Kids and Pasta Making - A Fun Culinary Activity
When you’re a grandmother who lives in Italy, and who visits your grandkids over the summer, you definitely need a plan to spend time doing some special activities together. It’s even better if the activities have an Italian theme. And since everyone in my family loves pasta, making pasta fatto a mano (handmade) together can be the perfect project. Inspired by the fun possibilities, I recently gathered my 3 youngest grandkids, ages 9, 10, and 12, for a morning of pasta making.
Kneading the dough is work and these three were up to the task!
To make this activity even more fun, rather than making one big batch of pasta, each of the kids made their own small batch. It takes a bit longer to do individual portions and it’s a hands on, somewhat messy process - but that makes it even more fun !
Leah did a great job of kneading her dough, and judging when a bit of water was needed to keep the dough from being too dry (a definite hazard of pasta making in arid New Mexico).
We started with good ingredients - half imported 00 flour and half semolina (2 heaping soup spoons of each, making somewhere between a 1/2 and 3/4 cup total). Working on cutting boards, each of the kids made a well in the center of their flour and added one egg, a teaspoon of olive oil, and a pinch of salt. A bit of water was added when it felt too dry. They used forks to break the egg yolk and begin mixing it in, but then switched to using their hands to incorporate the egg and oil into the flour. A license to get your hands in the dough is always a treat! With the dough formed and kneaded until smooth, it was covered in plastic wrap to rest. Each ball of dough was marked with a name so they would know which ball of dough was the one they’d made! This is an important point when working with kids - they take great pride in following their batch of dough from creation to finished pasta.
After letting the dough rest for 30 minutes, during which time they played a board game and I cleaned the kitchen, it was time to break out the pasta machine and get rolling. Jack, the youngest, set up the machine and went first. He rolled his batch of dough to a smooth, thin sheet starting with the widest roller setting and then using progressively thinner settings.
Jack took pasta making very seriously.
Next, he put it through the rollers to cut it into fettuccine. He was quite proud of his accomplishment - perfect fettuccine!
Team work!
The girls went next, working as a team to roll and cut their pasta dough. They were serious about the work but there was still plenty of giggling involved. The cut pasta was sprinkled with flour and set aside on a tray until lunch time.
Next step was making a sauce to go with the pasta. My granddaughters had a special request - Alfredo Sauce. We used the Marcella Hazan recipe (from her Classic Italian Cookbook). This is a simple sauce made with cream, butter, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. The girls measured all the ingredients and cooked the sauce with minimal help from me. Then the pasta, which cooked in just a few minutes, was tossed in the sauce and the cheese. It was served with some extra cheese to sprinkle on top.
The results were wonderful. The pasta was tender and the Alfredo sauce was rich but not too heavy (in true Italian style the pasta was lightly coated but not swimming in sauce). Paired with a simple plate of ripe tomatoes dressed with olive oil, salt, and pepper it made a perfect lunch. The kids learned a new skill, had a tasty meal, and everyone had fun.
I’m thankful that I learned how to make these individual pasta portions several years ago in a cooking class at Lucca Italian School. What a perfect activity to do with kids! It’s something I will look forward to doing with them again on my next visit.
