How to make the perfect pasta

I recently finished binge-watching season 2 of the Netflix show Master of None and was inspired by Aziz Ansari's character Dev Shah to take my love of pasta to the next level. In the series, a lovelorn Dev catches a flight to Italy to recover from his heartbreak and pursue his passion of making the perfect pasta. I was inspired not because I was going through a heartbreak but because my heart belongs to pasta.
Growing up pasta was more decorative art than food for me. At the arts and crafts classes in school, teachers used to give us boxes of macaroni with tonnes of glue and shiny glitter to create pretty necklaces and bracelets. But my love affair with pasta started on an airplane where, as movies would like us to believe, most romances begin. Almost 10 years ago I was on a flight going from Istanbul to London and the only vegetarian option available was a dish of pasta in tomato sauce. Flight food is usually not appetising but this dish was delicious, well-done pasta with toppings of mushroom and corn, complemented by zesty tomato sauce. Since then I have been obsessed!
Italian cuisine is my go-to when I eat out or even on the occasions when I actually cook at home. I especially love pasta, and often find myself daydreaming of a plate of penne cooked in pink sauce (red and white mixed, please!) topped with mushrooms, olives and crushed chilli flakes (drool!).
Having eaten plates of ravioli for three days in a row at a quaint restaurant in Amsterdam to devouring the supremely spicy Angry Chicken Pasta at Big Chill in Khan Market, New Delhi, I have made quite a few fond memories on my quest to find the best pasta in town during my travels. Some of my most favourite pasta dishes in Dubai (that are both drool and Instagram worthy) are the fiery Penne Pollo Picante at PizzaExpress, and the mouth-watering Fusilli in Salsa Rossa from Red Tomato Pizza, a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Al Barsha 
But one of my grievances with how some restaurants prepare the pasta dishes is that they forget all about al dente, which means that the cooked pasta should be firm to the bite. Sometimes you get served mushy or chewy noodles with very little sauce but the trick is to stress for al dente when you place the order to avoid disappointment later. 
Now I couldn't take a flight to Italy on a whim to learn the finer nuances of how to create the perfect pasta dish, so I signed up for the Italian Cooking Master class at Solo Italian Restaurant & Bar in Raffles Dubai and one Saturday morning, I made my way to my first-ever cooking class. It was unknown territory. They teach a different style of Italian cooking every week and I had signed up for the session called 'Festa Italian', where wannabe chefs like me learnt how to make handmade focaccia, Bucatini all'Amatriciana (pasta shaped like a long, narrow tube in tomato sauce) and the classic Spaghetti Carbonara (in creamy white sauce). 
We were a group of seven pasta aficionados, some who had never done this before so that put me a little at ease. After introducing ourselves and mingling, Chef Doxis Bekris and his team started the session by telling us we could stop whenever the process got confusing. The class is suitable for beginners as it's a step-by-step process.
We started off by getting together all the ingredients for the focaccia dough. It was fascinating to learn that once you master the dough, you can create so many variations. The dough can be flavoured with different seasonal toppings both sweet (cinnamon and raisins) and savoury (basil and rosemary) to create a crisp crust that is great for dipping. 
Up next we started making the pasta dough, which takes around 30 minutes. It requires you to learn to mix flour, eggs, water and salt, and knead it for at least 10 minutes to get it right. The chef stressed that we mix everything together with care so as to not make the pasta dough too dry or too wet. 
Next, we rolled out the dough and used a pasta machine that was used to create the elongated spaghetti and the thicker bucatini. The chef would crack jokes throughout to lighten the atmosphere and also said encouraging words as he passed by each of us. Certain tricks I learnt was that while cooking the pasta, adding some salt helps in cooking it better and that to achieve al dente, the fresh pasta takes around 10 minutes to cook through once the water reaches a boil.
After the session, the group got together to devour the meal we had prepared and everyone looked happy with the result. At the end of the lesson, I was confident I would be able to whip up an authentic Italian meal for the next big party at home.
-deepa@khaleejtimes.com
Pasta 101
Al dente: The phrase translates to 'to the tooth'. It refers to pasta that is still firm and chewy when bitten into. 
Al Forno: This refers to dishes that have been baked in the oven. 
All'aglio e Olio: Refers to a dish made with garlic and oil. 
Primavera: A pasta sauce traditionally featuring fresh vegetables as the main ingredient.
Arrabbiata: Meaning angry in Italian, this is a spicy pasta sauce made from garlic, tomatoes, and dried red chilli peppers and cooked in olive oil.
All about the shapes
Bucatini: This straw-like pasta is shaped like thick spaghetti with a hole running through the centre.
Farfalle: These small pieces of pasta are shaped like bow-tie or butterfly wings.
Penne: It is small and cylindrical in shape that complements nearly every sauce.
Ravioli: These square pillows of dough can be filled with cheese, meat, veggies, or even seafood.
Lasagne: It is a long, flat, rectangular shaped pasta with wavy edges, commonly used in baked dishes.