Last weekend, I skipped my front row center seat to see Chris Isaak in concert to make pasta at a friend’s home. While I’m crazy about the unique and sometimes haunting quality of Isaak’s voice—I saw him ages ago when he opened for Tina Turner… WOW to both of them!—the chance to spend time with my friend and meet new people won out, hands down. During the five years I spent writing and editing my book, MAYA BLUE, securing a literary agent and a publisher, followed by the book launch, I’ve become somewhat of a hermit, and it’s something I’m trying to change.
A chance to spend time with new friends and learn how to host a pasta making class was just what I needed.
Dahlia & Raffaele Martini. Photo from Martini & Company’s website
My friend invited Level 3 Italian sommelier and chef, Raffaele Martini, and his American wife, Dahlia, who are based in Boerne, Texas, to come to her San Antonio home and teach nine of us to make homemade pasta. Raffaele is from Cortona, Italy, where, everyday, he grew up watching his mother and grandmother make pasta, and he shared their techniques and taught us to make tagliatelle and ravioli.
The nine of us were spread out around the large island in my friend’s kitchen. We each had our own circle of flour, to which we added two fresh eggs to the empty well in the middle and slowly mixed it together with our fingers until we had pasta dough. We let it rest for a while, then made half of it into tagliatelle and the other half into ravioli filled with ricotta cheese.
Tagliattele. Photo by Brenda Coffee
Raffaele and Dahlia Martini supplied everything but the kitchen, dining room table, dinnerware and the glasses. Literally everything, including all the raw ingredients, aprons, knives, rolling pins, cutting boards, ravioli stamps, freshly baked focaccia bread, two different wines to pair with the pasta, and the savory fresh tomato/basil sauce they made for the tagliatelle and a light lemon sauce for the ravioli.
They also served the dishes and refilled the water and the wineglasses and washed the dishes before they left! They were amazing! Photo by Brenda Coffee
Our ravioli with ricotta cheese. Photo by Brenda Coffee
It was so much fun and reminded me of when I lived in the Spy House on the Hill and loved to make tortellini filled with veal, spinach and prosciutto.
Photo by Brenda Coffee
When it comes to being a hostess and setting a worldclass table, my friend ranks up there with the best. She repeated three colors: yellow, blue, and green. Down the middle of the table she lined the inside of two round glass vases with sliced lemons, Lace Cap Hydrangeas and then filled them with water. Fanning out from either side of the vases were green leaves, fresh lemons, and votive candles in small glass holders.
Photo by Brenda Coffee
She repeated the colors in the bowls at each place setting, the yellow napkins and the ingenious place card holders her daughter made and then attached to green leaves and real lemons with raffia and a glue gun.
It was all so gorgeous and reminded me it’s been a long time since I set a beautiful table and had friends over for dinner. Something I used to do all the time.
Photo of Raffaele by Brenda Coffee
If you live anywhere in the San Antonio/Texas Hill Country area and would like to host a pasta making class, here’s a link to Martini & Company’s website where you can review the amazing food they create and start a dialog with them about bringing this fun evening to you and your guests. In addition to pasta, Raffaele and Dahlia will teach you and your guests how to make pizza or do a four-course wine pairing dinner. In the future, the Martini’s will also be taking groups to Italy to learn more about the food and wine there, and from the evening I spent with them, I think a trip like that would be great fun.
24 thoughts on “HOST A PASTA MAKING CLASS”
This sounds like it was so much fun Btenda. I imagine you’ve needed to reset after everything involved with your fabulous book! Will you write another one? I hope so.
Thank you, Arlo! I’m still marketing Maya Blue and related “projects,” so for now, another book will have to wait a while. xoxox, Brenda
Good morning, Ms Coffee.
“REMINDED ME OF WHEN I LIVED IN THE SPY HOUSE ON THE HILL”
This inference was made suggesting you no longer live overlooking the chaos of
I-35. Apologies for neglecting the theme of your post; just curious as I live near and prefer to consider the proximity of a world renowned personality.
Btw, enjoyed Maya Blue immensely!
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Mark, I had a number of local book events and thought I might meet you at one of them, but alas, you weren’t there. After I sold the Spy House on the Hill, it was torn down by an idiot real estate developer who thought the highest and best use of the property was as a parking lot: a car dealership. His plan was to also remove all the dirt underneath the highest hill in town and turn it into flat ground. That was well over 15 years ago, and he’s done nothing but destroy a magnificent, historic home. Kind of sad, don’t you think? I’d appreciate it if you would please write a review on Amazon, Mark. Thank you! Brenda
Love my friends and love pasta, BUT I would have to choose Chris Isaak. Especially front row center seats!!!
I get it, Diana, but considering I’m trying to broaden my social circle (so many friends have moved out of state or died), it was the best decision for me. xoxox, Brenda
What a great idea! So different than just having friends over for dinner, plus the friends help you make it. Love this, and your friend’s table is gorgeous! I may get on the internet and see if there’s anyone near me who does that. Thanks for the post, Brenda. Good to know the book tour didn’t do you in. Xo, Barb
Hi Barb! Actually, the five-year marathon I ran to write the book, get an agent and a publisher and bring it to market left me needing a mental break, but I’m back! Hope to see you here, again, soon! xoxox, Brenda
What a fabulous idea for a party! Sounds like so much fun!
It was VERY cool, Cindy, but then you’re the mistress of cool parties! xoxox, Brenda
That sounds like great fun and I always love living life through your eyes!! The fun of making pasta with friends with such a beautiful table and then getting to enjoy what you made…priceless. You have a way of making us all feel like we were there too!! Love you!!!
Hello my luv! Thanks for the wonderful comment. I love you, too! Brenda
I used to make pasta all the time, but I stopped when I decided I needed to lose 30 pounds. Now they say carbs aren’t as bad as they told us. Pasta making here I come!
I hear you about the carbs, Connie, but good carbs are good for us. Plus, the Italians eat pasta most every day, and you don’t see many overweight Italians in Italy! I may dust off my pasta machine and make a batch of prosciutto! xoxox, Brenda
Oh so fun! I want to do one of those! You skipped Chris Isaak? Woah!
LOL! I know, crazy, right? But I needed to get out and spend time with people more than I needed to see Chris Isaak. xoxo, Brenda
Sounds like you enjoyed it all around!
I especially like the bit that they clean up!!
Xoxo
Yes, it was great fun! xoxox, B
Hi there
Lovely evening – spending time making – sharing – eating – new people.
Beautiful table setting.
I love Chris Isaak and have seen him live a couple of times – tho he hasn’t been in my area for over a decade. Must check out his tour schedule. Enjoyed his tv show way way back.
Our Italian Centre has pasta classes – sausage making etc. But in home would be much more fun.
It was a lovely evening. Your Italian Centre? What’s that? Where do you live? xoxox, Brenda
Brenda, thanks for posting about the dinner and giving a shout out to Martini and Co.! It really is the perfect way to entertain for someone like me who likes to host but not cook. That way I get to enjoy the dinner just like my guests! It was special to have you there and humbling to know you gave up seeing Chris Isaak to join us!
Thanks for inviting me, Melody! It was a wonderful evening. xoxox, Brenda
Forgot to add with my above e-mail – hope you got the card I sent to one of the book stores for your book signing.
You sent me a card? No! I didn’t get it. What a loving sweet thing to do. xoxox, Brenda