Farfalle and Garganelli Masterclass in Como – Two Shapes from One Sfoglia

One sfoglia, two shapes. In this hands-on farfalle and garganelli masterclass in Como you knead your own dough, roll it out with the matterello, then turn it into two very different forms: farfalle, pinched by hand one by one at the centre of each square of pasta, and garganelli, rolled around a small stick over the ridged pettine until the grooves take hold.

It’s the right class for understanding why, in Italy, shape is never a detail: the same dough changes character depending on how you fold it. The method is the one our resident chef learned on the professional programme at the Accademia della Sfoglia – we tell that story on our page about the art of sfoglia.

At the end, two pots go on the stove, one per shape: you taste both formats with a slow-cooked ragù and feel how the same sfoglia holds the sauce in different ways. If you don’t eat meat there is a clear vegetarian option: a fresh cherry-tomato sauce prepared in front of you.

While the dough rests, a spritz lesson: you build your own perfect spritz – Aperol or Campari – in the right proportions and sip it as your aperitivo, a small Italian ritual to take home. The table closes with a dessert that surprises: gelato with traditional balsamic vinegar, the Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena DOP from Acetaia del Cristo – a single ingredient, cooked grape must, aged at least twelve years in a battery of casks of different woods. The one matured in cherry-wood barrels is fruity and sweet, sweet-and-sour: a few drops are enough on the gelato. Read more about the Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena we use.