Cookery class at Recipease, Notting Hill

I absolutely love cooking – there is something hugely therapeutic about it and now I have a much bigger kitchen, I’m experimenting with cooking more adventurous meals. One of my best friends, Laura, knows me oh-so-well and so for my birthday present she kindly treated me to a cooking class at Jamie Oliver’s Recipease, where we could learn to make pasta from scratch.

Feeling like I was a Masterchef contestant the second I whipped my apron over my head, I was hooked (especially when I was handed a complimentary glass of vin rouge!). Laura had booked us into the Pasta Master class, where we were told by our lovely chef and instructor, Jimmy, that we would be learning to make 4 types of pasta and 3 accompanying sauces. Delicious!

The set up of the classes is very professional and takes place in the bottom floor of the Notting Hill branch. The classes take place in all of Jamie’s Recipease stores though – see here for a full list of locations and classes on offer. Jimmy filled us in on how the Notting Hill shop carries out an incredible TEN cooking lessons a day so there is no shortage of variety of food tutorials on offer here.

Getting you stuck in straight away, the classes work by demonstrating part of the cooking and then you go off and do it yourselves – working at stations in pairs but making your own food.

We were taught first the basics of making pasta dough, which I couldn’t believe how easy it was with literally just flour and 2 medium eggs. We whisked away (until it looks like the below) and then rolled out our dough until it was smooth and not too ‘tacky’ – the motion is forward and back when you roll until the dough ‘springs back’ at you. Once finished, you have to cover in clingfilm if you’re leaving it for a few mins so it doesn’t dry out. Best thing about this, is that you can freeze your pasta shapes for up to 3 months in the fridge and just takes 8 hours to defrost for you to use!

Next up, it’s the fun bit – making your pasta! We were shown how to make these 4 types – Tagliatelle, Papardelle, Linguine and Farfalle (bow ties!)

Another fantastic element on the course is that they let you make more so you can take home your freshly made pasta for lunch or dinner the next day – molto bene!

Next up, Jimmy demonstrated 3 fabulously simple sauces to accompany our freshly made pasta – one of which we would cook ourselves. We had a spicy tomato and garlic one, a cream of mushroom one and a fresh parmesan and lemon with mint sauce (perfect for a summer evening with a chilled glass of white).

We then rushed back to our stations (starving by this point!) to whip up the cherry tomato one, where we then got to sit down at the large shared table with another glass of red and gobble down our creations.

We left the class full, happy and feeling like bonafide Italian chefs – I can’t recommend these classes highly enough. They’re about £40 per person but worth every penny and you get 10% off on the night on all Jamie’s products and food in the store. Here’s the list again of classes to browse over –  they do make a brilliant day/night out for foodies, whether it’s Italian cuisine you wish to master, learn how to make your own sushi or cut your own meats, or even dabble in making Mexican Street Food.

It also makes a brilliant present. With Christmas on it’s way, either get a lesson for your loved one/s or book in for a group session as an alternative work Christmas party (they can do a large class for 35 upstairs at the Notting Hill store).

Have you ever been to a Recipease class or any other great cooking classes in London? I think I officially have the bug now!

LMNH x