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Rita makes pasta in the traditional Ital- ground beef, sausage, and pancetta or pro-
ian way. She shapes the flour into a bowl sciutto. After adding bay leaf, wine, tomato
then drops in the eggs and combines them puree, and broth, she finished with some
until she has a paste. She then presses the salt and pepper and a spoon of tomato
dough thinner and thinner using a long paste. The essential ingredient is time on
wooden roller until you can practically see the stove — two hours — to let the sauce
through it. This thin layer is pasta sfoglia. gain character. When I asked Rita if she
We managed after about twenty minutes to added butter or cream, as many stateside
get our layer thin enough, and we do this at recipes call for, she shook her head as if
home now. that were an entirely alien concept. She
Next Rita folded and sliced our dough to said Bolognese done the Bologna way
make tagliatelle, a pasta strand about as never includes dairy of any kind.
wide as a pencil. She also cut out forms for When our Bolognese was in the pot —
tortelloni, which are pasta shells stuffed we couldn’t eat it yet because it needed to
with a mix of ricotta, egg, parsley and simmer — Rita heated some of her premade
Parmigiana cheese. The tagliatelle was sim- sauce and cooked the tortelloni and tagli-
ple, but the tortelloni was a trickier matter. atelle. The traditional way to cook tortel-
When I tried to stuff the pasta with the fill- loni, she explained, is in a broth-based
ing, my tortelloni were more like lumpy sauce. Seven tortelloni comprise a serving,
rocks than delicate shells, while Rita’s which is followed by another course. Home-
tortelloni flew off her fingers as if she were made tagliatelle is the ideal mate for
performing a magic trick. Bolognese, which clings to the pasta in a
Then Rita showed how to make Bolog- perfect marriage.
nese sauce, but she stressed that, as with Tortelloni, tagliatelle, and Bolognese ac-
many folk dishes, there is no one true way companied by a glass of chianti and won-
to make it. She learned how to make pasta derful cross-cultural conversation — how
and Bolognese at her grandmother’s elbow, many times has this scenario played out in
and her recipe has been handed down the apartments ensconced within Bologna’s
through generations. Bolognese starts with rose-colored buildings? La Rossa, La Dotta,
carrot, onion, celery and garlic cooked in La Turrita, La Grassa — whatever it’s called,
olive oil, then includes generous portions of Bologna is worth the train fare to get there.
148 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE FALL 2024
