Rustic Fresh Doughs
In this class we’ll focus on two types of pasta dough that are sturdy enough to withstand shaping by hand. Let’s get into it.
If you're interested in making fresh pasta that you can roll and shape by hand, rustic doughs made from semolina or whole-wheat flour are the way to go. While fresh egg pasta made from all-purpose flour is delicious, its delicate structure works best when rolled flat and used for stuffed or strand pasta.
Both whole wheat and semolina flours have a higher protein content than all-purpose flour, which yields a more gluten-dense pasta dough. We love the sturdier dough to make shapes like orecchiette, malloreddus, trofie, and various other hand-rolled shapes. We find these sturdier doughs hold their shape better while forming the pieces, cooking them in boiling water, and finishing them in a sauce. Read on for more information about these two versatile pasta doughs.
Whole Wheat Pasta
A common complaint about commercial whole-wheat pasta is that it cooks up mushy. That’s because whole wheat, with its bran and germ intact, tends to literally cut through the strands of gluten protein in the dough. To solve this problem and produce a malleable dough that rolls out easily and cooks up al dente, we use a blend of whole wheat and all-purpose flours. Feel free to substitute rye, spelt, or farro flour for the whole wheat flour in these doughs
Great for these shapes: trofie, lasagna sheets, orecchiette, strand pasta, filled pasta, hand-cut shapes
Semolina Pasta
Egg-free semolina pasta dough is typically used to make dried Italian pasta, but it’s wonderful in its fresh form too. We jump start gluten development by hydrating the semolina flour with warm water. After that it gets a generous kneading to build gluten, making it sturdy and silky at the same time. Pasta made with mildly gritty semolina flour absorbs sauce readily, so the pasta becomes permeated with the sauce's flavor.
Great for these shapes: orecchiette, trofie, malloreddus, lasagna sheets, strand pasta, filled pasta, and hand-cut shapes (though we recommend using a machine to roll the dough)
