This Flagstaff woman with an Italian husband discovered that she could learn a lot about Italian cooking recently.  As a result of a donation to KNAU, our local public broadcasting radio station, I was given a free cooking class at a new locally-owned business, The Seasoned Kitchen,  located in the Old Post Office Building in downtwon  Flagstaff . 

The class was “Pesto and Homemade Noodles.”  I know how to make that, I told myself.  But since it was free, I went anyway.  When I arrived, I was greeted by the other class members and the instructor - Shawn.  I never did learn his last name but know that he is the manager of the Monte Vista Hotel, another Flagstaff historic tradition.  I was offered a glass of wine (very good wine, the way) and Shawn began the class.

I learned that Pesto is easy to make but the ingredients are expensive.  It’s a traditional Italian sauce that is served not only over noodles but also over a variety of other dishes–including freshly grilled salmon.  It can even be used on bread as an appetizer.  The basic recipe is fresh basil (no parsley please!), pine nuts (toasted for added flavor — but watch them or they can burn), good quality freshly-grated parmesan and romano cheeses, and virgin olive oil — all mixed together in a blender. 

The homemade noodles that Shawn created were equally simple but required a pasta noodle machine.  My Italian mother-in-law made them by hand but that was a big job.  Shawn made them look easy.  I had a noodle machine at one time but could never produce decent noodles.  The trick that I learned from him was that you have to run the dough through the kneading part of the machine many times until you have a long thin strip that is then run through the cutters.  The fresh noodles are then dropped into boiling water until they float to the top–which is only a matter of a few minutes as opposed to 10-15 minutes required for cooking dry noodles from the grocery store.

Accompanied by another glass of wine, fresh noodles with pesto sauce and a heavy sprinkling of more freshly-grated parmesan and romano cheese was truly a gourmet dinner.  This free class was a delightful learning experience and an introduction to another new locally-owned business. My thanks go to
Shawn and “The Seasoned Kitchen.”