Last month, I went to Loaf, based in Cotteridge, Birmingham and I learnt how to make pasta for the first time. I have been wanting to learn how to make pasta for ages, especially since my friend Marie brought me a pasta machine for my birthday. Loaf is a social enterprise, that promotes real food and healthy living in Birmingham through running cookery courses and a weekly bakery. Loaf is run on a day to day basis by Tom Baker (pictured above), who is my friend and fellow Midlands Food Blogger. The courses are run from Tom’s home in Cotteridge and are limited to six people. The Handmade Pasta course teaches you how to make fresh pasta from scratch and you get to eat it at the end with a glass of wine too!
Five people and I arrived at Tom’s house on 6.30pm on a Thursday night. After a cup of coffee and a brief health and safety chat, we were paired off and got our aprons on ready to start. Pasta is simplicity itself to make. It is only Tipo ’00’ flour and eggs, mixed together to form a sticky dough and kneaded. You leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes, while you make the sauce and then you are ready to roll!
It is best to roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is the size of an A3 sheet of paper. You then cut it into the shapes you require. We made tagliatelle, pappardelle, mezzalune and tortellini. Tom showed us how to make three sauces and a vegetable filling to go with our different shapes of pasta.
Mezzalune & Tortellini with Parmesan Butter Sauce
Tagliatelle with Carbonara Sauce
Pappardelle with Puttanesca Sauce
My favourite sauces were the Parmesan butter sauce and the Carbonara sauce. I did not really like the Puttanesca sauce as it contains olives and capers. My two least favourite ingredients ever. I will have a go at making these sauces and some fresh pasta in the New Year so I will give you my adapted versions of Tom’s recipes then.
Everyone on the course had a fantastic time. We all asked Tom lots of questions and by the end of the course, we quite merry after drinking some wine and having lots of good pasta. Thanks to Tom for hosting the course and for showing me that pasta is not that hard to make. I look forward to coming on more courses at Loaf in the New Year, including Bread: Back to Basics and Butchery: Perfect Poultry. Thanks again Tom! 
Happy Cooking!
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