Feel the knead: Sydney's online pasta classes provide lockdown therapy

"Cut your pasta strips into pieces about two centimetres wide," says cook and caterer Michaela Johansson to a group of locked-down families, couples and housemates on a Saturday night.

"You don't have to be exact with the length, this is more about the technique. When everyone has given me a thumbs-up to say they're finished, I'll show how to shape the pieces into little cavatelli."

Through her Mediterranean-inspired catering business Aplenty, Johansson is one of many Sydney hospitality professionals pivoting to online cooking classes while COVID-19 restrictions are in place.

Zoom-based pasta classes have become particularly popular during lockdown for the therapeutic nature of turning dough into delicious, sauce-holding shapes such as orecchiette, pici and cavatelli (little oval shells which can be rolled on a fork, board or basket to create a textured pattern).

"I've even rolled cavatelli on a loaf of bread before just to prove how simple it can be to make," says Elizabeth Hewson, author of cookbook Saturday Night Pasta – published last year by Pan Macmillan.

As an extension on the book, which aims to provide "modern-day therapy" through pasta making, Hewson has started hosting online pasta rolling classes for private clients and will soon offer public-facing events through lockdown.

"The classes are a pursuit of imperfect pasta," she says. "The idea is to remove all the pressure that can come with learning something new and focus instead on the ritual – the kneading, the Louis Armstrong playlist, the wine on the side bench and the conversation that flows.

"I don't like to mute anyone's microphone – the experience should be similar to standing around a table rolling pasta, like families do in Italy, talking over each other and laughing."

Johansson's Aplenty classes are now in their fifth weekend and attract around 40 people across 20 screens each session.

For $140, participants can register online for a meal kit to be delivered on the Saturday, featuring ready-to-roll dough, Southern Highlands wine, a candle made by Nonna's Grocer in Wollongong, and all the ingredients for a sauce with cime di rapa, tomato, ricotta and 'nduja salami.

"The classes have become a nice way to collaborate with other local businesses and bring people together through lockdown with food," says Johansson.

"I open up the online meeting room at certain times for people to ask questions, but it's not a skills-based class where there's loads of information. It's a process where everyone is doing it together – a collaborative vibe rather than 'me teaching' vibe."

Ali Whittle is a freelance content creator who heard about the Aplenty classes from friends and had enrolled in two sessions to date: one for cavatelli, the other for sardines with young garlic, pine nuts and pici – a type of chunky spaghetti.

"It's nice to have something to look forward to on the weekend," she says. "My husband and I bought an extra kit for a couple we're friends with and then sat down for a virtual dinner afterwards.

"The pasta and sauce don't require a lot of skill to cook, but you still feel like you have made something special at the end of the night."

Sydneysiders can also register for a virtual pasta class with Darlinghurst Italian restaurant Sagra, which began hosting Saturday night cooking tutorials during the first wave of the pandemic.

"Initially we were doing three-course meals, but that was a bit much for one class, so this time we've cut it back to one pasta – hand-rolled so you don't need any equipment," says Sagra co-owner Jared Lanuza. "Repeat customers who joined every week last lockdown are buying the kits again too."

Lanuza says the hardest part of teaching pasta making online is conveying how the dough should feel, but has come up with a method for people to squish it with their fingers in front of their laptop screen.

"It gives us a lot of information on what they need to do to get the dough to where it should be," says Lanuza.

Sagra classes are capped at about 20 screens ("things get too chaotic otherwise") and Lanuza recommends checking the restaurant's Instagram page every Monday for what that weekend's pasta pack will be.

Kits are usually $50 per person and include a snack, cocktail and all the ingredients to make pici with mushrooms, egg yolk and pecorino, say, or gnocchi with scallops, leeks and pancetta.

Hewson's first public Saturday Night Pasta class will likely be September 4, but the cook is also selling self-care pasta boxes online: penne alla vodka next week, then pipis with fermented chilli butter (eyes masks, hot chocolate and sometimes cookie dough are also included).

Lockdown is the best time to master pasta making, Hewson says, regardless of whether an online class is involved.

"Cooking anything is much more relaxing when you don't have the stress that comes with feeding a whole bunch of friends and extended family. When you're making pasta for just yourself, or the people closest to you, that's when things tend to turn out right."