One of the activities I was most looking forward to this trip was a private cooking class in a local chef’s home. It did not disappoint! We took the bus a few miles outside of the center of town to a neighborhood of spacious and elegant historic apartments. We were welcomed into Roberta Guercini’s home and led to her incredibly well equipped but rustic kitchen. The dining table was set with homemade appetizers to nibble after we got started cooking.

Before leaving for Italy Jake and I had read an article in Milk Street about authentic tiramisu. Treviso, claimed to be the birthplace of tiramisu is just a 45 minute train ride from Venice – so close that we considered taking a few hours to venture there and taste it. We ultimately decided against it since we only have 24 hours in Venice, but were both intrigued by Milk Street’s description of the authentic recipe and how it differs from the American version. Instead of a custard, authentic tiramisu is made from raw eggs, separated and the white beaten, only a little sugar, and mascarpone cheese. It’s chilled in individual servings on top of a ladyfinger broken and dipped briefly in chilled brewed coffee. We started our cooking class by prepping the tiramisu so it could chill while we made the main course. I was so excited when I discovered that the preparation followed the recipe we’d read about to a tee. No need to venture outside of Venice!

After setting the tiramisu to chill, we got started with the fresh pasta dough. Nothing was measured by volume in the class – everything was weighed in grams. 100 grams of flour to 70 grams of egg (ideally the weight of 1 egg). We used a fork to slowly incorporate the flour into the egg and then moved to hand kneading and stretching. After working the dough for 15+ minutes we wrapped our dough balls in plastic to rest for 30 minutes. Time for the aperitif!

The table was elegantly set with cold Lambrusco wine, a mortadella mousse, savory panna cotta with caramelized onions, homemade tomato relish, and a little sandwich with bacon and rosemary. The kids impressively tried everything and we all agreed that the mortadella mousse was the best thing. It was served on little crostini with a drizzle of sweet balsamic vinegar.

We learned that tortellini is different than tortelloni. Tortellini is the small pasta shape you’re familiar with, but the filling is tradionally a mixture of several meats (including mortadella) and parmesan. The filling is somewhat dense but very flavorful. Tortelloni is the same shape, but larger and is traditionally filled with a lighter filling like spinach and cheese or pumpkin. For our class we were making spinach and cheese tortelloni. First we made our filling: spinach, ricotta and parmesan with a bit of nutmeg. After letting the dough rest for 30 minutes we began the rolling, cutting, filling and shaping process. The kids were absolute pros. None of our tortelloni opened up in the water and they were absolutely delicious. Roberta made a simple butter and sage sauce while the torelloni were cooking and then it was time to eat! Throughout dinner the kids joked about how they were going to build a giant hamster type water bottle with a spout. But instead of water it would dispense these tortelloni. They were fans.