Pasta Making Class at Russet

One Monday each month, the farm-to-table restaurant Russet offers a full-blown pasta making class to thirty lucky guests. We were fortunate enough to attend last week’s class, where we tried our hand at preparing four rustic pastas.

But our evening was more than just instructional–it was an experience to remember. The class itself was followed by a 6-course dinner featuring the pasta we made and several other courses prepared by the kitchen. Needless to say, it was a delicious night.

After a brief introduction in Russet’s main dining area, Chef and co-owner Andrew Wood brought us back into the kitchen to show us how he makes his pasta dough on a daily basis.

We eagerly watched as he poured 1 kg of locally milled all-purpose flour with 25 egg yolks and 5 whole eggs into a mixer before hand-kneading the craggy dough until it became a shiny elastic ball. He was assisted by his adorable 7 year-old son, Gus, who continued to school us all with his impressive pasta-making skills for the rest of the evening.

After the dough was made, we were taken to a back room with a long table featuring various pasta-making utensils. At this point, Chef Andrew showed us how to roll out the dough using his pasta machine, hand-cranked with enthusiasm by his son.

He transformed the resulting wide sheets of dough into pappardelle, a very wide noodle, by cutting the sheets with a knife.  He showed us how to “fluff” the freshly made pasta to prevent the noodles from sticking together before they were ready to be cooked.

Chef Wood then set some dough sheets aside for his son to show us how to make garganelli, a penne-like pasta.  We made these by rolling a small square of dough around a small wooden pole on a ridged wooden block. Most people were hesitant to volunteer to make the pasta, but after all that listening, we were ready to get our hands dirty!

Andrew then demonstrated how to make ravioli, which we stuffed with a roasted squash and caramelized onion filling. Many a raviolo ended up on the ground due to some over-enthusiastic rolling (ahem… Chase!). We insisted that the ravioli would be perfectly safe after being boiled, but our more health-conscious classmates weren’t so sure.

After we finished rolling out our four types of pasta (pappardelle, garganelli, ravioli, and agnolotti del plin) we headed back to Russet’s warm dining room to await our meal.

The dishes were served family-style, and we were seated at a table with about 8 other people. We don’t like to share, so this caused us a little anxiety when the delicious pasta dishes were brought out. We envied the people who had made the smart decision of sitting at a two-person table.

The dinner began with a colorful salad of mixed greens, pickled onion, tart apple, crunchy toasted hazelnuts, and sweet roasted beets. We loved the salad’s mix of textures, colors and flavors, and wished there was enough for a second serving. But in retrospect it was probably good that there wasn’t, considering the mountain of food still waiting to be sent out from the kitchen.

Next came a platter of house-made charcuterie and mustard surrounded by a collection of pickled mushrooms and small rainbow carrots. The thickly sliced salami and rich strips of speck reminded us just how much thought is put into each dish at Russet.

Finally, the pasta emerged from the kitchen. You could practically hear everyone’s necks snap to attention as the servers strolled through the dining room carrying the fruits of our labor–steaming platters of pasta adorned with different sauces fresh out of the kitchen. As soon as the first pasta hit the table, you could feel the immediate tension as we tried to politely pass it around the table while resisting the urge to spoon huge heaps onto our plates.

First up was our homemade garganelli. Andrew topped our hand-rolled shells with a smoky tomato sauce studded with juicy scallops. We loved the hint of smoke, but the pasta could have been more al dente. Needless to say, this wasn’t at the front our our minds as we scraped our plates clean of sauce.

The second pasta was the agnolotti, which arrived in an intensely savory broth. They were plump, soft, and filled with a light meat filling.

Third to hit the table were the pappardelle. People got really excited for this one. The platter was piled high with our wide noodles that had been tossed with a melt-in-your-mouth beef ragu. It could have been the food finally getting to our brains, but we’re pretty sure this one disappeared in less than a minute.

The fourth pasta was our favorite of the night– ravioli stuffed with roasted squash and caramelized onions, bathed in a sauce of melted butter and sage, and topped with soft curls of nutty parmesan cheese. Each time we bit into a delicate raviolo, the sweet filling popped in our mouths as the pasta was breached. Fantastic.

Finally, it was time for dessert. The pastry chef, chef Kristin, is the co-owner and wife of chef Andrew, so we expected to dessert to be just as incredible as the meal. We were presented with a ring of apple crostata triangles surrounding a pile of freshly whipped cream. The crostata was fantastic, featuring a crisp buttery crust studded with sugar crystals and long-baked, nearly-dried apples with a caramelized chew. Despite all the courses that preceded it, we still found room for seconds.

Andrew and the rest of the staff at Russet made sure the night was not just a class, but also a delicious and relaxing way to spend a Monday evening. We walked away from the dinner stuffed, our heads full of new skills and appreciation for locally grown ingredients and our bellies full of pasta.

Russet is offering pasta-making classes on March 16, April 20, and May 18. Tickets are $85 per person and are available for online purchase here. Seats are limited–so reserve a pasta-filled evening for yourself while you still can!

-Elena Crouch and Chase Matecun

PC: Elena Crouch