Jakkie makes music with food

LOUW: ROCKER TAKES TIME TO DO WITH PASTA WHAT HE DOES BEST WITH MIC

- Hein Kaiser

frikaans rocker Jakkie Louw is more at home in front of a mic stand than a pasta machine. But he loves cooking and cranked out fresh pasta and learnt how to make an original Alfredo pasta in a single morning. Scratch cooking is much like finding and treasuring original music.

Chef Noli aka Manny Nichas of Pasta Barra in Brooklyn, Pretoria, did the teaching. It took time, but that's what slow food is all about.

Nichas started with teaching the basics when making pasta from nada. "Half doppio zero flour for smoothness, half semolina for bite," he said, and weighed out 100g of each.

Into a well in the centre went 130g of egg, mostly yolk for colour and richness.

"Too wet, more flour. Too dry, more egg," he said. Louw, more used to set lists than ingredient lists, watched as Nichas made the first fold of egg into flour.

"So this is like mixing a track, get the balance wrong and you have a flop."

Once mixed, it's got to be kneaded. The fold and push motion while kneading the dough, Nichas said, comes from the "Pasta Grannies" of Italy.