MAKING
PASTA BY HAND
THE INGREDIENTS
FLOUR
This is a little bit of a headache because there is not an internationally agreed way of categorising flours.
00 flour – zero zero – farina di grano tenero –is extra-finely milled, soft wheat flour, which ranges between 9–11 per cent gluten. Gluten is a protein and that is what you will see listed on the side of the flour packet. 00 flour is what is used 90 per cent of the time when making egg pasta.
Durum wheat is a distinct species of hard wheat – and it is the hardest of all wheat species. The hardness refers to the ease with which the grains are processed, hence durum wheat flour’s granular, sandy feel. The protein content is around 13 per cent, but its structure is slightly different to that of other hard and soft wheat flours, so the gluten formed is not as stretchy. It is plastic, but not elastic. These characteristics make durum wheat flour ideal for pasta making: it holds its shape and it has a nice firm bite. It is most often used in egg-free pasta – made with just flour and water. Durum wheat is grown in the more arid, southern areas of Italy like Sardinia, Puglia and Campania. The flour made from grinding this wheat’s endosperm is called semola – semolina in English. Furthermore, you can buy it in two grades: coarsely ground, which is quite granular, and more finely ground, which is easier to use.
Heritage and speciality flours – there are of course other flours and other doughs you can make for pasta. Some of our nonne use speciality flours grown locally to them, or that they even grow themselves. In this book, these include recipes for pasta made from farro and buckwheat. In these recipes, I have included some specific tips for how to achieve the best dough, but the principles are basically the same whatever flour you use – just keep practising!
If you cannot find imported Italian pasta, or prefer to use locally produced flour, then do so. You may have to slightly adjust the ratios of flour to egg or water. Furthermore, flour behaves differently depending on the humidity, the temperature, how old it is and the company who mills it.
EGGS
Buy organic, free-range eggs if possible. Orange yolks create a more colourful, yellow-hued pasta, and this in turn is dependent on what the hens are eating. The more varied their diet, with lots of dark green leafy vegetable and grubs, the better the colour. So choose eggs from chickens who have access to the great outdoors.
OTHER KEY INGREDIENTS
CHEESE
Most of the recipes in this book call for a hard cheese to be grated over the dish at the end of cooking. In the north of Italy, this is usually Parmigiano Reggiano (to give Parmesan its proper name) and the cheese should be aged for at least 18 months. The older it is, the more granular, more savoury and more expensive it becomes.
Grana Padano is an alternative. It tends to be a bit cheaper, as the process by which it’s made isn’t the same (it matures more quickly thanks to a lower fat content, for example). For my taste buds it lacks the complexity of Parmigiano, but you can find some outstanding examples of Grano Padano.
Sheep’s cheese, pecorino, is found all over central and southern Italy. There are lots of different kinds – some of which are famous, like Pecorino Romano and Pecorino Sardo – and if you want to be traditional, do try and get hold of some. Parmigiano has made considerable inroads into Italy’s fridges though, and you will find it everywhere these days.
Ricotta can be made with sheep, cow or goat’s milk. You can also find versions with added cream (called fiocca in my local supermarket) in the north, while in the south it is salted and aged to produce ricotta salata. Fresh ricotta needs draining before use – leave it to drip in a sieve for 30 minutes or so.
TOMATOES
The majority of women we film bottle tomatoes every summer. They either grow their own, or order in bulk from a friendly farmer. The tomatoes are sieved before bottling and the resulting sauce is called passata. If this isn’t an option for you (and really, that’s most of us) then buy tins of whole tomatoes and blitz them with a stick blender, as Alba recommends.
Tomato concentrate is traditionally made by drying pulped tomatoes in the sun on large wooden boards or tables in midsummer. If you ever visit Sicily, try and buy some strattu to take home with you.
FATS
The ubiquity and popularity of olive oil has only come about since the Second World War. Traditionally, in central and northern Italy, pork fat was used in cooking as strutto (lard) doesn’t need to be kept in the fridge. In the north of Italy, butter is used – one can even buy it in 1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) blocks. I have come to the conclusion from filming over 200 women, it’s not the fat that’s important for a healthy long life – it is the moderation with which it is consumed and the active lifestyle our ‘Grannies’ have pursued.
Olive oil is the fat listed in most of the recipes; by this I mean extra-virgin olive oil. What is more important than its nationality is its freshness. Buy it in tins or dark bottles so it keeps better and check its date of processing – don’t buy if it is over a year old.
A smooth wooden board or table – Pasta boards have a lip under one side, which is positioned against the edge of a table or kitchen counter, so it doesn’t slip while you are rolling out the sfoglia – the pasta sheet. The wood can be apple, ash, beech, cherry, chestnut – most woods except pine, as this has oils which can flavour the pasta and is too porous.
Your board should only be used for pasta and pastry making because you don’t want the dough to pick up smells from other food. Sometimes, if our nonne aren’t cooking in their own kitchens, they’ll arrive with their board carefully wrapped up in its own cotton case. They are not going to risk using anyone else’s board, and they don’t want their own damaged in any way!
You can use marble or other porous stone if that is what you have in your kitchen. The surface to avoid is plastic, as this does not wick away moisture. I have watched a lovely pasta-maker struggle with one of those big industrial plastic boards (given to her because her husband had decided to use her precious wooden board to butcher a pig; it was a long story and she was grim faced about it) and the dough just wouldn’t behave.
A long rolling pin, or mattarello. It should be made from the same range of woods used for the board. Combining two wood tools gives you the best possible texture to your sfoglia. It’s very important the pin is not warped, as this will give you uneven pasta.
Be aware that if you use a short pin, it means you will have to cut up the dough into small pieces and roll them individually. If you attempt to roll a large amount with a short pin, it won’t cover the whole sheet; you will end up with creases and, again, an uneven dough thickness.
If you are a regular watcher of the YouTube channel you may have noticed the length of the rolling pins vary all around Italy. The regions of Emilia Romagna, Umbria and Le Marche are where you’ll find the 90 cm (1 yard) long pins, Tuscany less so, and then the further south you go, you will notice the boards develop edges, and the pins are even shorter as they have to able to fit inside. This is because the cooks’ favoured pasta isn’t egg-based, but durum wheat flour and water – and so they don’t make the super-thin sfoglia.
OTHER USEFUL TOOLS
- Digital scale – it makes life much easier and you can be more precise.
- Bench scraper – our nonne often have wonderful cast iron ones made by their local blacksmith. This tool is called a raschietto. Alas, they are not made anymore and you will have to search the antique markets to find a genuine one.
- Large, straight-bladed knife for cutting/slicing the sfoglia.
- Ordinary cutlery knife with a serrated edge for making orecchiette.
- Grooved wooden paddle for making cavatelli.
- A ferro or square-sided 30 cm (12 in) iron or wooden rod for making maccheroni. Originally, this was a ginesta twig or reed, then it was an umbrella spoke – basically any straight rod that wouldn’t break when being rolled. Square sides (as opposed to the smooth sides of, say, a knitting needle) stop the dough from sticking to the rod.