Make Italian Pasta With a Pro When You Knead to Get Over This Phobia

There are 600 pasta shapes in Italy but the basics aren’t difficult to make.

Sardinian culurgiones is collected into a bowl before it is cooked during a Mondo Italiano cooking class on Sunday, June 1, 2025. Samara McCallum/Post-Gazette/TNS

By Sono Motoyama Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PITTSBURGH—Despite being a food reporter, I am by no means a master chef. I can handle simple recipe instructions like “stir,” “fry,” “simmer,” “bake” or, maybe, “braise”—which is basically a combination of simmer and bake. I have an irrational fear of anything that requires equipment beyond a pot or pan.