I asked a friend of mine, Desree Pierce, if she would teach the Social Club ladies to make some fun foodie dish. Desree was a contestant on Master Chef and she is a home cook who loves using fresh organic ingredients in her recipes. She is very passionate about cooking and everything that I have eaten that she has made, has been absolutely delicious. We met at the venue which was the quirky I love my laundry on Bree street and started throwing around ideas of what she could teach everyone to make. The challenge that we had was that we didn't have a big enough kitchen to accommodate 32 ladies, so we had to come up with something that didn't require too much cooking. In the end we decided that the best would be to make fresh pasta and pesto from scratch. Desree got her friend, Tim, to help her on the night. Tim Heather-Noon is at chef school, he's worked at 95 Keerom restaurant and has also had the honour to work with the Two Greedy Italians.
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| Des and Tim on the left demonstrating how to make the pasta |
When Colyn was done, I filled the ladies in on the background of Social Club, which I will share again with you in short: I started Social Club about a year and eight months ago and the group consisted of nine girls. We used to go to each others flats and the host would teach us a new skill. We had so much fun and I wanted to invite more ladies, but our flats were too small and that is when I realised that I had to grow the Social Club. Social Club is about sharing life experiences, inspiring each other, learning new skills and building new friendships.
I handed the stage over to Des and Tim who showed us how to make the pasta from scratch. After the demonstration, it was the ladies turn to try their hand at it.
Your dough has to be a certain consistency and Tim and Des had to go around to feel who's dough was ready and who had to carry on kneading. There were comments flying around, such as: "touch my dough", which had everyone in stitches. Prizes were given to the three ladies who's dough was ready first. Once your dough was ready, you had to wrap it and write your name on it, then put it in the fridge.
Next up was pesto making! Des demonstrated how quick and easy it is to make your own pesto, then everyone divided into groups of three and made their own.
The homemade pesto just have so much flavour, you have to try and make it at home! It was time to roll out the pasta. Tim demonstrated how you can do it with a rolling pin and Desree showed us how to do it with a pasta machine. Everyone made tagliatelli to ensure consistency.
Then the pasta was boiled and the pesto was mixed in. Everyone ate in their own time when their pasta was ready.
This was such a fun night and I can't wait for the next one. Watch this space for details of the next Social Club. There are plenty more photos on our Facebook page which you can check out here. Thank you to Raymond from Mirra Photography for capturing all the beautiful moments. Thank you to I love my laundry for being our gracious hosts, for Des and Tim for teaching us our new skill, to Colyn for sharing his beautiful wines and to all the gorgeous ladies for gracing us with their presence. The night would not have been a success if it wasn't for all of you.
Read about the first time we made pasta from scratch, Ricotta Ravioli.
Here's the pasta and pesto recipes:
Pasta:
Ingredients:
•100 g (3/4 of a cup) of flour per person. The best flour to use is durum wheat flour, but plain (all-purpose flour) works fine too. Which is what we using tonight (all purpose flour)
•1 egg per 100 g of flour. i.e. for 4 people, use 400 g (3 cups) of flour and 4 eggs. I prefer to use Xlarge eggs as its easier to add more flour than more egg.
Method:
Make a mound with the flour and make a large well in it (big enough for the eggs). Break the eggs into this well. Add a pinch of salt if you wish.
•Work the eggs and the flour together with a fork, adding the flour from just around the eggs little by little, until you have a smooth dough, adding just a drop of water if necessary, and no more. You can add a small amount of flour if the mixture is too sticky.
•As soon as you can (when the mixture is no longer sticky), use your hands.
•Knead the dough for ten to fifteen minutes, until it is smooth, firm, and quite elastic. Don’t skimp on the kneading or the dough will tear while you’re rolling it out. Leave to rest for 15-30 minutes.
•Divide the dough into two balls. With a rolling pin, roll the ball of dough out into a strip.
•Pass this dough through the rollers of the manual pasta machine until it reaches the proper thinness (usually the last but one setting). IMPORTANT: between using numbers on the machine, allow the dough to rest for a minute or two on dish towels.
•Once you have the desired thickness, allow the dough to rest once more (dusting with a little flour if it seems at all sticky) for 15-30 minutes, before you cut it using the machine cutters.
•Dust the cut pasta with flour (if it seems wet) and allow to dry on dish towels for 1-2 hours, making sure the strands are well separated and not stuck together.
•Cook for 3-5 minutes in plenty of boiling water. Salt the water once it has come to the boil. Keep tasting until you taste a texture which is a little harder than the desired one (the pasta will keep cooking while you are dressing it).
•Drain, keeping some of the cooking water aside. Dress the pasta with your sauce, mixing well and adding some cooking water little by little to help amalgamate it with the sauce. Serve immediately!
Pesto:
Prep time: 10 mins | Total time: 10 mins | Servings: 6
Ingredients:
•1 cup good olive oil
•2 big bunches of fresh basil
•A handful of lightly toasted pine nuts (100 g) (or walnuts or almonds if you can’t get pine nuts)
•1 clove garlic,
•Salt and pepper to taste
•Splash (tsp) of lemon juice (optional)
•3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Place all ingredients in the blender and blend till fine, Always taste and season only once blended.
Easy!
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