Why We Trained with Rina Poletti, Guardian of Hand-Rolled Sfoglia
Behind every class we teach in Como there is a specific school, a teacher and a method. This is the story of where we learned to roll sfoglia — and of what it means to bring that discipline to the lake.
Who is Rina Poletti
Rina Poletti was born in Finale Emilia in 1951 and is one of Emilia’s best-known maestre sfogline — the master pasta makers of the rolling pin. People call her “la regina della sfoglia”, the queen of sfoglia. In 1979 she opened “La Bottega della Sfoglia”, which she ran for more than thirty years, until 2008. A whole life spent at the wooden board: flour, eggs and the rolling pin, every single day. That kind of experience cannot be improvised, and it does not fit in a manual.
Miss Tagliatella and a craft worth defending
She won “Miss Tagliatella” in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and has presided over the competition’s jury since 2009. She gathered her story in the book “RINA. Ricette e Storie di una Maestra Sfoglina”, and she has long campaigned for the craft of the sfoglina and sfoglino to be recognised as cultural heritage. For her, sfoglia is not one cooking technique among many: it is a body of knowledge that risks disappearing if nobody passes it on the way it deserves.
The Accademia della Sfoglia
In 2018 she founded the Accademia della Sfoglia, where she is the didactic director: the first itinerant school dedicated to the art of the matterello, the long wooden rolling pin. Its mission is written into the name its teachers and students carry — “I Custodi della Sfoglia fatta a Mano”, the guardians of hand-made sfoglia — to protect hand-rolled pasta and hand it down, hand to hand. Rina Poletti has taught in Italy, Israel, Austria, France, England, Germany and the United States, and has worked with ALMA, the International School of Italian Cuisine, with Slow Food Italia and with Il Cucchiaio d’Argento.
Our resident chef’s training
Our resident chef completed the Accademia’s professional path, the Sfoglia Masterclass. Not an afternoon demonstration: a course built for people who will go on to serve and teach sfoglia, hands in the flour, under the eyes of someone who rolled it for a lifetime. You learn the gesture, of course. Above all, you learn to correct it: to feel when the dough is too firm, when the rest was not enough, when the sfoglia is asking you to slow down.
What that means for a class in Como
It changes everything, quietly. In Como we do not teach “a pasta recipe”: we teach a method that comes from a specific school, with its rules and its discipline. When you join a Tagliatelle Masterclass, you follow the same path the Emilian tradition has handed down for generations: no machines, just wood, flour and hands. We tell the story behind this way of working on the page dedicated to our pasta school.
The method: panetto, rest, matterello
Every class begins with the panetto: flour and eggs kneaded into a smooth, elastic block. Then the rest, wrapped in film: the gluten relaxes and the dough changes character. When you pick it up again, you learn to “read” it — the surface, the resistance under your fingers, what a properly rested dough is telling you. Finally the matterello: the sfoglia is rolled out on wood, with the weight of the body more than the strength of the arms, until it is thin, alive and ready to be cut.
It is slow work, which is why we keep it small: each session takes up to five guests, so the rolling pin truly passes through every pair of hands. You can browse our pasta cooking classes in Como.
Key takeaways
- Rina Poletti, maestra sfoglina from Finale Emilia, ran “La Bottega della Sfoglia” for more than thirty years.
- In 2018 she founded the Accademia della Sfoglia, the first itinerant school of the matterello.
- Our resident chef completed the Accademia’s professional path, the Sfoglia Masterclass.
- That method lives in every class in Como: panetto, rest, reading the dough, matterello.
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Learn sfoglia with us in Como
From the panetto to the tagliatelle, with the matterello technique learned at the Accademia della Sfoglia. You eat what you make, with wine.
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