We Had A Pasta Cook-Off

Guys! I can’t believe that I still haven’t told you about the most fun I’ve had in donkeys years. A few weeks ago, we had a merry gang of 10 friends show up at our front door, bearing everything from (lots) of bottles of wine (and even a box of dinky little dessert wine glasses); to bucket-loads of porcini mushrooms, burrata mozzarella, truffle oil, cream and garlic; and even a few very dorky aprons (that was not in the brief, it just happened). And these, I have deduced, are the ingredients that great nights are made of.

Our three teams, creatively and cleverly named A (long pasta), B (gnocchi) and C (ravioli), quickly got to work on their dishes, and the results were magical.

Flour flew (Philip and Meg took their jobs very seriously), garlic sizzled, dough was kneaded (rather epically by Justin Naylor in particular), gnocchi potatoes were sieved (and endlessly sieved and sieved, thank you Trudes and Will and Pete), ravioli were carefully crafted (we all know you did all the work Ang).

We ended up by the fire, far too late and far, far too full, and almost far too happy. And Team Ravioli were by FAR the winners of the night. They produced not one but two perfect dishes, both of which left us starry-eyed and awed.

So, friends, all that’s left to say is a sung-from-the-rooftop thank you for joining in all the happy kitchen chaos!

TEAM A (Long pasta)
Linguini with Truffle and Porcini Mushroom Sauce

Philip and Meg, at the pasta station

Philip and Meg, still at the pasta station

Debs and Trace, what could possibly go wrong when you bring together lovingly hand-made linguini, truffle oil, garlic, cream and plump porcini mushrooms?

See, look at that, practically transparent. And for a first timer too (she’s a perfectionist)

(Meg, Debs, Philip, Trace)

Up to absolutely no good.

TEAM B
Gnocchi with Wild Mushrooms and Truffle Cream Sauce

Will and Pete hard at work, sieving potatoes to be silky smooth (for what seemed like forever).

Trudes, Will, Sarah, Pete

(Extra points for such fancy coordinating aprons, surely?)

See, pretty as a picture.
(Note to self: Never, ever make gnocchi with boiled sweet potatoes, they are far too thirsty and make for very dumpy dumplings)

TEAM C
Blow-your mind Ravioli
(Including ricotta with burnt sage butter)

Justin very merrily kneading

Greg, Ang, Justin, Rob. The winners by a country mile with their ridiculously delicious ravioli.