This pasta is made of organic wholemeal semolina Russello flour from "I fornai Siciliani". This is a ancient grain processed through stone milling, much different from commercial flours with a slightly red colour and intensely aromatic.
Today, it is cultivated only in a few zones of central western Sicily. The grain has a high level of protein, a low gluten and glycemic index, which makes the flour and its derivatives much lighter, digestible and assimilable.
This flour is especially suited to make bread and pizza but also for fresh and dry pasta.
Recipe:
Course: First course
Cuisine: Italian
Difficulty: Low
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 3 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 3 minutes
Portions: 4 people
Ingredients:
400g Organic russello flour
4 Large eggs
Preparation:
1. In a large bowl, put the flour and make a hole in the centre and crack the eggs into it.
2. Using the tips of your fingers, mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined.
3. Knead the pieces of dough together – with a bit of work and some love and attention they’ll all bind together to give you one big, smooth lump of dough!
4. Once you’ve made your dough you need to knead and work it with your hands to develop the gluten in the flour, otherwise your pasta will be flabby and soft when you cook it, instead of springy and al dente.
5. There’s no secret to kneading. You just have to bash the dough about a bit with your hands, squashing it into the table, reshaping it, pulling it, stretching it, squashing it again.
6. Then all you need to do is wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge to rest for at least half an hour before you use it. Make sure the cling film covers it well or it will dry out and go crusty round the edges
7. If you don't have a machine, roll your pasta with rolling pin, roll lots of small pieces of pasta rather than a few big ones. You'll be rolling your pasta into a more circular shape than the long rectangular shapes you'll get from a machine, but use your hand and you'll be all right!
8. Whether you're rolling by hand or by machine you'll need to know when to stop. If you're making pasta like tagliatelle, lasagne or stracchi you'll need to roll the pasta down to between the thickness of a beer mat and a playing card; if you're making a stuffed pasta like ravioli or tortellini, you'll need to roll it down slightly thinner or to the point where you can clearly see your hand or lines of newsprint through it.
9. Once you've rolled your pasta the way you want it, you need to shape or cut it straight away. Pasta dries much quicker than you think, so whatever recipe you're doing, don't leave it more than a minute or two before cutting or shaping it. You can lay over a damp clean tea towel which will stop it from drying.
10. Now it's ready to be cooked and usually a fresh pasta doesn't take more than 3 minutes to be ready cooked.
