Skip to content

🍝 Block 13–14: Pasta & Grains from Scratch

← Block 11–12: Vegetables | Block 15–16: Beef →

"Making pasta from scratch is not about showing off. It's about understanding gluten, hydration, and the relationship between flour and time — which teaches you more about cooking than any recipe."

The Block 13–14 philosophy: These two weeks are about making things from scratch that most people buy. Not because scratch is always better — it isn't always — but because understanding the process makes you a better cook with even the store-bought version. When you've made your own pasta dough, you know what "properly hydrated" feels like and why overworked dough turns tough. That knowledge transfers everywhere.

Before you start Block 13, read:

Block 13 — Pasta Dough: The Foundation

⏰ Planning Ahead

  • Service 13 (PROJECT: Italian Pasta Dinner): make Bolognese the morning of — it needs 3 hrs
  • Session 55 (Persian Rice + Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder): lamb shoulder takes 4 hrs; start by early afternoon
  • Session 56 (Polenta + Osso Buco): osso buco braise takes 2–3 hrs; start by early afternoon

Block 14 — Grains: Rice, Polenta, and Beyond

"Every culture has a grain at its center. Learning to cook grains properly — not just until they're done, but until they're excellent — is a quiet superpower."

Optional: Go Deeper

These aren't required reading — but if something from this block sparked a question, here's where to go.

Fresh Pasta: the Physics

Fresh pasta looks like pure craft but it's mostly chemistry. The ratio of egg yolks to flour, how the gluten develops as you knead, and why resting the dough matters are all understandable and learnable.

  • 📖 The Best Slow-Cooked Tomato Sauce — The sauce you pair with your fresh pasta defines the dish as much as the pasta itself. This is the canonical red sauce recipe.
  • 📖 Fresh Egg Pasta — The full technical breakdown of fresh pasta from Kenji, including the science behind the dough.

Risotto: Why the Stir Matters

Risotto is not about patience. It's about starch gelatinization and gradual liquid absorption. Once you understand the mechanism, you can make it in 18 minutes.

  • 📖 The Key Techniques for Perfect Risotto — The full technical breakdown: why the stock goes in gradually, what the starch is actually doing, and how to read the risotto's texture at each stage rather than relying on a timer.

Watching a Pro Do It

  • 📺 Pasta Grannies — Documentary-style videos of Italian grandmothers making regional pasta. No voiceover required — just watching the hand technique is the education.

A Book Worth Having

Unit 2 Capstone — Skills Benchmark & Readiness Check

The rule: Recipes are allowed for preparation and mise en place. Once service begins — meaning once anything goes on the heat — close the tabs.

⏰ Planning Ahead

  • Session 62 (High-Heat Whole-Bird Roast): dry-brine the bird the night before this session
  • Service 16 (PROJECT: Duck Confit): cure the duck legs the evening before; plan for 4–6 hr low cook

Session 58 — Menu Planning

Skill: Professional kitchens don't decide what to cook while standing in front of the stove. They plan. Tonight's task: design a 3-course dinner menu for the Service using only techniques you've learned in Blocks 1–12. Write the menu down. Plan the timing. Make your shopping list.

Questions to ask yourself while planning:

  • Does the menu have balance? (Rich and light? Warm and cool? Fat-forward and acid-bright?)
  • Can I execute all three courses in the same kitchen, at the same time, without losing my mind?
  • Is there anything on this menu I'm not confident about? (If yes, practice that thing this week, not the Service.)

Session 59 — Dry Run: The Most Difficult Component

Whatever you identified as the hardest part of the project menu — make it tonight as a dry run. No guests, no pressure. Just you and the technique.

Full Meal: Your chosen dry-run dish + a salad that complements it (use a dressing style you've already practised) + whatever protein is simplest alongside

Session 60 — Knife Speed Benchmark

Skill: Time yourself dicing one onion. This is the third benchmark in the program ( and were the others). Write the time down. You should be measurably faster than Block 2. More importantly: are your cuts more uniform? Speed is the secondary metric. Consistency is the primary one.

Full Meal: Serious Eats — Thai-Style Larb (Ground Meat Salad) + Serious Eats — Jasmine Rice + Serious Eats — Quick-Pickled Cucumbers

Larb requires a lot of fine knife work — fresh herbs, shallots, chili, lemongrass if using. It's also deeply delicious, uses acid (lime juice) and umami (fish sauce) in a way that is immediately instructive, and is unlike anything in the previous 12 weeks.

  • Protein: Ground pork or chicken, toasted with spices
  • Starch: Jasmine rice
  • Salad: Quick-pickled cucumbers alongside

Session 61 — Final Prep Day

Mise en place everything for the project dinner. Every sauce component prepped. Every vegetable cut. Every protein seasoned in advance (if appropriate). Every sauce component thought through. The goal: the Service service should feel calm and controlled, not frantic and reactive.

Dinner tonight: Something simple and low-effort — Serious Eats — The Best Grilled Cheese + Serious Eats — Tomato Soup — because you deserve a night off the skills grind.

⏰ Service 15 — The Unit 2 Capstone Dinner

The cook: Execute your planned 3-course dinner for at least two guests. No recipes open during service. All techniques drawn from Blocks 1–12.

Suggested framework if you can't decide:

  1. Starter: Serious Eats — Classic Shrimp Cocktail with Homemade Sauce — knife skills, salt timing
  2. Main: Serious Eats — Pan-Seared Duck Breast with Cherry Pan Sauce + Serious Eats — Creamy Polenta + Serious Eats — Roasted Root Vegetables — heat control, pan sauce, seasoning in layers
  3. Salad / Cheese: A composed cheese plate with good bread, honeycomb, and a handful of dressed greens — no recipe needed, just judgment

Skill targets: Everything on the table at the same time. At least one course where you can identify all four flavor elements — salt, acid, fat, umami — working in balance. No recipe tabs open during service.

This is the most important reflection yet. Five questions, five sentences minimum each:

  1. What is the technique you've improved most since Block 1?
  2. What still feels unnatural or mechanical?
  3. Which recipe from the past 13 weeks do you want to master — cook repeatedly until it's genuinely yours?
  4. What ingredient have you cooked with for the first time that you now want to use regularly?
  5. You're 25% of the way through the program. Where do you want to be by the end?

← Block 11–12: Vegetables | Block 15–16: Beef →