Alexa, set a timer for one minute. Alexa, set a timer for nine minutes. Alexa, set a timer for one minute. Alexa, don’t listen to Lily. Listen to me! There are thousands of techniques to master in the kitchen. I’d be lying if I told you I knew half of them. That’s why I’ve invited some of the best artisans, technicians, absolute masters of their craft to teach us the skills that they’ve spent a lifetime perfecting. Now, since competition is a lifeblood of innovation, I’ll be cooking against one of the Kitcheneers today to see if we can become master chefs over the course of one whole YouTube episode. Josh, I’m gonna beat you so hard, but not in a physical way. Please don’t beat me in a physical way. Maybe in a physical way. You’re dense. I have shoulder issues. Meet me in the parking lot. Anyways, you ready to meet our master pasta chef, Nadia Munno AKA The Pasta Queen? Yeah, The Pasta Queen! Today we’re making something crazy, pumpkin candy pasta. Making homemade pasta is not impossible. Massage with the passion of the Italian sun. Add in the tears of the pasta gods to make it creamy. Just gorgeous. Nadia Caterina Munno, welcome to Mythical Kitchen. Everybody give it up. Give it up. Thank you. Of course. Of course. Prego is the one. It’s both the best pasta sauce and my favorite word in Italian. Well, thank you for having me. Of course. You were one of the first people that I followed on TikTok, where you go by The Pasta Queen. Oh wow, I didn’t know that. We’ve been friends for years at this point, but we would love you to show us how to make traditional handmade pasta, because like we’ve talked, you know, cooking is all about tradition and skill and a lot of technical prowess that we don’t have time to learn these things. But you’ve spent your entire life making this. So, we would love to learn from you today. Okay. That’s a lot of pressure. It’s a lot of pressure on us ’cause we’re gonna be cooking for you later, and you literally come from a pasta dynasty. Yeah, I was born into a pasta dynasty. My great, great, great, great, great-grandparents in the 1800’s started a pasta factory in the south of Italy. So by the time I came along, I was born into a macaroni dynasty. To this day we’re called The Macaronis in the south of Italy. It’s super simple. All you need is flour and eggs. Yeah, if you could just start showing us. Okay. Please. First of all- We’re here to learn. This is not a rule that is 100% right all the time because this flour has been out. Maybe it got dried out. Maybe it weighs less. Maybe there’s more water content in it and more humid, so it might weigh a little bit more. But as a rule thumb, we’re doing 100 grams for one large egg. Today we’re doing 300 grams. So, you’re gonna need three eggs for 300 grams of flour. Do you think that everybody should own a scale? And also in Italy, do people own scales? 100%. Yeah. And please measure in grams, because this measuring in cups is really confusing, okay? Especially with flour ’cause there’s so many ways to measure flour. See, so here you got the 300 grams. We’re creating a well, also known as the volcano of love. Did you know that? I did not, but in Italian, it probably sounds way better. Volcano of love sounds like a reality show that Lily would watch on Netflix. Yeah, I probably would. Guys, you can do this very fancy. You can take a little spoon, a little, and put a beautiful, but I do this like Veronas. That’s why we do this because you got, you can use it in several ways. In this case, we are creating the well. This is the only tool you need if you are an Italian cook. It takes one most important thing, and that is the Italian passion. So, there’s one thing that you gotta know. Crushed it. I’m kind of moving the well, so that the walls of the volcano are a little bit more open. One grave mistake is to spill the egg outside, because when they’re this liquidy, they’re gonna go all over the place. What happens if you do do that? Should you start over or should you just keep going? No, don’t start over. Nothing is wasted. I agree. No, you just gonna like slap yourself and say, “Pasta gods forgive me for this grave mistake.” You’re just gonna go like this, right? And whisk it. Okay. Very gentle until it becomes pasty. When it becomes pasty, you are cool. It’s not gonna go everywhere, right? Yeah. Runny egg all over your counter. Also, the most important thing is that you’re in a good mood when you do these kind of things, and you are with people that you love. I hope you love Lily. It looks like you love her. I enjoy your company as a… I think you’re a diligent coworker and a good friend. I wish we hung out more. We both live different lives. Yeah. You gotta vibe. You gotta vibrate. I’m busy this weekend. I’m sorry. Yeah. You’re gonna be doing this, you know? Do you wanna be gentle with it, or do you want to like, knead it like a bread dough to elongate the gluten structures? Right now, you’re gonna be gentle. Okay. You’re kind of grabbing before it goes too dry. Mm. Gentle and fast, you know? Gentle but fast. Don’t push too, too hard. Don’t push too hard. Gentle but fast. Gentle but fast, but you definitely wanna grab. Ask for directions. By kneading it kind of creates this golden, beautiful food blessed by the pasta gods. Yeah, you wanna cook with feel and with instinct. Then that’s why it’s important to learn by doing it by hand, as opposed to this following, you know? At this point, you need to go with a lot of strength. You press on the side. I see it. You see how it springs back? That’s what you’re looking for. Yeah. Okay. Enough air is being incorporated and now we let it rest for 20 minutes. All right, and then we’ll get to rolling out? Yes. Let’s do it. Alright Nadia, so we have our fresh past right here, and now we have to roll it out, and actually cut it into our shapes? Yes, so basically you’re just gonna flour a little bit your surface. You’re gonna flatten it into a round little, like, almost like a little pizza. Okay. I know that one. I’ve had that one. And then you’re going to… What is this? It’s a French rolling pin. Sorry! Lily, get the good one! We’re not baking it cake. Do you? We’re doing pasta. We don’t know. We’re stupid. It’s even worse! This? Oh no! What’s a good rolling pin to you? It’s the Nonna rolling pin. Get a wine bottle! Give me the other one. Listen, 500 years ago, they didn’t have rolling pins. I think, maybe. They did, actually. Yeah, well, you know. Agree to disagree. Well, how do you like they made like chariots and stuff? Yeah, I don’t know. Or the horse carriages? I assumed like 400 years ago, everyone was eating rocks. How did you think that the Coliseum structure was built? There was a wooden structure. The Coliseum was built in 1972. The one in LA? The Coliseum in LA? The Rams play there. Oh my goodness. Good. You see what I have to deal with? You can tell I’ve never been to Italy. What? Oh, god. I didn’t mean… No, I’m sorry. I would love to. I just… Nobody’s ever… What? You’ve never invited me over and I don’t know. What the heck? How are you gonna know what pasta takes like? From Olive Garden? Yeah! Yeah! All right, Olive Garden’s amazing. Unlimited breadsticks. We’re going from bad to worse! They have a Tour of Italy, where you can get Fettuccine Alfredo, Italy’s national dish. Yeah, great. And lasagna. The salad unlimited. The breadsticks unlimited. You can eat all the breadsticks you want. Guys, let’s stop with this, okay? The pasta is getting angry. So, we’ve gone down to about three millimeters, okay? We’re gonna basically fold this onto itself. And so we’ve incorporated a lot more flour in there, as you rolled it out. See, the thing is this. If you don’t add enough flour, the moment you see how it’s got a little bit of moisture. Yeah, yeah. Can you tell? Yeah. And look. See the moisture? It looks supple, like a baby’s skin. When you cut it, it’s gonna stick to itself. You have to make sure that you’re flouring enough as you go. To me, the best, most important thing, is when you see someone eat your food and you make their day, or they’ve had a bad day and all of a sudden, they’re eating and they feel so much happier. You know what I mean? We might make your day worse. Oh, god. Now we’re gonna cut it, okay? So, we’re cutting it really thin. Of course, I’m gonna try to make it as even as possible. This is Tagliolini, correct? Tagliolini, si. Yeah, I hit the hard “G”. Have you heard of a Negroni Sbagliato? I have, actually. With Prosecco? With Prosecco in it. All right so Nadia, we have our beautiful Tagliolini here. Si. All right, so now Lily and I are gonna make our pastas. You can go, sit back, relax, grab a glass of wine. No way. You know, we have some beautiful olives, some lovely starters and appetizers on the menu. And then, Lily and I are gonna cook our signature pastas for you. Oh my goodness. For real? You think you’re ready? No. Me neither. Lily, before us, we have one single egg. Yes. 100 grams of flour. We’ll be cooking exactly one portion of pasta for Nadia Caterina Munno, The Pasta Queen. Do you feel like she’s equipped us? I think she has, yeah. We’ll see. I don’t wanna break the well. I’m scared to break the well. I’m not gonna break the well. All right, I guess let’s get to it. Okay, dump it out. Don’t look at me. Don’t cheat. Because as you can tell, I’m an incredibly technical cook. You know this. Listen, this whole idea behind the show is that cooking is about technique and it is, but it’s also not at all. Yeah. Cooking’s about vibes. Yeah, totally. We’re totally vibing out right now. You got the egg in the well. Okay, patience, patience. What if my volcano of love explodes too soon? My hole is too wide. Is that a problem? I don’t know if your hole should be big or small. I don’t know. Once my cat had a prolapsed hole. Yeah, I’m saying screw it. I’m already- You’re already there? Well… Yeah, yeah. I made myself get there. I’m just gonna fork it. I’m gonna fork all the volcano of love. Okay, like going from point A to point B isn’t the important part. It’s like once you get to the pasta dough ball and you’re kneading it, that’s when the money is made. Do you know what dish you’re making? Yeah, I’m making a mussel Tagliolini. Tagliolini! Tagliolini! If they’re making Tagliolini, I think Tagliolini is a very delicate shape, because it’s not so wide. I am using the mussel stock to make a butter sauce. I’m gonna do a dehydrated, cured, smoked egg yolk. Remember that time when she was like, “Italian food is about simplicity. Guys, come on.” That was good. Thank you. Anyways, you think you’re going simple with this? Yeah, I do. I want the pasta to shine in this dish. Smoked, cured, egg yolk? It’s very subtle, you know? Okay, so I’m going seafood too. Okay. ‘Cause like she said- Copycat. No, no, no! She talked about how Tagliolini is a delicate pasta. In Italy, it’s very important that you use the right sauce for the right pasta. You do not want to put condiments with it that are really heavy, because you will actually break the noodles. So I’m gonna go high citrus, high acid, but I also wanna play on like a Viet Cajun crawfish boil. Okay. And garlic noodles. Yeah, I think we’re both going with some cool technique. I’m excited. All right, we got our rested pasta dough out. It’s looking somewhat similar. I think you gotta push it to see if it’s got the spring back. Spring back. Mine’s springing. Yours springing? Yeah, mine’s springing. Right, we’re gonna start rolling out your pasta. I’m gonna put a ton of flour on there, man. Let’s see how fast we can do it. Nadia was really mashing a lot of flour in there. Yeah. And I know what she said about trying to make it round. I’m gonna try to make a square. I have nothing but love for the slow food movement and artisans that take their time. I’m also incredible impatient in the kitchen, and I think sometimes it works to my advantage. All right, time to cut. I want long ass noodles. Long ass noodles. You know how you get an ass noodle sometimes? Wait, okay, I’m gonna go this way. No, wait. This way. Well, your pasta looks like garbage, straight up. Straight up, that looks terrible. No, it doesn’t. I’m fine. I’m fine. Fold it. Flour it. Fold it. Flour it. You gotta flour it in between or otherwise it’s gonna stick. ‘Cause of the flour, I’m actually gonna be relying on a lot of the flour to emulsify my pasta sauce here, because I’m just going butter, white wine, fish sauce. And so instead of doing any sort of like roux… Are you going roux? Are you adding flour directly to your sauce? No. You going just pasta water? Just pasta water. All right. Ooh. Oh, I got it. I put this marker on my finger. What? For Tagliolini. Are you kidding me? I mean, yeah, but- You put a marker on your finger? Did you ever like cheat on your tests and like write on your hand and then you forgot it’s there, and then it gets all like washed away? No, that’s probably why I dropped out of school. If I would’ve been that smart… Dang, you did that? Yeah, I did it. She was going quick on the cuts, so I’m gonna assume that that was the key to her success. Interesting. When the moon hits… You’re getting- Like a big… You’re getting- That’s amore! I got a quarter to a half cup of sweat in my pasta. Bro, you made straight up Fettuccine. I think Tagliolini is a very delicate shape, because it’s not so wide. You know what? Bro, get outta here with the Fettuccine ass pasta. Hold up. I think this looks pretty good. Yeah, I think yours… I mean, they’re pretty similar. Mine’s a little thicker, but. Ain’t nothing wrong with the thickness. We’re down with the thickness. You ready to cook? Yeah, let’s cook it. Lily, I got a quarter cup of sweat just pooling in a panties down here. My biceps are cramping from all the rolling, but at long last we have our Tagliolini, or… I don’t even remember. I’m sorry, Nadia. We got this cut up. Tell the people what you’re making. I’m gonna get some shallots and garlic sweating. I am making a mussel Tagliolini. I have some smoked, cured egg yolk. I have this mussel stock that is reducing right now. I’m gonna mount some butter in there, add some garlic and some lemon and get this cooking. How about you Josh? I’m so glad you asked, Lily, because since we talked to Nadia, I had a plan of what I was gonna make, and I’ve since cut about eight ingredients from that plan and I still have a ton of ingredients, so I think this is going really great for me. Lily, you’re Vietnamese American, right? Yes. That’s great news. I’m making Vietnamese American food. I’ve made a lot of questionable decisions. Yeah. But here we are. I’m making a play on there’s a Viet American dish called garlic noodles that I ate a whole lot of growing up in Orange County. The two ingredients are basically garlic and noodles, but there’s some fish sauce and cooking wine in there as well. I’m fusing that with Italian food, and I’m gonna also add some crawfish in there with a little bit of charred lemon. Speaking of which, let’s char off a freaking lemon. But, Nadia said that she wanted simple food, so I’m gonna make some simple food right here. If it was me, I would use very simple, structured sauces. Like a creamy lemon or a lemon and butter, or a simple tomato and basil. Do you think your pasta, would you call it simple? I think it is simple. I used kind of minimal ingredients. I wanted the pasta to shine in this dish. I didn’t wanna overpower it with like too much, you know, garlic or crawfish. Oh, god. And the fish sauce. I’m going pretty heavy with the garlic, the crawfish and the fish sauce, but I don’t know. It’s smelling all kinds of good. God, I hope she likes fish sauce. Okay, to me, the reason I’m using fish sauce is because to me, Parmesan cheese and fish sauce have the same sort of quality to it. It’s just umami, right? It’s umami. It’s salt. It’s fermentation. It’s a beautiful char in that lemon. This is gonna cut some of the citrus that I’m already getting with that white wine in there. Right. I might be ready to drop my dang pasta. Let me give this a little taste real quick. I mean, it’s not short on flavor. I want a little bit more. Wait, I wanna taste. It’s a hefty flavor punch. It’s pretty good, yeah. Right? Okay. I have some real competition over here. I feel pretty good about this. Did you drop your pasta? I haven’t dropped my pasta. I’m dropping it now. Okay. Pasta in there. Ow! Why did I do that? I just reached in with my fingers. Alexa, set a timer for one minute. Alexa, set a timer for nine minutes. Alexa, set a timer for one minute. Alexa, don’t listen to Lily. Listen to me! Pasta… Why am I not using chopsticks? Oh no, we’re gonna boil over. Practice like you play. Okay, my pasta’s boiling over. I love that. Ow, god. I burnt the hell outta myself on that. This is lovely. It’s springy. I’m gonna use all of it. I’m just- This is going great. I’m just- No, it’s going great. I’m pulling. God, why don’t these tongs work? Okay, it’s sticking together a little bit. That’s fine. Some of the pasta water to actually thicken that sauce up a little bit. Do you want a little pasta water? I’m gonna toss in my crawfish. I’m panicking. A nice stir. Lily, don’t panic. I’m panicking. Don’t panic, Lily. We’re doing great at this point. I’ve got these mussels. Why are we panicking? We cook all the time. I’m panicking! It’s what we do. Mm. Hold on. I’m gonna try and twirl the pasta. Don’t look at me. Oh. I’m gonna use this. She uses a ladle, but no, this is just… No, rustic! She said rustic. I need a point wipe. Chives on top. That pasta twirl. Oh, you impressed now? I am a little bit. It’s a good looking plate of pasta. Little bit of burnt lemon on top, couple drops. Couple drops. I’m shaving some egg yolk on top. Awesome. Hey, let me try it. That’s good. That’s cool ’cause it’s like a Parmesan without using a Parmesan. That looks pretty good, Lily. That’s looking pretty solid right there. All right, here we have our Vietnamese Cajun garlic crawfish Tagliatelle. And I have my mussel Taglio… Tagliolini? No, Tagliatelle? Tagliolini? I don’t know. I don’t know. You put flowers on it? Yes! Oh, yeah. Nothing says simple like flowers. Nadia Caterina Munno. Okay. What’s happening? Lily and I have put all of our 500 years of Italian passion into our pastas. Wow. What we have here is Tagliolini with a crawfish Ragu with shallot, garlic, fish sauce, cayenne pepper, thyme, finished with some chives. This is a play on a Vietnamese American dish. Nice. Nice touch. Okay. It’s so good. Let’s go! Wow, Josh. No, Nadia, stop. Come on. This is really good. Thank you. Okay. I learned from the best. Okay. Okay, I made a mussel Taglio- Tagliolini. I can’t do it. Like it’s a “Y”, right? Tagliolini. Tagliolini. Perfecto. Okay, and then I made a sauce with mussel stock and butter with a little bit of shallot and garlic. I did a cured and smoked egg yolk on top with some roasted butternut squash, with a little brown butter. So fancy! It’s a lot of pasta, but it’s good for me. It’s an American portion. Look at this. Mm. This is so good. What the heck? Guys, I’m really excited about this. Can we just group hug real quick, ’cause we were so nervous about this. We were so nervous. Okay, so I have to rent from one to ten? Yes. Okay. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. I give it a seven. All that for? You were moaning and dancing for like 90 seconds, for a seven? A seven is a lot. Okay, I’ll take it. A seven is huge. Thank you. Okay, this is a five. Are you saying that I am the- But, guys! Oh, okay, okay. Guys, you have to understand that my standards… I’m talking about like, not just giving you a nice It’s in Italy, like something to make you feel good about yourself. Sure. Mhm. I’m being honest. Who would you say mastered the technique better? You. Because I can see that, and I’ll tell you exactly why. I’ll tell you exactly why. This is a little dry. This one is more creamy. You’re saying that I am the better technical chef than Lily, and this will live on the internet forever. Nadia, truly though- I’m not saying anything. In this one dish, then I can come back again, and you can cook some more and then maybe Lily will win. Because, I love Lily. Look at her. I know, I know. She’s fantastic. Well, I’m coming back to Italy with you, so… Nadia, please, tell the folks where they can find you. She has a lovely cookbook out. Tell them all about it. My cookbook is out everywhere in the United States where books are sold. I invite you to buy it. It’s a beautiful love letter to my family, to Italy, to my ancestors that really cared for food. I’m The Pasta Queen. You can follow me everywhere. You can google me. You’ll find me on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, everywhere. I really appreciated you guys having me today. No, thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for teaching us. Thank you for judging us. Thank you for being honest. No, I wanted to be honest. This was a genuine review. Thank you. Thank you so much. Of course. The food was delicious. Will you be paying cash or card? No. I’m sorry, I don’t speak Italian! Thank you all for subscribing. We’ll see you next time. Hey, you! Cook up your own feast, while wearing the Mythical Kitchen apron, available now at mythical.com.