Got Garganelli?

“Come to the desert and visit us” Palma said. She actually said that months ago back in December when we met for the first time and bonded over lunch together. One thing led to another and now it’s the end of July and we’ve finally have found a weekend when we’re both available. Okay, now not only is it the middle of summer, but it’s 115 degrees in the desert. I’m the type who is having the best summer because it’s been cool, cloudy and in the low 70’s here at the beach.

“We’ll talk about Italy and food and eat and would you like to learn to make garganelli?”. The magic words-Italy food and making pasta together-I’m in, regardless of the temperature. It was a great getaway where I was pampered by my hosts, ate fabulous food, and spent hours chatting all about everything Italian. The highlight of my visit was Palma’s mini class on making “garganelli”-a pasta specialty of Bologna. Palma took a class during her recent stay in Bologna and brought home the required equipment (pictured above) for hand rolling this pasta shape. Her husband whipped up a batch of dough for us and we got to work rolling out the small squares.

The dough is wrapped around a small dowel and it should easily slide off. My first few were too sticky, but I eventually got the hang of it and we rolled up a whole batch-probably close to a pound. Palma made a wonderful simple sauce of onions, white wine, Italian sausage and cream and the garganelli were delicious. This happens to be one of my favorite pasta shapes and I’m thrilled that I now know how it’s made. All I need is that little tool, which unfortunately is not available here in the US. Looks like I’ll need a trip to Bologna!