Local teens were taught how to make homemade ravioli recently in an instructional class held at the Hicksville Public Library by the company, The Baking Coach.
“The teens made the dough, and I showed them how to flatten it out and stuff it, and they will take it home to cook it,” said The Baking Coach teacher, April Bier.
About 12 teens signed up for the free event, which was an hour long, hands-on tutorial. “The library books the program through The Baking Coach, and we come in and teach the program,” explained Bier.
Every teen took home around 12 raviolis, depending on how big the raviolis were made. “The teens were able to go home with their homemade ravioli to cook and share with their family,” said Bier.
“I’ve always wanted to make ravioli,” said Krisia Romano, one of the teens at the Ravioli making event. “It was fun. I liked it.”
The recipe called for one and a half cups of flour, two eggs, half a teaspoon salt, one tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, half a cup of ricotta cheese for the filling, and additional seasonings for the filling such as garlic, salt, and Parmesan cheese.
Bier provided aprons for the teens, as well as chef hats to decorate. She gave a demonstration before each step to show the teens how to make the raviolis correctly.
“A lot of people don’t know cooking is a lot of math and science,” said Bier. In the class the teens were taught how to measure correctly, as well as some fun food facts.
She gave the teens cooking tips such as to be careful to not over measure and how to be able to tell if an egg has gone bad or not.
“If the egg is cloudy or has a large red dot in the yolk, the egg is not good to use,” explained Bier.
The teens rolled out the dough they made with rolling pins and then added their ricotta cheese mixture onto the dough. Then they pressed the dough together with the cheese inside to create the raviolis.
“The best part of the class was that we made the raviolis from scratch,” said teen Justin Pammes.
Victoria Al-Hihi’s favorite part of the event was mixing the eggs into the flour to make the dough.
Bier has done other types of cooking programs at the Hicksville Library as well. The Baking Coach classes can be directed towards teens, as well as adults, children, and people of all ages.
“We teach baking classes in schools and libraries, and private lessons,” she said. “We also do birthday parties, holiday themes, book reading themes, as well as teach basic cooking and cake decorating.”
The Baking Coach also offers lessons on how to make chicken potpie, fried rice, and even Valentine’s Day programs such as chocolate covered candies.
Bier and her company will be returning to the Hicksville Public Library to have a ravioli-making event for adults on Feb. 26, at 1 p.m.
