Pasta Making with Nonna
Welcome to Pasta Making with Nonna — where ancient Tuscan tradition meets floury hands, festival sunshine, and the kind of warmth that only comes from making something beautiful with your own two hands.
Since 2017, Flash Festival's pasta-making sessions with the local Nonna have been among the most talked-about moments at the entire event — and 2026 brings back both the originals and some long-awaited new additions.
Wednesday - Saturday | 45 minutes sessions | Pasta Making Tent
Maccheroni, The Tagliatelle Aretine
The pasta that started arguments (and ended them)
Nonna's been making this pasta longer than you've been alive. She's watched empires of bad tagliatelle rise and fall. And now, for four magical days in May, she's decided to let you in on the secret.
In this class, you'll learn the art of Tagliatelle Aretine the way it's been made in Tuscany for generations — a Tuscan classic from the hilltop city of Arezzo, made by hand, made with love, and made properly (her words, not ours).
No experience needed. No judgement. Just dough, a rolling pin, and a teacher who actually wants you to get it right. You'll leave with floury hands, a full heart, and the dangerous confidence to say "actually, I make my own pasta now."
✦ BEGINNERS WELCOME ✦ HANDMADE ✦ FROM AREZZO
€22 + Booking Fee
Topini, The Little Tuscan Gnocchi
Little mice, big magic.
Little mice. That's what in Tuscany we call them. Small, round, soft little pillows of potato that scurry onto your plate and disappear before you've even sat down properly.
Join our festival Nonna as she teaches you to make Topini — a Tuscan secret that Florence, Livorno and Arezzo have been quietly keeping to themselves for generations. Smooth, handrolled and nothing like the gnocchi you think you know, these little beauties are made for special occasions. Which, as far as we're concerned, a sunny May festival absolutely counts as.
You'll learn to roll, shape and love every tiny one of them — before smothering them in a rich sugo. Nonna's orders.
No experience needed. Just come hungry, come curious, and try not to eat them all before they reach the sauce.
✦ BEGINNERS WELCOME ✦ HANDMADE ✦ TRADITIONAL TUSCAN
€26 + Booking Fee
Pici, The Etruscan Spaghetti (Vegan)
The pasta that predates everything. Including excuses.
Before there was pasta. Before there was flour and egg and all the fuss. There was Pici.
Thick, rustic, gloriously imperfect — Pici is the pasta the Etruscans were probably rolling by hand before Rome was even a plan. It's peasant food in the very best sense: no eggs, no frills, no apologies. Just flour, water, a little olive oil, and the kind of elbow grease that makes you feel like you've genuinely earned your dinner.
Join our festival Nonna as she teaches you to hand-roll these magnificent, chunky strands the old Tuscan way — where no two pieces are the same and that, darling, is entirely the point.
Naturally vegan, endlessly satisfying, and roughly 2,500 years old. Not bad for something made with three ingredients.
Come ready to roll up your sleeves. Nonna didn't survive the Etruscans to go easy on you.
✦ BEGINNERS WELCOME ✦ NATURALLY VEGAN ✦ ANCIENT TUSCAN TRADITION
€22 + Booking Fee
Nonna’s Artisanal Farfalle
Nonna has been patient. She taught you to roll, to shape, to respect the dough. And now — now she's going to let you play.
Farfalle are the pasta world's little overachievers. Two neat cuts, one perfect pinch in the middle, and suddenly you've made something that looks like it belongs in a Florentine garden rather than a saucepan. They're fiddly, they're fun, and they are — whisper it — the most charming thing you will ever make with your bare hands.
Join our festival Nonna for her most elaborate class yet, as she guides you through the art of handmade Farfalle — fresh, beautiful, and deeply satisfying to get right. This is pasta making as it should be: a little technical, a lot of laughs, and entirely worth the effort.
Fair warning: once you've made your first butterfly, you won't want to stop. Nonna knows this. She's counting on it.
✦ SOME CONFIDENCE HELPFUL ✦ HANDMADE ✦ MOST ELABORATE CLASS
€26 + Booking Fee
🍴 EAT YOUR OWN PASTA! 🍴
After your class, head straight to La Mangeria — our dedicated food area — where you can get your pasta cooked and enjoy what you've just made! Pick from a selection of simple, delicious freshly made sauces prepared daily. Vegan and vegetarian options available. All included in your experience ticket.
Meet the Nonna
Actually two Nonne (pronounced 'nonnae')
NONNA GINETTA
The original. The icon. The one people spot from across the field and immediately run over to hug.
If you've been to Flash before, you already know Ginetta. And if this is your first time — well, consider yourself lucky, because you're about to meet someone who will ruin all other pasta for you, forever, in the very best way.
Ginetta believes that the art of pasta making lives in people's hands and in the love they press into the dough as they roll. That love, she'll tell you, travels straight into the flavour. Which is why she has always believed that anyone — absolutely anyone — can learn to make great pasta. You just have to mean it.
She will hate us for saying this, but Ginetta is one of the finest pasta chefs in Arezzo and the surrounding area. Hers has been a life dedicated to the perfect sfoglia: she worked as the pasta maker at the renowned Logge Vasari restaurant, and led a celebrated team of cooks for the Maccheronata at Porta Crucifera during the Giostra del Saracino. The woman has credentials.
But more than any of that — Flash Festival's entire pasta making concept was born with Ginetta in 2017, and has grown with her every year since. We don't just have a pasta class. We have her pasta class. And for that, we are endlessly, wholeheartedly grateful. 🍝
NONNA SILVIA
Some people earn their titles. Nonna Silvia earned hers in 2023, the year she was officially upgraded from Mamma to Nonna in Benedetta's family (IYKYK).
Armed with an endless collection of recipes passed down through generations, Silvia has always known that the best cooking happens at home, from scratch, with love as the main ingredient. She is living proof that a family kitchen - the real kind, flour on the counter and all - can be the most powerful culinary school there is.
A gem of the Flash Famiglia from the very first day of the festival, Mamma/Nonna Silvia has fed us, warmed us, and quietly raised the bar for what Tuscan home cooking can be. Now, she brings that same warmth and generosity to the pasta-making class - and we couldn't think of a better teacher.
