The music is low and the wine does flow as Kelvino Barrera begins his class. At a home in Albemarle County, he tells students that pasta takes just four ingredients – high gluten flour, sea salt, oil and egg yolks.
“So do a little crack, and now we’re going to grab a little pinch of salt – just a little pinch.”
“You can feel the texture better, because you don’t want it to be sticky," he continues.
The dough is then covered with plastic wrap and allowed to expand before running it through a pasta machine, turning it into a thin sheet.
Next it’s cut into circles, a dollop of filling dropped in the middle. Today it’s pureed butternut squash with goat cheese and a dash of maple syrup.
“Right here I have an egg wash – a whole egg and a little splash of water. It’s going to act as our glue,” Barrera says.
The edges are painted with egg and sealed before the tortellini is folded once more and dropped into boiling water.
Barrera and his business partner M.J. Padilla serve a three-course meal – salad, dessert, and the pasta topped with a white sauce and shrimp – way better, she says, than the stuff that comes in a box.
“Having grown up eating boxed mac and cheese all my life, making the pasta from scratch and then tasting it – it’s just day and night,” she says.
“The pasta is light, the squash filling is exceptional, and it just works really well with the shrimp,” says student Kathy Grupe.
“The pasta is superb. I love the filling," adds her husband Steve.
“We did it as a team. It’s just amazing, all of it,” Marah Ballard concludes.
And should this evening’s dinner leave them hungry for more, Barrera also offers a class on how to make gelato.
