A Perfect Pantry

If you want a hands on experience and the chance to develop your pasta making and flat bread skills the Hospitality Establishment  offers just that! What a perfect way to spend my Thursday night.  The evening started with a thorough discussion about the art of pasta dough making and from there the techniques of creating different types of pasta through simple folding techniques; ravioli and tortellini with the tip for creating tortellini by folding the pasta in a moon shape and wrapping it around your finger like a band aid and there you have the perfect tortellini shape (easier than it looks if I must say).  Along with the pasta making we created two amazing fillings Pumpkin and Ravioli filling and chicken and Mushroom tortellini filling the simplicity of this has made me want to cook this every night!

To complement our pasta and pasta fillings was the Creamy Pesto Sauce and Arrabiata sauce. The mixture of the flavours and sauces created a dish that was made to perfection created by the talented chefs from the Hospitality Establishment with a wealth of knowledge and industry experience. For desert we created a Chocolate Cannoli Filling the ingredients are so simple and this can be added into almost any desert dish as a filling or even to the side of the dish.

We made a quick simple pizza flatbread dough that took around 10 minutes to cook it was such a simple dough recipe that tasted like something you would find in a gourmet pizza restaurant.

Whether you are a pasta making expert or someone who has never made paste before (like myself) this class enabled me to learn the basic skills of pasta making and flat bread making and also gave me handy tips that I could take away from the course and make the dishes at home.  

Here are two recipes we’re sharing from the course, you may want to try:

Pasta Dough

Ingredients

• 200g flour
• 100g semolina
• 2 eggs, room temp
• pinch salt
• 100ml water
• 20 ml vegetable oil

Directions

1. Combine flour semolina, salt in a bowl.
2. Make well in the centre. Add eggs, water and oil.
3. Combine ingredients until dough is formed, knead dough for 5 - 10 minutes until smooth and a little stretchy.
4. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes before rolling through pasta machine.
5. When cooking pasta, use the largest pot you have so the pasta doesn’t stick together
6. Oil the pasta after draining so it doesn’t stick together 

Chicken & Mushroom Tortellini Filling

ingredients.

• 1 x 200g chicken breast, cooked
• 100g swiss mushrooms, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• ½ brown onion, diced
• 150g cream cheese (or ricotta)
• ¼ bunch thyme, chopped
• 1 tbs vegetable oil

Directions

1. Finely dice cooked chicken breast and place in a mixing bowl.
2. Heat a fry pan over medium heat, add oil and fry off onion for three minutes or until transparent. Add garlic and cook for another minute before adding mushrooms. Cook, stirring continually until the liquid has gone and then season with salt and pepper and add chopped thyme.
3. Remove from heat and set aside to cool before stirring in the cheese.

For more course details from the Hospitality Establishment, visit their website: www.hospitalityest.com.au