fresh pasta texture woes

[bugbear]

I've recently returned from Italy, and was inspired
by the wondrous pasta to have another go at homemade
fresh stuff. I have the rolling/cutting machine,
so I just needed(!) to make dough.

Having dim memories that pasta is made from ultra high
gluten wheat (durum), I bought the highest gluten
flour the super market had - Hovis Super Strong
white bread flour:

(INFO)
http://www.fabflour.co.uk/
A patent grade bakers flour which uses the flour from the centre of
the wheat grain to give an exceptionally high quality protein flour
for bread baking, producing loaves with supberb volume, colour and
texture.
(END INFO)

A recipe book I found in my pile also spoke
of bread flour as being the way to go.

So I confidently set out, mixing, kneading,
(10 minutes, by the clock), resting, rolling and cutting.

I cooked the resulting pappadalle, and served
with my favourite ragu type sauce.

Disappointment - the pasta was distinctly tough and
leathery. I made another batch, and cooked
it a *lot* more. Still leathery.

From reading some USENET archives (thank, google),
it appears that Northern Italian (I was taking
a cheap long weekend in Florence) fresh pasta is
*actually* made from "soft" flours.

So I need a new bag of flour.

Any one know anything, or have anything to add?

BugBear

[RobertE]

> From reading some USENET archives (thank, google),
> it appears that Northern Italian (I was taking
> a cheap long weekend in Florence) fresh pasta is
> *actually* made from "soft" flours.

> So I need a new bag of flour.

> Any one know anything, or have anything to add?

Yes. High gluten duram flour is fine for drying pasta, but for homemade
pasta that will be cooked fresh many Italians (my grandmother included) used
plain, non-self-raising baking flour.

She taught me to use 1 egg per cup of flour, a tiny pinch of salt, and just
enough water to make a soft paste. The trick is to not overwork the dough.
Just get it to come together, then let it rest, covered, for at least half
an hour.

I don't bother kneading the pasta anymore now that I have a pasta machine.
Just break off a lump and put it through the machine a few times.

Good luck.

[Rebus Knebus]

"bugbear" <pwo...@engage.com> wrote in message
news:7435f6f0.04032...@posting.google.com...

>>
> Disappointment - the pasta was distinctly tough and
> leathery. I made another batch, and cooked
> it a *lot* more. Still leathery.
>
> From reading some USENET archives (thank, google),
> it appears that Northern Italian (I was taking
> a cheap long weekend in Florence) fresh pasta is
> *actually* made from "soft" flours.
>
> So I need a new bag of flour.
>
> Any one know anything, or have anything to add?
>

> *******My Italian mother-in-law uses regular flour, she's the one
who taught me. Very tender pasta even if you knead it alot. I also made
the mistake of using semolina flour and it came out tough. Then I tried
half semolina/half reg. flour and it was still tough. So I'm sticking with
regular flour!!!!!!!!
Roberta**********

[Charles Quinn]

In article <7435f6f0.04032...@posting.google.com>, pwo...@engage.com (bugbear) wrote:
>I've recently returned from Italy, and was inspired
>by the wondrous pasta to have another go at homemade
>fresh stuff. I have the rolling/cutting machine,
>so I just needed(!) to make dough.
>

Find 00 flour. Search on "00 flour" and pasta in google.

--

Charles
The significant problems we face cannot be solved
at the same level of thinking we were at when we
created them. Albert Einstein