Use Semolina To Make Your Own Fresh Pasta

Making pasta is a traditional Italian art. With a batch of fresh pasta dough, you can make several types of pasta such as tagliolini, tagliatelle, ravioli, tortellini, and even lasagna. Making a batch of fresh pasta will not take too much time.

It takes 15 to 20 minutes to mix and shape the dough. When you have a smooth and chewy flour,  let it rest for about 30 minutes before rolling and cutting into fresh pasta. This process can be done within 1 hour. There are some hints and ingredients you may not know about.

The first thing you should know when shopping for pasta at home is to choose the right flour. The flour you need here is durum flour. They have other names such as Semola or Semolina. 

Semolina Magic! Your choice of flour types matters.

There are some people who prefer to eat finer pasta and they choose to use normal flour (white flour). This flour is a soft flour.

However, traditionally, fresh pasta will use durum flour. This is a harder and tougher form of flour. Mix with 50% common wheat flour and 50% durum flour, you will get fresh pasta true to the taste of this traditional Italian dish.

In addition, durum flour is higher in protein and starch than normal wheat flour. Fresh pasta made at home with this upgrade will be more nutritious than when you use only plain flour.

Ingredients you will need:

• 200g plain flour
• 200g durum seed flour (Semolina / Semola)
• 4 eggs (normal temperature) * 100g of flour uses 1 egg

Optional: salt, olive oil

Processing stage

Step 1: Mix 2 types of flour together and form a mountain on the table. The ideal surface for manual mixing of the dough. Then create a cavity in the middle of the mountain of flour and pour the eggs in. Use a fork or your hands to mix eggs and flour.

Step 2: Start from the center and mix by hand until both egg and flour are mixed. If you are mixing in a bowl, transfer to a surface. Use extra flour if needed to prevent sticking or if the dough you are molding is still wet. Mix and knead the dough.

If sticky and wet, add flour. If it is too dry, add some water.

This is the hardest step. Keep calm and knead the dough until it is smooth. Not kneading enough, your pasta will be soft after cooking. Pasta is not authentic without having the proper toughness of the pasta loved by Italians, also known as al dente.

Step 3: After letting the dough to rest for about 30 years, start rolling. If you don’t have a machine you can roll it with a wooden roller or even use a bottle of wine. If you are a fan of fresh pasta, invest in a dough roller. Imported from Italy, even better. 

Divide the dough into 2 separate pieces and roll one piece at a time.

Step 4: Roll the dough out. Fold the dough sheet 2 or 3 times and roll it out. Repeat 3-4 times. If you have a pasta dough machine, set it to the thickest level for this part.

Step 5: Fold the dough you rolled one more time and roll it thinner and thinner. If you use the machine, incrementally reduce the thickness setting. The goal is to get a long piece of flour with a thickness of 1 millimeter.

Step 6: Cut a long piece of dough into strips. Each width size of the pasta strand in Italian cuisine will have its own unique name.

• The smallest width is 1-2mm Tagliolini. 
• Then comes the width of fettuccine (3-5mm). 
• Next, 6-10mm is tagliatelle. 
• And finally, the Pappardelle with a width of 1-3 cm.

How is fresh pasta different from dried pasta?

First, you should note, these two types of pasta are different but not different in quality. Fresh pasta is more suitable for sauces with lighter sauce than canned pasta.

Use dry pasta when …

Making more concentrated sauces (tomato sauce, garlic sauce, with capers, olive seeds, roosters, beans and vegetables)

Dried pasta here is described as rigatoni, linguine, spaghetti, and bucatini.

Use fresh pasta when …

When you want a lighter dish with a base of butter or milk (alfredo, carbonara)

The types of fresh pasta mentioned are tagliatelle, pappardelle, and fettuccine.

Advantages of making fresh pasta at home?

Dry pasta use semolina powder only mixed with water. This type is suitable for vegetarians or vegans. 

Fresh pasta uses a mixture of eggs and semolina flour. This means that the nutritional content of home-made pasta  will be higher in protein than dried pasta

Soft, smooth with an attractive golden color. This is the advantage of making fresh pasta. Fresh pasta is delicious and softer than dried pasta.

Cooking time for fresh pasta is faster than for dry pasta. It only takes less than 3 minutes.

How many different types of Pasta are there?

Particularly in Italy, there are about 250 different types of pasta. This is a country with a long tradition of making pasta. During the development of the culinary industry, many different types and dishes with wheat flour were created. These types of pasta are divided into 3 basic groups: long, short, and filled.

The long-form

Simple round: capellini, spaghetti, spaghettoni

Round and hollow inside: bucatini, perciatelli, maccheroncelli, mezze zite, zite

Long rectangular flat: bavette, linguine, tagliarelli, fettuccine.

Specially shaped: ricciutelle, reginette

Short-form

Gap between 2 sharp points: penne, mostaccioli, maccheroni, pennette

2 round ends: ditali, ditaloni, maniche, mezze maniche, bombolotti

Curly, rolled: chifferi, chifferotti, lumache, conchiglie

Some special shapes: kachs pisellini, piselli, puntine, anelli

There are many types that have not been mentioned here. The variety of pasta makes many chefs dedicate their careers to this country’s cuisine.

With fillings: Ravioli, tortellini, manicotti

How to cook your fresh pasta correctly?

Put cold water into a large pot. Add a pinch of salt and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Oil helps to keep the pasta from sticking to each other. When the water is at a rolling boil, add your pasta. After 2 minutes, begin to taste the pasta directly. Do not depend on a timer. Tasting is the best way to get the pasta right to your liking. Be careful not to overcook the pasta and lose the toughness that Italians call al dente.

Various pasta dishes

This topic deserves a lot of different entries. However, here are some famous special dishes made with fresh pasta. Please refer and try it. If there is a need or comment, we will share the detailed recipe for the next time.

Pasta with alfredo sauce
Pasta with cheese and pepper sauce – Pici Cacio e Pepe:
Tagliatelle pasta with mushroom sauce

Pasta with tomato sauce
Pasta bolognese sauce