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cellophane, and then cut it into four equal pieces. Pat each of the pieces into a little shortcake. Something about a finger’s width thick. You don’t have to use a rolling pin or anything like that because the pasta maker is going to do that for you. Now comes the hardware. Pasta machines tend to have different settings, but on a 10 scale, you will want to start at a 10 and run one of your quarters of dough through the machine. It will come out as a flat sheet. Lower your setting to nine, and run the sheet through again, and again — note that you will have to dust it with flour on occasion — until you get to a setting of three. (Any finer and flatter than that and you’ll get angel hair pasta.) Once your dough is level-three flat and ready, run it through the slicer slot of the pasta maker. A fettuccini width is ideal for steak pizzaiola. If this is your first time using a pasta maker, prepare to be amazed. It really will emerge from the machine looking like fettuccini! While you work your other three quarters of dough through the machine to make freshly formed fettuccini, drape the prepared pasta on your drying rack. When you’ve finished, add all of the pasta to boiling water. Warning: Unlike the hard stuff from the store, fresh pasta will be ready in about four minutes. Plate and serve. It’s that easy, and the results will wow. When you’re standing over the stove — or earlier yet, when you are standing in the grocery store aisle daring yourself to go for it, to reach for that ingredient you’ve never before tried, that food that other people cook, but never you, just remember: You can do it. Go for it. I’m a self- taught cook. Growing up, I watched my mother and my grandparents cook. As I got a little older, I tried to make those things I watched them make. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn’t. The joy of cooking is learning along the way. In high school, I worked with a volunteer group called Up with People, and while traveling with them, I spent the better part of a year in Italy. Every time I stayed with a new host parent, I tried to learn a new recipe. The first thing I learned how to make in Italy was gnocchi. I never lost my love for home-cooked Italian cuisine, and whenever I’ve traveled over the course of my life, I’ve taken cooking classes wherever possible. I do this because, once your trips are ended, only food — the flavors, the aromas, the tastes and textures — can bring you back to that time and place without the need to even leave your kitchen. Steak pizzaiola is a dish that can do that. It’s an Italian comfort food that might not take your family and friends to Italy, but it will take them back to supper at your kitchen table, and the mirth and merriment that was shared among all. That’s what a good meal always deliv- ers. Don’t just take my word for it. I think Marie would say the same thing.

photo by Romney Caruso

This a wow of a party dish — I mean, who doesn’t love Italian food? When I made it for the magazine, it seemed like every- one showed up to try it. From left to right, author Steve Galtier, Bill Goldring, chairman of the Sazerac Company, Donald Rouse, Coleman Adler, owner of Adler's Fine Jewelry, Cam Morvant, Jane Block; front Dana Morvant and Catherine Block

photo by Romney Caruso

Above, Steve Galtier

56 MARCH•APRIL 2019