A Mouthful of Fabs: Alio Restaurant - Pasta Making Masterclass

Pasta making is something that i've never attempted mainly because i dont own a pasta machine and partly because of the time involved. We purchased the Scoopon voucher to attend a pasta masterclass at Alio Restaurant Surry Hills, where hopefully i will be assured that pasta making isnt that labour intensive and daunting after all.

After signing the registration form, we were offered coffee before being ushered to the kitchen tucked behind.

Ashley has a great personality who cracked jokes and made everyone felt at ease. It was kept quite intimate and informal which was fabulous. It was also evident that Ashley and Tracey his sister had a fantastic relationship from the constant bantering and laughing.

Compared to my impression of a commercial kitchen where there's constant yelling and frantic running, Alio's kitchen was surprisingly harmonious. Ashley spoke so softly to his staff that i wonder what it would take to tick him off.

We were shown how to make a versatile bread dough for focaccia and pizza base.

I learnt that there are 600 odd types of pastas. A slightly different width/length of pasta were given a different name, and even then there may be name variations for the same type. Ashley demonstrated step by step how to make pasta dough and passed on some tips and tricks. We were shown how to make a selection of pastas from the simple linguine, fettucine and farfalle (bow ties) to ravioli and other stuffed pasta.

Key take home pointers:
- use strong flour in the pasta dough
- when rolling out the pasta with the machine, keep folding in half after each time and turn it so you get straight edges
- when making pasta with stuffing, ensure any air is squeezed out

Rotolo with spinach and fetta was on the menu for lunch and hence Ashley walked us through how to make the filling, rolling it and eventually serving it.