produced in the hills of Sasso Marconi, Bologna; and homemade gelato with their choice of toppings.

A fun experience! Now he needs to find time to put into practice what he has learned.Read more