Afrigather When recipes change my life, I can’t assist however say so, loudly and to whoever is round, even and particularly when they didn’t ask. So when the topic of meals editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s Fresh Pasta With Buttered Tomatoes was raised lately at work, I advised everybody current that it was the one contemporary pasta recipe I might ever make once more.
I’m not typically inclined to make pasta from scratch, which paradoxically is the rationale this recipe appealed to me within the first place. Shilpa calls for under two components—semolina flour and just-boiled water—that you simply combine with a fork in a bowl, relaxation at room temperature for an hour or two, then form with a rolling pin and knife. None of that fancy right-on-the-counter egg whisking, no complicated KitchenAid attachment, no limitless hydration time. Combine, wait, roll, slice—that’s it. I knew I may do it, as long as I had a bag of semolina flour.
What’s semolina flour?
Semolina flour is a coarse, sturdy flour made from durum wheat that you’ll seemingly discover within the baking part of your native grocery retailer. It’s sunny in coloration, turning pasta dough yellow, even with out egg yolks. And it has the next protein and gluten content material than all-purpose flour, making it a powerful alternative for pasta and pizza. Semolina dough is elastic and malleable however not sticky, holds its form as soon as boiled (vital for extra intricate pasta shapes), and performs properly with all method of sauces. As Shilpa notes, it’s “a bit chewier than an egg yolk dough,” which is her choice. In the event you love a Chinese language hand-pulled noodle as a lot as I do, you’ll discover that you simply agree.
How do you make semolina pasta?
It couldn’t be less complicated. Shilpa instructs you to roll items of your rested dough into “lengthy, slender, 1/Sixteenth-inch-thick rectangles” with out flouring your floor first, which I assumed can be unimaginable. However the springy combination unfold readily with out tearing, and after a couple of minutes and a light-weight arm exercise I had paper-thin sheets. The foolproof technique satisfied me I could possibly be a contemporary pasta individual with some regularity, and after I requested Shilpa about it, she had the same expertise. “Due to this dough, I make contemporary pasta extra typically than I ever imagined I might,” she says. “Most likely as soon as a month.”
When Shilpa was creating this recipe, I even pulled out the dough for Christmas final yr with a simple ragù. I might have laughed in your face should you’d advised me I’d make contemporary pasta for a crowd for a vacation previous to studying this technique, however I’m a modified girl now—one with a bag of semolina in my pantry simply in case I have to last-minute blow the roof off the place with little or no effort. Better of all, there have been no stray egg whites to take care of the subsequent day. “Pavlova is nice,” says Shilpa, “however solely so many occasions.”
Let’s get rolling
Two-ingredient home made pasta (no machine required!) meets a buttery but contemporary tomato sauce completed with a drop of umami-rich fish sauce.
