Ben Lippett Makes Nonna Vanda’s Pumpkin Ravioli! | Pasta Grannies Podcast

Here’s another mid-week video for you, and it’s another podcast one! We have Ben Lippett on it today. He is a chef, food writer, content creator and purveyor of honey and beer. His Instagram account, Dinner by Ben, has over half a million followers where he shares loads of delicious looking recipes. Ben has chosen to recreate Vanda’s cappellacci di zucca, or pumpkin ravioli with me today. We filmed this recipe with Vanda over 7 years ago now so I am looking forward to revisiting it!

Ben has released his new book How I cook, which you can get here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Cook-really-cooking-recipes/dp/0008715998

Join Pasta Grannies as a member to support its work:
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[Music] Hello and welcome to the Pasta Granny’s podcast. In each episode, my guest and I celebrate our pasta granny’s by cooking one of their delicious home recipes. And of course, it’s the guest’s choice. Today I’m joined by Ben Lipit. Ben, come on in. How lovely to meet you. Pleasure. Thanks for having me. Did you find us? Okay. Come through. Come through. He’s a chef, food writer, content creator, and purveyor of his own hot honey. His Instagram account, Dinner by Ben, has over half a million followers and is full of delicious looking recipes. Ben has chosen to recreate Vander’s Capalachi Dizuka, pumpkin ravioli. And for those of you celebrating Thanksgiving, it might be a good dish to try. We filmed with Vander and Amelia Romana several years ago now, and I’m looking forward to revisiting her pasta. [Music] Welcome to the Pasta Granny’s podcast. This week I have Ben Lipit who’s going to be making What are you going to be making? I’m going to be making Vander’s pumpkin kapalachi, which I’m very excited about. Okay. Vander was one of our early pastor granny’s and this video is in fact 10 years old. Um, so we’ll be going down memory lane as well as finding out more about Ben. So, let’s go. Great. You’re missing a board. I’m going to go and get the board. Okay, great. And I’m we’re going to roll this out with Amano. Yeah, by hand. Yeah. Amazing. I I’ve never done that. I’ve never used the the rolling pin and done. So, that’s what I’m excited about doing today. Okay. So, it’s it’s a Right. I’ve been a slave to the pasta machine. If you don’t want to, we can we can we can we have got a macato. No, no. I’m going to take this off. I like the challenge. I can do this. Oh, here you go. Let me take that. Yeah. And they’re only really this size in Amelia Romana because they because of the way they roll out their everywhere else you’ll get smaller boards, smaller pins, smaller everything. So, we’re going big. This is going good today. Actually, with that amount of pumpkin, you don’t need to go big. No. Unless you particularly want the challenge of a larger Oh, I don’t know if my first rodeo whether I should go too big. Maybe let’s let’s let’s be uh let’s let’s try with I always think a three egg uh three egg dough. A three egg dough is is a nice amount to work with. If you get too small a quantity, although that’s all you need, it gets a bit me. Sure. Yeah. So So we’ll go for three eggs. Okay, let’s do it. How are you? I reckon that since you are a beginner in terms of armano Yeah. we should weigh out your ingredients. Absolutely. I’m a big fan of weighing out. Weighing. Yeah. Good. Good. We like to be precise. The chefing. Tell me how you got into cheffing. Well, I mean I got into cheffing after university really. I mean kind of quite late. I I studied American history. Well, I studied American studies at Sussex University. Okay. um which is basically American history. Um and then I went to live in the States. I was living in New York and needed a job that would pay me cash. Um and I was kind of into cooking. Well, I was more into eating than I was cooking, which I think, you know, it’s a good place to start. It’s a good place to start. And I think if you’re going to be if you’re going to, you know, try and get into cooking and be a chef or work in the restaurant industry, you got to be a good eater, I think, because otherwise you’re just not going to enjoy it. But anyway, I I got into it Yeah. in the States because I just needed cash and kind of my roommate had a friend who was a chef and they were like, “Oh, they’ll give you a job.” So, I kind of just kind of really fell into it. Yeah. But then ended up going to work more than I did school. And then and then dropped out. That was that. No, no, I didn’t. I I went back to the UK and finished my degree and then was like, “Right, I’m going to give this a go.” Okay. Much to the horror of pretty much everyone in my life. But no, it was Yeah, it’s been a fun journey, that’s for sure. And you haven’t wanted to give up or anything like that? Yeah. Return to normal jobs? No. I mean, well, I I think I spent a good seven, eight years working restaurants and it’s far from a normal job doing that. And I think I always quite liked I always quite liked the fact that it wasn’t normal and the hours are a bit wild and the kind of lifestyle is different and it’s exciting and I feel like you go through emotions and experiences that you just don’t get in in other lines of work. I mean, of course, that can be said for lots of different professions, but there’s just something about cooking that I just really really fell in love with cuz I mean, you know, as a young cook, it’s so exciting because you you go, you know, you can be you’re full of adrenaline and you’re, you know, playing with fire and cooking and it’s just really exciting and I I love making things with my hands. You’re quite a kind of barbecue kind of guy. I’m fire and smoke and Yeah. I mean, it’s during the summer I definitely I do cook outside. I love cooking outdoors. Big robust flavors. Lots of Yeah. I mean, it’s certainly I wouldn’t say my cooking is I worked in fine dining for a little bit and I really found out quite quickly that it wasn’t for me. I quite like simple cooking which is why I think I like pasta so much because it is very they’re very it’s very simple expression of a few ingredients which is I think the best way to cook and then if you can do it outside even better with some you know smoke which I think you know is an irreplaceable flavor um yeah I mean why not I love it yeah my favorite kind of cooking well let’s start so van this kapalace a typical of rom around the Ferrara area, Manta and and places and um you will come across a variety of recipes. Vander’s recipe used she used equal quantities of the 00 flour and seminal flour which gives more bite to the actual um pasta dough. Yeah, you don’t have to do that. You can start with just plain 00 if you wish. It makes the dough more stretchy as you’re probably aware. Yes. Um maybe Let’s Let’s go with the double zero and just go for because I feel him if it’s my first Ammo experience, it might be a bit more forgiving. What do you think? I I’m That’s what I was very sort of polite. You’re pushing You’re pushing me in that direction. I can tell. So, let’s go for just plain 00. So, 55% hydration. So, I would So, go for 300 300 grams. Yeah. Yeah. So have you what is your experience of pasta making to date? So after I I came back from the states and I went to university eggs into into your little bowl into my little bowl. Just reminding myself about this is an audio thing not a visual. 300 gram. So what weight am I shooting for? 55 is 165. Smashing. So So you you will find your three eggs will not be 165 grams. So you’re cracking two in. How many grams is that? 115. Yeah. So this might be more. M let me give you a fork to beat the Thank you very much. So where were So we were talking I was talking about I worked at a restaurant called Chin Chin in Brighton. Mhm. And I’d been working at an approx kind of fine dining restaurant and I was like this is naff. I don’t want to make any more gels or foams or it’s just too much I don’t know too much faffing around. Yeah. And I I remember going to eat at this restaurant and it was a little it’s a it was in an old car garage and it was a pasta bar and they had a okay kind of horseshoe shaped bar and it had 20 seats and they’d be open for lunch and dinner every day and it was one cook, one front of house, somebody managing the floor and then a KP and that was it. Just one person in there roll pasta in the morning, pasta in the afternoon and do like a few kind of small starry bits and two desserts and that was it was such a cool little restaurant. I was like, I want to work there. Yeah. So, yeah, I made an awful lot of pasta there. Really a lot. Um because we So, in a restaurant situation, I think it’s very difficult to keep making pasta by hand. You have to use a machine to get through. I mean, you know, to to even break even, you need to get through quite a lot of pasta. You do. I mean, even, you know, even despite the fact it is sometimes, you know, flour and water they say are the best things to do in restaurants. Yeah. Because they’re they’re cheap. But pasta is a lot of work. Yeah. Isn’t it? So tipping it out onto the board and then and then and and then Yeah. So Oh, lovely. That’s a good way of doing it. Dumping your bowl into the middle. Yeah, the egg bowl. And then you know that it’ll fit. I suppose. That’s a good idea. So I’m going to start whisking it or you know using the fork just I love this moment of when you’re kind of gently incorporating little bits of flour as you as you whisk. I think it’s a very zen moment. It is really nice. I mean, the problem with doing it in a restaurant is there are very few zen moments when you’re working in a restaurant. Very few. I mean, it’s easier if you’re working by yourself and it’s early in the morning. I used to, you know, you start early and job number one every day is make dough. Yeah. Um, and I just have a little coffee and put music on and then do this. But even playlist, you like playlist. I love music. Yeah. I also love playlisting. Yeah. Um, so what is your do you have genres? One, two. I mean, do you just love I’m I mean I it’s pretty I cast a wide net for sure. I mean my partner works in the music industry. Um and she puts me on to so much different stuff. Okay. But I mean it really really really ranges from kind of like ambient classical stuff to hardcore and punk and Yeah. I mean I really I really love just good music I like to say as opposed to you know pigeon holeing too much. But I mean this is definitely more of a zen music activity. Yes. Because in fact you do playlists with your your Substack. Tell us about how Substack come about. Well I was first of all tell us what a Substack is. So a Substack well Substack is is a is a publishing platform. Okay. for for folks I suppose like me who want to you you know you self-publish your writing and I wanted I wanted to find a place that I could you know monetize what I was doing and like and well first of all distribute what I was doing and so every week I I write a recipe or something about food um and I wanted a platform you know to to get it out there to get it into people’s hands easily um as you know print print media is basically gone at this point. And is it what it is completely ruined? Yes. No, it’s kind of like in the same way that you can go on YouTube and upload anything that you’ve made to an audience of whoever wants to see it. It’s exactly the same principle was with writing and words. Yeah. Um and that I always you know I always after cooking always wanted to get into writing and get into writing recipes and writing about food and writing about and now you know it’s blossomed into every week I write about something that I’ve read or watched or heard or you know spoken to somebody about. I always write about an album and I usually try and really vary it to kind of demonstrate all the different kinds of music I like to listen to and if I’ve gone to see somebody play live I’ll write about the show. Last person you saw live? The last really good show I saw that stuck in my head was probably I went to see a guy called Bill Ryder Jones at the Barbin. He was in a band called the Coral who you probably who if you play if I played them you’d recognize them. Okay. Dig it up. So your newsletter goes out every week. Every week. Every Friday. Okay. Um and yeah, I mean I’m just I’m so surprised at how many people choose to read it. Um, how many people do how many subscribers? I think there’s I think we’re about 40 40,000 people now, which is That’s very good. Back to the pasta briefly. Should I start Should I start using my hands now? I I think you should. Yeah. Okay. Fantastic. And the aim is to incorporate all of the flour. It should be okay. But panic not. We will see. Okay, great. Yeah. So, yeah, it goes out every week. It’s my favorite thing to do every week is to write the newsletter because it’s you know it’s it’s like there is also the moment of when you open the the blank page and it’s staring back at you and you go when do you you kind of write it as you go? I I write them I very I try not to write them in advance. I find that the I find that the writing is better. I mean especially if I’m writing about music or something that I’ve you know read or or watched that week or I find doing it you know a few days ahead of release is just works better for me. It’s also it’s I find it I like to write you know seasonally and write about seasonal ingredients and seasonal cooking and doing that a long way in advance is quite challenging because you know to you’re not surrounded by the feeling of the season or the weather or the right ingredients. I know the fact that this is the first sunny day in about a month. No, we’re very lucky. It’s beautiful. It’s lovely. So what’s your favorite type of cooking? I what I enjoy writing about is is quite technique driven. Okay. Um, I really like kind of understanding the hows and wise behind food and like why you choose how might be time. Yeah. And like and kind of how you know why you might use butter instead of olive oil or why you add salt then and not later. And my training I suppose or the restaurants I worked in were all very euroentric. Yeah. So Italian, French, British. I worked in Australia for a while and but then in a kind of French restaurant but just using Australian ingredients which was amazing experience. I mean, what have I been I’ve been really into? I’ve been doing lots of baking recently. So, lots of bread, a bit more pastry, which has been very kind of theoryheavy. So, how’s your dough coming on? Well, it feel it feels a lot better. It went from being very wet, and then it went from being quite shaggy and dry into now. There’s always that moment of it being quite shaggy. I’m going to I’m going to ditch that. Yeah, that’s fine. Cuz I think it might be a bit too dry, but this I mean, it feels nice. So, it’s something that Vander, who she unfortunately passed away in her 90s about three years ago. Oh, that’s a good run though. Yeah, it’s a good run. And she she continued to work in the restaurant um until the very end. Wow. You couldn’t stop her. God, I only could hack seven years. I thought I’m done. Well, it helped it was her own restaurant. One of that kind of matriarchal three generations of of women were working in um La Companiio. That’s it. In the middle of nowhere. is this wonderful sort of remote marshland reclaimed um near Kodigoro and uh so she started every day making pasta. Amazing. So so I think it’s a great therapy. It sort of it’s um keeps you fit as well. I think when you’re making these sort of large amounts of dough huge. Yeah. I mean I’d be kind of needing definitely two both both arms and really kind of use your whole body to do it. And the key is to keep on. It looks smooth and quite nice now, but actually keep going. How do you So, how do you know when enough is enough? And we’ve kneaded it enough. I probably timing it. Timing it. Yeah. 10 minutes. Okay, cool. Bit carry. Yeah. Also, the way that it stretches, you can see that the gluten is still Yeah. tearing if I Yeah. Okay. Cool. So, so you’re it’s looking lovely, your dough. It’s definitely tightening up. It’s tightening up. feel it getting stronger. And yeah, what do you think? Looking good. Okay, so how long do we rest that for? Um, actually, as long as possible. Yeah. Uh, so they say 30 minutes minimum, but if you know, actually, we could have made it this morning and it’ll be fine. Okay. Uh, so now is the filling. The filling. Yeah. So I took two of the green, very dense pumpkins. They’re kind of squashy um ones. They’re called mantavana or green pumpkin or whatever you want to delica. Um, and you could also use butternut squash and you chop it up and you bake it and then I find it easier to then remove the skins. Do you have a Yeah. Likewise. I just cut it in half and then bake the whole the half and then scoop it out. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, this is what And for about 20 minutes until it’s soft. I have not added any oil or salt or anything like that. Um, and it’s over to Ben to or season it to season it with, you know, in some place some cooks actually add sugar. Really? Well, I think if you I mean the nice maybe with um I think like a sput butternut sauce. We wanted your honey. I know. Can Can you tell listeners about your honey? Well, I make I mean my my um a little passion project on the side of writing and cooking is I make hot honey. Okay. It’s called Dr. Sting’s hot honey. Um but we yeah we we take lovely blossom honey and infuse it with few different types of dried chilies and add a little bit of vinegar and it’s it’s the most amazing um condiment come hot sauce. I mean I put it on. I’m yet to find anything that I don’t like it on and that’s what we always say to people is kind of goes with everything. Yes. It’s wicked. Yeah. I love it. So I remember in New York trying a pizza that involved Yeah. honey and and duya. Delicious. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, that’s where that’s where the kind of concept for Doctor’s Things came from. Okay. When I was living in York, I went there’s a pizza restaurant in a neighborhood called Crown Heights in Brooklyn, which is where I was living. And a friend of mine, Carter, took me to this restaurant called Baracino. And he said, “You got to have this pizza, specifically this one. I can’t remember what it was called. Um, but it came with a little pot of honey, but he didn’t tell me.” And I kind of sat and it arrived. This guy put this pot of honey next to me and said, I was like, “Well, what’s what’s that for?” He’s like, “Pour it on the pizza.” And I never I that never crossed my mind. Yeah. And I dumped all over the pizza and ate it and was completely sold. And it was Yeah. It was kind of one of those, you know, there’s lots of moments in my life anyway. There’s kind of little food moments that I remember that kind of like like little corner turns and that’s definitely one of them because it just stuck in my head for years, years and years and years and years. And I came back to the UK. I was like, well, no one’s making hot honey. Why is no one doing that here? Um, so during lockdown obviously had a lot of time. All the restaurants were closed. So I was like, “Right, let’s give it a go.” And then, yeah, that’s kind of where it came from. Did you have your own beehives? No. Do you know that’s the first that’s the first question folks asked me and unfortunately not. I mean, my small flat in Beckham wasn’t quite ready for ideal place. Wasn’t ready for the hive just yet. Um, and you know, and you know, we we looked it for quite a long time into sourcing and where we were going to get the honey from. We we really wanted to make sure it was like top quality and looking into different varieties and we’re not relying too much on like really floral notes or because, you know, we’re we’re going to bulldoze that with a bunch of chili. What is your favorite combination with that honey? Um, probably I mean it’s got it pizza is is kind of the greatest combin. It’s just such a fantastic combination. But the reason it works so well is because of the the kind of pizza is what carb and like cheese and it’s fat. So when you add something sweet and spicy and as long as there’s something acidic, we add we add a little bit of vinegar to our hot honey which is a little different to quite a few it just sets everything off in the most amazing way. And it’s so moorish. I love it. But I mean it’s good on anything. I have it on toast. You could put it in this. You could put it in the pumpkin. You could have put in here or on it at the end with the cheese. Yeah, I mean that would be delicious. Well, we’ll have to Is there a local stockus around here? There’s plenty. We’ve got lots across London. We’ve got lots across the UK. Okay. Yeah. So, just head to the website and you can find all our stockets. Yes. Okay. We’ll have to rush out and and try it with your capalachi the at the end. But um so should I can I just go straight off the You can go straight in. Okay, good. Let’s see how much how my arms are feeling today. You’ve also got a laga. We should Oh, yeah. I have a beer. Yeah. I love my beer. Well, you got to drink something with your chili, honey. Yeah. It’s called wiener dog. I have a small dash. Oh. And I love hot dogs, but it’s a delicious beer. And you can get it. What prompted you to do that? Well, my friend Clark and Jen own an amazing brewery in Brighton called Hand Brew Co. Yeah. They are they look after the best pub in Brighton. I used to live in Brighton. Um called The Hand in Hand. and it’s just the nicest little spot. Uh, and they asked me, they said, “Do you want do you know they have this amazing um series called Art You Can Drink?” So, they worked with, they basically work with different creative people to develop a beer that they’d like. And the guy who did it before me was David Shrigley, the artist. He made a a beer called Toad Liquor. Um, which was Yeah, it’s so delicious. It’s so nice. Um, and then they I was really flattered that they came and asked me because that, you know, I suppose Clark, you know, Clark and Jen love food and they used to come and see me at Chinchin and I’d make them lunch and they like, well, you know, in in a way, you know, cooking is a really creative outlet and we’d love to work with you on it. And then we just started chatting about it and figured out. How would you go about designing or creating a laga? Well, I mean, my job was to decide the style of beer. I mean, I’m not I’m not a brewer. I don’t know. a huge amount about beer, but I know what I like to drink and all that kind of things. Yeah. So, I worked with um Kate, their head brewer, and we chatted about beers that I liked and and what we’d like to get out of it. And we wanted it to be a good beer to drink with food. Nothing too, you know, you some beers now are like a full meal. There’s so much flavor going on and different things infused into the the brew. And we wanted something that really is really clean. I really like drinking laga. I think it’s a a brilliant beer. Right, I’m going to start mashing this up. Yes. Yeah. Okay, great. I mean, you can have a masher if you like. No, no. This is I mean, probably my favorite tool in the kitchen. This Yeah. Spatula, spoon, silicon spatula. And what prompted you to choose this recipe? So, I out of the out of the the ones I was looking at, I think this for the time of year and now, this is the one that was calling out to me. Absolutely. Now is November. It’s a little cooler and pumpkins and squashes and are just at the absolute peak. Yeah, I love anything that’s, you know, a pasta that’s kind of liazed with sage butter is pretty hard to beat. Yeah. And I remember making a pumpkin stuffed pasta at one of my first cooking jobs and it going not that well and I remember my head chef kind of he was one of my favorite head chefs and he he was brilliant and he just kind of coached me through it and taught me you know about how wet the filling should be and how it should be. cuz you used to bake the pumpkin and then we twice baked it so it just got rid of more moisture cuz in the restaurant you’d make the pasta and then it would sit and then if it’s too wet then it starts to destroy the structure of the dough and I remember that was one of my first proper pasta experiences and I loved all of the little lessons I took from it were really and they’ve stuck with me. So and I hadn’t made it in such a long time so I thought let’s do it. Yeah, let’s do it. And then I knew that well I expected that you’d you’d let me have a go with the rolling pin. So I was like right we’ll do that one I think. Excellent. So shall we add a bit of salt as well? We’ll do a tiny maybe a tiny bit of salt. I can only taste the cheese. The cheese is there. I don’t want to go too too much more. So I’ll just do add a bit of salt. Little bit of salt. Right. Should we let that hang out for a while and see if it changes and then Okay, cool. I’ll pop that over there. Now let’s get the rolling pins. pins. We got a few. So, it’s interesting feeling the dough now. This feels If I made this however many years ago, I would be terrified at how wet that is. Do you want to add a bit more flour? No. No, no, no, no. Because I think I think I’ve been making pasta very, very, very dry. Yeah. I mean, if you’re putting it through a machine, it needs to be drier because I wouldn’t I don’t think I’d want to put that through a machine. I think I’d have to No. No, you wouldn’t. I like to do lots of I’d have to do loads and loads and loads of flour. The hydration is different when you put it through a machine. Yeah. So, it does need So, this is fine. Great. So, I’ll I’ll relax. So, ideally, you don’t need lots and lots of flour if you’ve got the hydration right. Yes. That’s what I mean when I kind of talk about pasta because I’ve done a few recipes and videos on pasta. Yeah. And I think the thing that people do at home is make a really wet dough and then just chuck flour all over their kitchen, all over themselves, all over the pasta, and then it’s like, this is a horrible experience. And I think if you dial in that hydration, it’s just the joy, isn’t it? Yes. Yeah. It should be fine. So, let’s see. Let’s see. I see what we’ve done. Yeah. Let’s unwrap it and have a look. How long does that rest for? Not all that long. No, about 23 minutes. 23 minutes. Wow. I mean, you can, of course, roll right away. It’s just it’s as you know it springy. Yeah. So you want to create a disc. Okay. So that means turning it regularly. You kind of roll it. It’s like making pastry. Perfect. Um and so what you’re pressing on the outside and that’s fine, but as you get bigger, you’re you’re kind of I do it the wrong way round, but you’re you’re smoothing your hands along the board to create even pressure over the the pasta dough. And that’s as it comes out along Yeah. the the Yes. as you’re smoothing it, you’ll get to the point where you can flip it over. Now, turn it around. So, I just have kind of just step in. Oh, yeah. You got the That’s how you do it. Yeah. So, you really got to move quickly. Um Yeah. And keep it close to you. Okay. Um otherwise, you end up over here and it’s like you’re not pushing and then your pressure is not quite the same. And then eventually you’ll get to the point where you can start doing that, but it’s not quite there yet. Yeah. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that either. Do you want to let it rest a little bit? Maybe. Yeah, let’s let it hang out a bit and then we’ll come back to it. Yes. Finish our cup of tea. Yeah. Lovely. So, you’re getting married? I’m getting married. Your lovely um partner is called Louisa. Louisa. Yeah. And she um she’s in music. She works in the music industry. Yeah. She works for a festival called Green Man, but yeah, she’s she worked in music for years and years and years as long as I’ve been cooking. And it’s a it’s a brilliant combination. We meet in New York. We did meet in New York. Yeah. Um we were but we were at the same university but we’d never met and there was this kind of unwritten rule when when because a lot of folks from my course went all over the states and if you wanted to travel which of course everyone did um and if you went to a new city and there was somebody from our university there you just drop them a line and be like do you mind if I stay with you? Um because you know I mean especially in New York it was so expensive none of us had any money. So, um, my friend Anna brought Lou along to New York and then they ended up staying in my flat and then that’s how we met. Yeah, that was quite a long time ago. That’s good. We could also watch Vander if you like to see um how her technique. Let’s do it. Absolutely. Yeah, we’ve got that. Um, very good hands to the dough. So, we did this in the garden because the kitchen was so Granny’s kitchens are always really dark and really small. Yeah. Once the pasture is smooth. So this isn’t at the restaurant. No, this is their home in Ferrari. Yeah, that dough looks quite firm. Yeah. Well, she used the remember she used the uh semia began making pasta in her family’s grocery store which made lunchtime snacks. She’s moving. Yeah. And it grew to be a proper restaurant where she made pasta for several decades. So she’s less worried about perfection. She’s just kind of like getting it done. Getting it done. Rolls the pasta thin enough. All right. Should we give it a go? Yeah. So, it’s just kind of like don’t be too polite with it. Well, I think I was just a little bit apprehensive. Yes, I think I think you just have to get on with it. Okay. Yeah, roger that. What are your three essential gadgets? I think a microplane is a really useful thing to have. Uh microplane is super useful. I think a peeler like a speed peeler like a Y peeler is I so useful and I never leave if I go and do an event or cooking job or anything. I never leave home with that one. And if they’re too blunt, because over time people don’t replace them, but when they’re brand new and razor sharp, they’re brilliant. Um, and you know, I mean, a knife is obviously super important. That’s quite boring. Are you precious about your knives or No. Do you know? No, I’m not. I’m really not that. As long as it’s sharp. Yes. I don’t really mind because people can get really really kind of nerdy about knives. Yeah. But it’s not really not your thing. Not really my thing. No. I mean, you know, I I bought one knife when I first started cooking like professionally. I spent quite a lot of money on a knife and I still have it and I it’s still my favorite knife, you know. It’s a It’s called a Miso UX10 and it’s just Yeah, that’s it. Is that a Japanese knife? Well, it’s it’s it’s a Japanese it’s made it’s forged in Japan, but they use Swedish steel cuz they um you like Japanese steel can sometimes be quite finicky to um take care of. Yeah. And this one’s it’s pretty bulletproof, so it um it’s pretty easy to use and look after. Stays sharp for ages as well, which is So, how thin are we aiming to go? Oh, very thin. Ben is making a grand job of rolling it out. Um I’m doing now. He’s got rid of his um politeness with the dough. He’s just giving it some wellie. It’s definitely growing. It’s definitely growing. And we’re at the moment where you’re nearly at the point where you can kind of roll it around your pin and then kind of speed things up a bit. Okay. And that is that makes it faster. Yeah. And then the other thing you can do is is um start draping it off the edge. Hang it over the edge because that also anchors it and Oh, and then you can kind of push away. Yeah. And it’s keeping it quite um close to you so you don’t have to stretch too far. Yeah. If if you’re tall like you I’m quite long. I’ve got quite long arms. You don’t it don’t it’s less important for you. Yeah. What’s your favorite pasta shape? Oh. Um I really love long pasta. Okay. Really like tagini or I mean I really just love dried spaghetti to be honest. I really love it. I I mean it’s probably the one that I cook with the most or like a I love rigetoni. I quite like pastas that are robust. Dried dried pasta. I love dried pasta. I love and I think sometimes for some things I much prefer it to fresh. I mean they’re not um fresh pasta isn’t always better than dried pasta. It has different roles, different uses. Um so I mean everybody who makes fresh pasta has dried pasta in the cupboard. So yeah. Yeah. Looking good. Yeah, I think it looks okay. It’s still quite thick. It is. Yes. It’s a three egg dough. So, and and for a three egg dough, how big are you? You’re going to take up most of that board, right? We got some work to do here. Yeah. So, um you can’t talk about all your plans for the future, but you’re getting married next year. I’m getting married. I am working on a new project that has a cover a cover and some pages, but I mean, I can’t say too much more about it yet. Yeah. So, we’ll look forward to Yeah. more on that soon. When’s the announcement on that one? Uh hopefully quite soon in the new year. Great. But I’ll be talking about it on the Substack and Instagram and we just just launched. So the name of your Substack is Dinner with Ben. Is it How I Cook. How I cook. Yeah. And the the kind of the rationale for it is really a chef’s guide to home cooking. in it really I really like to draw upon the kind of tips and the little tricks that I learned in the restaurant industry because there are so many cuz I think a lot of things that chefs do people find a mystery things like you know brining a piece of meat or salting a piece of fish before you cook it or people think it’s like kind of magic and they can’t do it at home when in fact it’s all very easy I mean and it’s kind of gatekept a little bit and no one really speaks about it or and how do you like to celebrate Christmas. How do I like to How do I like to celebrate Christmas? Go home to your Yeah. Go home to the family. See See the folks in terms of cooking. Do some cooking. Yeah, we do keep it quite quite traditional really. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think there’s talk this year of not having turkey, which I wouldn’t be I do like turkey, but and I think I’d miss it if we didn’t eat it. Was your grandmother an influence on your say influencer then? No. Abs. Absolutely she was. She um my mom’s mom is is the last last lady standing of the grandparents and she’s she is a wonderful wonderful cook. She used to be a um she used to teach home economics and she’s taught in prisons and she’s done all sorts with food. Um she’s a brilliant brilliant cook. Big inspiration for me younger. Well, is she famous for any particular recipes or Oh, heaps. So many. Yeah. Well, she used to make we we were in a cookbook together when I was younger. Okay. Um, where I grew up, there was a kind of like well where she lived, there was a little town cookbook and she made she was in the women’s institute and she do loads of baking. So, she her and I made honey biscuits. My two sisters are in it as well. Um, which is just a really really simple honey honey biscuit. Um, but they’re just, you know, they have really special place in my heart and they kind of growing up and that’s always what I think of when I think about her and her cooking. And she’s still cooking. Absolutely. Okay. Cooking beautifully. She is 86. Believe. Yeah. So, we’ve got this lovely dough which is now about 60 cm. Yeah. It’s really grown. It’s really grown. Tell me about your experience of Thanksgiving. So, I had one Thanksgiving when I was living in New York. And Thanksgiving is when when is that in? It’s I believe it’s the last Thursday of November. Okay. I was very I was invited to go to my friend Oliver’s house. Yeah. Um and he lived in this amazing his parents had this amazing house in Carol Gardens in Brooklyn. Um and they were antique dealers. Oh. And the whole thing was just it was like something out of a film. It was so cool. Uh the kitchen was incredible. Huge table and there was about like 25 people all family. And then was me this kind of and I it was a kind of a potluck. So the idea of a potluck is you take a dish you take a dish along and you have to you have to contribute something. So I took Yorkshire puddings and they were all so confused when I showed up. And they were like what are these for? And in the states they call them popovers. Ah have you heard of those? No. No. Neither had I. I was like anyway so popovers. Popovers. And then it was just a it’s just a I mean it’s just like it’s just like how we do Christmas. It’s just a big one big meal and one big hang and everyone drinks a lot of wine and we definitely had pumpkin pie and I remember there being a kind of pumpkin bake as well almost like a gratan or it was quite a long time ago. There was I remember there being marshmallows involved with their pumpkin. Yeah. Good. The honey has arrived. Oh, fantastic. Honey has arrived. We’re so excited by the idea of Ben’s hot honey. Hot honey. hot honey that we got the delivery of the hot honey. Good. So, now you need to make kapalachi. Yes. And they’re about 7 cm, 8 cm. So, they’re quite large. Yeah. I think Well, I think I’ve made something similar cuz I watched the video and I watched um Vander shape them. And I think I’ve made something similar, but I mean, no matter how you shape them, they’ll taste the same. Yes. Um but we’re going to make little hats and they’re not too small. So it’s like the capillari isn’t is telling you that it’s it’s a the ly is the bit okay that denotes the size. Okay. So you can get precise about this and kind of um uh use your rolling pin to kind of keep the line straight. Oh, go on. I’ll do that. Yeah. And what about this kind of curved edge? Am I looking to straighten that off? Uh you just discard those. Yeah. So you’re you’re aiming for squares. So have to get rid of all the wiggly bits. So Ben is using the rolling pin to cut straight. That was a bit skinny that one. Um, is it Are these Are these for closing ravioli then? Is that what those teeth do? Yes, I think that’s what it is. What a stitch up. You’ve given him the wrong tool. I tell you what, let Should we knife? Let’s just use a knife. Do you mind if I just grab one? Yeah, that’s a bread knife. We don’t knife. Let’s use How about a kind of choppery type one? So, we’ve now got a whole bunch of squares. Um, shall I start popping some little dots of pumpkin on here? Yeah. Great. I’m going to crack on. So, I’m just putting little little teaspoons or kind of half cuz I’ve made I’ve cut my squares quite small. I’m putting little half teaspoons of the pumpkin mixture in the middle of each square. I’m kind of guessing cuz I from memory from the video. And then I’ve made a little triangle with the the filling in the middle. And then I’m just going to kind of join these two up. How How does that look? Is that kind of what we want? Yes. Great. I’ll pinch it. So then the pasta is all roughly the same thickness. I think I’ve been quite generous with the filling, so I’ve made it quite tricky for myself. Um, yeah. So there we go. Confirmed. So you’ve now got I would call that an isosles triangle. I don’t know if that’s true or not. Mathematicians amongst you will correct me. So, you’ve got the the two kind of narrow angles there. Stick your thumb underneath it like that. Your middle finger. Little four finger. That’s a fore finger. And then you wrap it around your finger and you’ve got like a duck’s tail like that. And what does the word mean? Little hat. Capalachi. A big hat is is capetti. Like it’s a a variation on capleti which it’s a hat, isn’t it? Technically capi the word means ugly hats. Ugly hat. Well, mine are definitely ugly hats. Now these are definitely not your supper in a rush. No week’s supper. This is these are what you would serve at this special occasion special occasion things. And there’s probably I mean obviously if you’re eating it in a restaurant then you would expect it. Christmas Christmas Eve cuz I mean you’ve got to have you must have to make so many of these to feed a crowd of That’s right. a hungry Italian family. It must be like hundreds of them. That Thanksgiving pasta. It is a Yeah. But then I mean traditionally it was always um a group thing. I mean you didn’t you didn’t do this on your own. You didn’t go solo. No. No. I mean you have everybody in the family kind of joining in to um the honor is running the show. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, what what of the future? What what do you what do you envision yourself of opening a restaurant, just becoming a cooker, book writer? I mean, I would love to to to just write books and and carry on the writing because I mean, that’s what I really enjoy doing. And the restaurant industry is a a really really tough business. It’s a really tough business and I I you know I’ve I’ve spent some years in that industry and I just don’t I don’t know whether I could go back to it just yet. I don’t like I don’t see that really on on the horizon for me. I’m really enjoying the writing and I would really love to continue doing that and I I really enjoy making I’ve just started doing kind of longer form videos which I’m really enjoying doing on YouTube. Yeah. Longer form how long form between 10 and 15 minutes. Um, so I’m really enjoying that process and I’m trying to really be quite open-minded about what’s next and what might come along. But I mean to be honest, if I can carry on doing what I’m doing now, you know, I’d be very happy, man. Yeah. Yeah. I feel very lucky to be doing what I’m doing and I’m fully aware that there are literally thousands and thousands of cooks who would bite my arm off to do what I’m doing. So, as long, you know, as long as I keep doing this, I’ll be very, very pleased. Do you think we have enough there? I’d say we’ve got enough for a plate of food. So, I feel my pasta could have been a little thinner. Yeah. But I mean, I think that’s the one of the keys with pasta is you think you’ve done it and then you have to do it a little bit more. Yes. Um and it is hard. It is hard. Yeah. I’ve now put the water on to boil for the for the kapalachi. Oh, and that’s the other thing we must do. What’s that? The butter and the sage. Oh, of course. Yeah. Now, how precious are um because when you work when I’ve have been serve when I’ve served pasta in butter and sage, the um chefs are very very precious about it not splitting and it being a lovely emulsion. Oh, do we care about that? No. Perfect. That’s the Yes, that’s great. Oh, so butter is here and some Yeah, we’ve got some sage there as well. Ben is now prepping the condiment, the dressing for the capalachi, which is butter and sage. So, melted butter and then sage fried in it to flavor it. Don’t eat the sage unless you really want to. Oh, I always eat the sage. I always eat sage. Sage. A really strong flavor. I’m It’s almost medicinal, isn’t it? Yeah. I I really like it the flavor in the butter, but actually sort of chewing on the leaf is Have you got a little plate? I can put these little pastas on. What are we going to put our pastas on? Yes, that’s a good question. So, how long are we going to cook these for? Do you think? Until they’re cooked. That’s a good answer. That’s what I always tell people when they ask me a question and they go, “That’s really that’s a really annoying answer. That’s a really annoying answer.” And I’m sorry that I can’t be more precise. No, I know. I mean, they might pop to the front. They might start bobbing to the surface. Quick question for you. Yes. So I have my instinct is now to kind of toss this in the melted butter. Yeah. And to add a little bit of water. Would you do that or is it just straight butter? There we go. Perfect. So it’s interesting because in I I’ve been taught to make this that like kind of like emulsion sauce. You add a bit of water and a bit butter and it like Well, if you want to. I know. I know. I really I haven’t been very traditional. We’re about to cover it in hot honey. So I feel enjoy enjoy this there. I mean that’s lovely lovely. Love watching people toss their pasta like that. It’s the best bit. Best bit. Best bit of the whole thing. I mean, it’s kind of getting that it’s kind of has that little texture now. It starts to thicken a little bit and really Do you think it needs the water? I don’t think Well, maybe it doesn’t. I mean, you know, when you make emulsions in in like French cookery or I mean any cookery really. I mean, it does the butter does require some water to say because it basically you’re trying to get it to this. This is an emulsified butter. Yes. Well, you can have water if you want. No, no, I know. I’m I’m I’m very It’s actually like incredibly hard to do and I won’t be able to do it. So, I’m very I’m very looking forward to eating this. Yeah. Bit more cheese. Mhm. Delicious. Now, do you think we should add the I think that Well, let’s try it without. Okay. Okay. And then we’ll have a go with Yeah. Then we get the full experience. Okay. Go for it. I’m going to It’s very very very It’s pretty It’s pretty hot. Cardful. One second. Card full. Card full. It’s delicious. Do you know what? I think we could have got away with a little bit more salt in it. Just a little bit. Okay. Maybe we put a bit more cheese on to help. Great flavors. Really nice. Pasta’s a little thick, but a little thick. For my first my first try with the with the rolling pin. I think it’s excellent first try. Thank you very much. I’m very pleased. No, it’s lovely flavors. Really really good flavors. I mean, they’re so classic, aren’t they? Yeah. You can’t go wrong with them. You can’t. And I think it’s, you know, hats off for actually attempting to do it by hand. I think it’s it’s quite scary. It is. Yeah. I mean, it is. And I think um well, it’s going to be first amendment. I mean, everybody would love that. Everybody will love that when they when they dig in when they dig in and stuff. So, thanks so much for for showing me. Yeah. Absolute pleasure. I’m um Vander would be completely thrilled that you are trying her recipe. She delighted. Yeah. And I’m now going to put some of your honey on this one. Oh, yes. Let’s do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um I’m actually really looking forward to this. I thought this would never be never go down in the past granny’s world. It’s really nice. God, that’s really good. Is it Is it sacri? Mhm. Yes, it is. Yeah. God, it’s good with like the salty cheese. Yeah. Sweet. The heat is lovely. Cuz I love cooking pumpkin with chili as well. Chili and sage and pumpkin are beautiful. It’s really, really good. God, that was a good call. So glad we got some. Thanks, guys. Fantastic. Wow. Great. Come and try it. Come and try it. Really good. Thank you so much, Ben. Pleasure. Thanks for having me. And um I’m now going to um give you a t-shirt. Oh, amazing. Yeah. Oh, great. So, as having a survivor of the Pasta Granny’s podcast, making your own pasta. Yeah. Got a successor. You’ve got the t-shirt. Wow. You’re part of the pasta granny’s family. Amazing. Thank you so much. Absolute pleasure. I’ve loved meeting you and all the best for with all your projects and look forward to hearing them and we’ll see you next year in Pulia. Absolutely. I’ll meet you there. Great. Thank you. Do check out the pasta granny’s recipe we cook today. You can find it on the YouTube channel on our podcast playlist which will feature all the Granny’s recipes we recreate here on the podcast. You can find us on Instagram at pastor granny’s and for extra content head to our website pastorannies.com. Thank you for listening. Catch you next week. 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