As part of our goal of sustainable self-sufficiency and\u00a0making more things from “true” scratch, making pasta has become the norm here unless I am super pressed for time.\u00a0 In its simplest form, pasta can be made with flour and water.\u00a0 I’ve tried that.\u00a0\u00a0Regular flour noodles aren’t bad, but even when just barely cooked, they tend to be a little\u00a0mushier compared to\u00a0dried pasta from a box at the store.\u00a0 Enter semolina flour that I found at a health food type store in the city.<\/p>\n
Well, the first semolina experiment was a waste of flour.\u00a0 It was so bad that it did not get beyond the lump of hard clay stage before I had to throw it away.\u00a0 It was too tough for me to be able to knead, much less roll out and cut.\u00a0\u00a0Many websites online said that semolina flour was too hard to use, that it was difficult to knead, much less get it through\u00a0a home pasta machine. They recommended using recipes that had semolina flour mixed\u00a0with various quantities\u00a0of regular all purpose flour – if you insisted on using semolina.\u00a0 Those recipes still did not give me anything that resembled the texture of the dry boxed pasta that we’ve grown up\u00a0eating all our lives.\u00a0 The homemade pasta I’ve made has run the gamut from\u00a0way-too-mushy\u00a0to “Silly Putty” noodles.\u00a0 We actually threw away a pan of Spinach Lasagne this year\u00a0because the noodles were so rubbery.<\/p>\n
Once again I went back to the internet looking for another semolina pasta recipe to try out and came across a site I hadn’t seen before – Pasta Recipes By Italians<\/a>. Reading through some of the recipes, I noted some differences in both ingredients, and the amount of the ingredients, compared to other recipes I’d tried.\u00a0 Seeing the differences in these recipes made me decide to bite the bullet and try the all-semolina pasta recipe\u00a0on the website.<\/p>\n Hallelujah!\u00a0 First time making it and it turned out great!\u00a0 It was easy to knead with my hands &\u00a0it went through the pasta machine – the\u00a0flattening side as well as the cutting side – \u00a0without any problems.\u00a0 And I was able to get\u00a0this dough\u00a0flattened much thinner than the previous lasagne noodles that I’d had\u00a0to roll\u00a0out and cut by hand when the dough\u00a0was too thick and hard to\u00a0go through the pasta machine.<\/p>\n I did have\u00a0to add a little bit of extra semolina flour to the dough,\u00a0to combat the high humidity and make the pasta dough stop sticking to everything, but even the extra semolina flour did not make this dough too hard to work with.\u00a0 The dough\u00a0was smooth and elastic, not a lump\u00a0of grainy textured, half dry clay\u00a0like I’d wound up with before.<\/p>\n The menu was for lasagne, so first I made lasagne noodles.\u00a0 I cooked them in boiling water but only dropped in a few noodles at time so I could better\u00a0see how these cooked up.\u00a0 The first few noodles that I\u00a0boiled were a little underdone – took me a bit to watch how the noodles cooked and pull them out at the right time.\u00a0 Cooking homemade noodles is a lot different from cooking store-bought noodles – even the “fresh” pasta sold in the deli refrigerated section.\u00a0 This recipe needs to be boiled a little bit longer than pasta made with regular flour or only part semolina flour, but not as long as dried boxed pasta.\u00a0 It took just about 2-4 minutes to watch the noodles change color and float enough to be considered\u00a0“done”.\u00a0 What was really great was that the slightly under boiled lasagne noodles had the same taste and texture as the “just right” boiled noodles once I cooked the lasagna.\u00a0 But the “just right” boiled\u00a0noodles did NOT lose their al dente <\/a>texture after cooking the whole lasagne either.\u00a0 And yes, I usually cheat and cook my lasagne in the microwave to save time and also not to heat\u00a0up the kitchen when it’s\u00a0hot, which is about 9 months out of the year in Texas.<\/p>\n Now, if push comes to shove and I have to make pasta\u00a0with just water, or without semolina flour, I’ll do it.\u00a0 But for regular eating, this recipe is\u00a0my\u00a0new regular pasta recipe – particularly for “normal” flavored\u00a0pasta and definitely for lasagne noodles.<\/p>\n 100% Semolina Pasta<\/span><\/a> <\/strong>by Kira Volpi, Pasta Recipes By Italians<\/a>\u00a0(used by permission)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Lasagne noodles drying on cookie racks. You can cut the dough straight prior to feeding through the machine to make perfect rectangle noodles.<\/p><\/div>\n 1 1\/2 cups semolina flour (coarse grainy stuff that looks similar to cornmeal)<\/em><\/p>\n 1 teaspoon salt<\/p>\n 2-3 eggs (Kira uses 2)<\/em><\/p>\n 1 teaspoon olive oil<\/p>\n “- you will start with the semolina flour on a large cutting board or counter area to work your pasta dough. Create a well in the center of your pile of semolina flour so you can add the remaining ingredients in the well.<\/p>\n With a fork, slowly blend in the flour in towards the well until you have a paste like consistency and begin kneading. After I spend the time following the mixing and kneading instructions above I end up with my beautiful ball of freshly made semolina pasta dough. Look how rich and textured it looks now. Just wait till we shape it and or course eat it!<\/p>\n I let it sit for the appropriate hour or more and it is supple and ready to shape.”<\/p>\n Flattened dough going into the fettucine cutter. For prettier noodles you can cut the dough to square it up before sending it through the shape cutter.<\/p><\/div>\n Kira goes on to explain how to shape the dough and cook it.\u00a0 Make sure to cover your pasta with at least a wet towel, if not\u00a0plastic wrap, to keep it from drying out while it sits.\u00a0 You can see photos of the various stages of dough mixing\u00a0on the Pasta\u00a0Recipes\u00a0By Italians website<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0You can roll\u00a0the dough\u00a0out by hand and cut it, or use a pasta machine.<\/p>\n I went down to the number 4 setting on my machine to get to what looked like the thinness that we’re used to having for lasagne noodles.\u00a0 My noodles aren’t very pretty since I did not bother to roll out and cut the dough so that it was straight before running it through the pasta machine –\u00a0but around here, taste is more important than appearance, particularly when I’m short on time.\u00a0 I let my noodles dry a bit before cooking, because I had to start well ahead of time to make sure to get the pasta made and ensure it would be palatable before dinner time.\u00a0 You can also\u00a0cook them as soon as you make them.\u00a0\u00a0As with most pasta recipes that have eggs, the recommended storage is for a short time and refrigerated. (Don’t get me started on food safety, what I do for myself may be different from what I tell others to do, plus my eggs come from my own\u00a0pasture and I don’t have a compromised immune system. Yes, I ate an uncooked lasagne noodle and am still alive to tell the tale.\u00a0 Even raw it tasted pretty good too.)<\/em><\/p>\n While I was pleased with the ease of working with the dough as well as how it cooked up and tasted, the next test was the husband approval test.\u00a0 The hubby ate a plain boiled lasagne noodle and was pleased.\u00a0 The Spinach Lasagne turned out great, and hubby said that these noodles tasted better than store bought.\u00a0 SCORE!<\/p>\n There you have it – a tested recipe that can give you the taste and texture similar to what most of us are accustomed to eating\u00a0from dry boxed pasta\u00a0– only better.\u00a0 And you don’t have to guess what’s in it with weird named ingredients.<\/p>\n There are a lot more\u00a0recipes on the Pasta Recipes By Italians <\/a>website that I plan on trying – the idea of the different flavored pastas is quite appealing – along with other info and tips to guide you.\u00a0\u00a0One recipe really\u00a0called out my name – Chocolate Pasta.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Now all I need to do is figure out how to grow my own wheat and olive trees so I can grow everything I need for this pasta recipe from the ground up.<\/p>\n![\"Lasagne](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polarisstarfarm.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/compdryinglasagnenoodlesSept14.jpg?resize=300%2C219\")
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