When on a beach holiday, I am happy to spend all day making my best impression of a pickle, only moving from the sun, to shade, to water. Yet when it comes to city breaks – I want to learn something new.

I spent the first two days in Florence admiring the arts of Renaissance. And then it occurred to me – all those marble sculptures couldn’t have built their impressive gluteus maximus on a diet of salads and protein powder. It must have been an authentic local cuisine of carbs and wine.

The decision was made – on a sunny October morning, I went to meet two chefs, Max and Luca, who would teach me how to make authentic Tuscan pasta.

Picking your ingredients is 90% of the cooking, hence we met at the Florentine food market. We have fresh markets in London too, yet the taste of ingredients in Florence is almost tear-inducing.

Tip: don’t go to a touristy The Mercato Centrale market -it’s definitely instagramable, yet the produce tends to be imported. Instead, visit The Sant’Ambrogio Market – where the locals shop. You can buy everything from cheese and meat to vegetables and truffles here.

Note: you can’t touch and try produce in markets unless you ask a seller.

Tip: don’t miss out on the coffee shop in the Sant’Ambrogio Market– they have served me the best cappuccino I’ve had in Florence.

With a bit of uphill walking, we made it to the beautiful villa where Max and Luca teach their masterclasses.

We were welcomed with red wine, parmesan cheese and fresh tomatoes. Feeling more confident after a glass of wine, we entered a study room, where each of us had an individual workspace.

The teaching was extremely straightforward and delivered with enthusiasm. The cheerful passion of the chefs was contagious and made the process fun and effortless.

Here are some of the recipes that we learned (chefs gave their permission to share the recipes below):

Recipe 1: Tagliatelle Salsiccia with Orange and Leeks

Ingredients

For tagliatelle:

2 eggs

200 g of semolina flour – a high-protein flour made from Durum wheat. It makes better pasta than all-purpose flour because it develops a stronger gluten structure, which means a more pliable dough.

Pinch of salt

For ragu:

Olive oil

Butter

Leeks

1 Garlic

1 glass of White wine/Prosecco

Salsiccia: 2x

1 whole orange

Salt, pepper and paprika

Pasta Making Process:

1. To make the dough by hand, mound the flour on a flat, non-porous surface — your counter or tabletop.

2. Add a pinch of salt to the flour. Without it, the pasta will taste flat.

3. Make a well in the mound of flour and crack the eggs into the well. Use a fork to beat the eggs in the well, then slowly incorporate the flour from the sides of the well into the egg mixture.

4. Once the flour is fully incorporated and is too thick to mix with a fork, it’s time to knead by hand.

Kneading the dough creates the critical gluten structure that holds the pasta together. Kneading by hand is fun – it connects you to the process. And it’s a decent workout, which means you can eat a little extra pasta!

Knead the dough until it is smooth, very firm, and dry — about 8 to 15 minutes. If it feels sticky, dust your dough and work surface with semolina flour and knead until smooth and firm. If the dough is even a little too wet, it will stick when you run it through the pasta machine.

The dough is ready to be shaped when you can set the dough on a clean countertop without it sticking.

5. Portion the dough into balls. Keep the balls of dough relatively small for easier handling — about tennis ball-size.

6. Tightly wrap the pasta dough in plastic and let it sit at room temperature for about an hour to give the gluten a chance to relax. This step makes the dough easier to work with — keeps it from shrinking and snapping back as you stretch it.

7. Your pasta dough has been portioned and has relaxed. Now you’re ready to make some noodles!

If you’re using a pasta machine, dust it with a little all-purpose or semolina flour. While dusting, spin the rollers to coat them with a very thin layer of flour.

8. Flatten the dough on the end you’ll be feeding into the pasta machine. The rollers will catch it and pull it through. Set the rollers to the largest setting. Feed the dough through the machine, fold into thirds, and roll again.

9. Repeat this process, narrowing the roller settings as you go, until the dough is the desired thickness. The dough should be smooth, shiny, a little moist, and have no cracks or blemishes.

Tip: If you’re working with only a portion of the dough at a time, keep the remainder wrapped in plastic to prevent it from drying out.

10. Now your dough is the right thickness. It’s time to make some pasta shapes!

You can make any kind of thin, flat pasta, including lasagna, fettuccine noodles, and linguine. To make more complex shapes, like penne, spaghetti, or macaroni noodles, you’ll need special cutters and pasta machine attachments.

To make tagliatelle noodles, cut the sheets about every 12 inches. Attach the tagliatelle noodle cutter (it has approximately 1/4-inch slats) to the pasta machine and dust it with flour while spinning the rollers. Feed one end of the pasta sheet into the rollers. The pasta will emerge as beautiful tagliatelle.

11. Allow the entire sheet to go through the cutters, then dust the noodles lightly with flour so they don’t stick together.

Ragu Making Process:

1. Add oil and butter to a hot saucepan

2. Add leeks and 1 garlic and leave for 10 minutes

3. Add half a glass of white wine and chopped salsiccia and leave for another 10 minutes

4. Add grated orange zest (1 orange) and orange juice (1 orange), add salt pepper and paprika – leave for 10 or 15 minutes on low medium heat.

Recipe 2: Ricotta Tortellini with Black Truffle Sauce

Ingredients

For tortellini:

2 eggs

200 g of semolina flour

Pinch of salt

For filling:

50 grams fresh cow’s ricotta cheese

10 grams grana padano

1 fresh egg

For sauce:

Butter

Black Truffles

Process:

1. The process of making the dough is the same as for tagliatelle – skip the last step of cutting the flattened dough into noodles and use a glass to make round tortelli shapes.

2. Mix the ricotta, grana cheese and an egg to create a filling.

Use your fingers or a special brush to add a bit of cold water on your tortelli shape to help it stick together in the future.

3. Add a teaspoon of the mixture in the centre of tortelli keeping a distance of 3\4 cm around the edge.

4. Fold the tortelli, connect the edges and cook in a boiling water.

Toss the cooked tortellini in butter and finish off with some fresh truffle shaved or grated.

Recipe 3: Gnocchi Pasta with a Fresh Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

For gnocchi:

1 kg of potatoes (get the dryest sort of potatoes available for you – mountain potatoes work the best)

300 grams of 00 flour

Salt

For sauce:

Garlic

Cherry tomatoes: red and yellow

Red bell pepper

2 tsp Sugar

1tsp Salt

Fresh Basil

Gnocchi Making Process:

1. Put the washed potatoes with the peel into a pot, cover with cold water and salt lightly with coarse salt.

2. Bring to boil – 40 minutes.

3. When the potatoes are still very hot – mash with a potato masher with the skin still on

4. Take a pastry board, flour it and put the hot potatoes on top. Let the potatoes cool slightly and start to work with the flour and salt until a smooth and homogeneous dough is achieved.

Do not wait until the potatoes become cold because you will not be able to incorporate the flour and get a homogeneous mixture.

5. Roll the dough into long snake-like shapes, the thickness of a finger

6. With a knife cut vaguely uniform pieces – about an inch long



7. Take paper trays, sprinkle them with plenty of semolina flour and place the potato gnocchi on top. Sprinkle them further with semolina.

8. Bring salted water to water boil and cook the gnocchi a few at a time until they come to the surface.

9. Remove with a perforated spoon and season to taste.

Do not drain the gnocchi in the pasta dish otherwise, they would stick.

Tomato, Garlic and Basil Sauce Process:

1. Heat up oil in a wide heavy saucepan over medium-high heat.

2. Add garlic, tomatoes, pepper, sugar, and 1 tsp. salt. Cook, stirring occasionally until tomatoes burst and release their juices to form a sauce. 10–8 minutes, low heat.

3. Toss gnocchi with tomato sauce and chopped fresh basil.

4. Top with Parmesan cheese and add a basil leaf on top