Bologna Cooking Class

"Our bologna cooking class started with a slow walk through the Quadrilatero, where the teacher picked out eggs and a wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano before we ever touched a rolling pin. Stretching the sfoglia by hand takes more shoulder than I expected, and the kitchen stayed warm even with the shutters thrown open. We ate the tagliatelle at a long table with a glass of Sangiovese."

"Our sfoglina had been making egg pasta for thirty years and corrected my grip about nine times without ever losing patience. Closing tortellini one by one was the part that stuck with me. The ragù had been simmering since morning and the whole apartment smelled of soffritto."

"I booked a corso di cucina bolognese expecting a demonstration and instead spent the morning with dough under my fingernails. Late spring light came through the window over the marble counter and made the flour look like drifting snow. Everything we made we ate, and there was more than any of us could finish."

"The space was tight for eight people and I ended up rolling my sheet at the very corner of the table. That said, the teacher moved between us constantly and nobody was left guessing. Our bologna cooking class ended with tortelloni in butter and sage that I have tried and failed to recreate twice at home."

"It rained the whole morning so the market stop was brisk, then we went straight up to the kitchen above the portico. Comparing notes afterwards, my partner and I agreed the mattarella technique was the real takeaway from the bologna cooking class. Lambrusco poured at eleven in the morning felt entirely correct in Emilia-Romagna."

"We had eaten ragù alla bolognese all week and none of it explained the dish the way two hours at a floured table did. Our host talked about why the sauce takes milk while we chopped the soffritto. Walking back toward Piazza Maggiore afterwards, the whole city smelled different to me."

"I compared several bologna cooking class tours before booking and picked the one that included the market, which I would do again. The eggs were deep orange and the dough came together faster than any pasta I have made at home. My hands ached the next day in a good way."

"We picked up bologna cooking class tickets only a few days ahead and got the last two spots at the table. The room was hot in late August and the fan did little, but the open shutters and a cold glass of Pignoletto made it manageable. Our teacher showed us how to hold the sfoglia up to the window until you could see your hand through it."

"A neighbour in our building recommended this bologna cooking class tour and it was the most useful thing we did in Emilia-Romagna. The group was mixed and a couple of people had never rolled dough, which slowed things slightly, though nobody seemed to mind. We left with a handwritten recipe card and mortadella crumbs down our shirts."

"Two ingredients and a wooden board, and somehow it becomes tagliatelle, which is really the whole lesson. Our sfoglina wrapped the offcuts in a cloth and sent them home with us. I still think about the smell of that kitchen on a cold March morning."