Since buying a KoMo FidibusClassic grain mill last summer, I have purchased bags of different types of wheatberries and milled quite a bit of flour to make fresh pasta. In Cooking by Hand (2003), Paul Bertolli discussesthe importance of making pasta with quality flour. He writes: “Pasta in itssimplest form is grain moistened with water. Water, added directly orcontributed by eggs, has little effect on the flavor of flour other than tohelp convey it, and eggs, which are themselves composed of water, play anunderstated if noticeable role in the taste of pasta made from them. Flour is the essence of pasta, all themore reason to consider its selection seriously.” (Emphasis added.) Bertollicontinues and, to my mind, puts forth the best reason why a pasta maker shouldconsider purchasing a grain mill to make flour: “Flour used very soon aftermilling produces the best, most fragrant pasta.”
Marc Vetri puts “verysoon” into context in his 2015 cookbook entitled Mastering Pasta: “As soon as you crack a wheat berry, its flavorand aroma begin to dissipate. Within two days of grinding wheat berries intoflour, nearly half of the flavorful oils—as well as many of the healthfulnutrients—will oxidize. Within three days, 90 percent of the volatile flavor compoundsin the flour will have been simply lost to the air.” Grinding grain at home assuresfragrant, fresh flour. Home milling also opens up a world of possibilities byallowing the pasta maker to completely control a noodle’s flavor and texture.
Wheat varieties have differentqualities that lend themselves to certain uses. The amount and quality ofprotein in a wheat berry determines if its flour better suits a soft biscuit oran extruded, dried pasta. When buying wheat, you will often find berryvarieties described by color, hardness and season. You can select white or red;soft or hard; and spring or winter wheat. A pasta maker can create excellentfresh pasta with a broad range of modern and heritage wheat varieties. Ancientgrains, such as spelt, farro and Khorasan wheat, also make excellent pastaflour. Buying a grain mill allows you to experiment with these berries and makedifferent tasting pasta.
This post will briefly examinethe how and why one might blend whole-grain flour (i.e., flour without any bran or germ removed) with refinedflour (i.e. flour with its bran or germ removed). I discussbolting (or sifting) whole-grain flour to remove different percentages of branand germ when making fresh pasta (here).
Blending Flour
Paul Bertolli’s Cooking by Hand contains 14 differentpasta dough recipes. In a number of these recipes, Bertolli recommends blendingfreshly milled whole-grain flour with a refined flour. He writes: “Becausewhole-grain flour contains bran, which ruptures the gluten fabric, it must be‘cut’ with white flour to improve the integrity of the dough.” When describingthe characteristics of hard red winter wheat, Bertolli explains that although“it makes a very fragrant, course flour…[it]…must be blended with at least anequal amount of white flour in order to make pasta that does not fracture whenextended and then cooked.”
The careful reader recognizesthat Bertolli states “whole-grain flour…mustbe “cut” with white flour to improve theintegrity of the dough.” (Emphasis added.) One can certainly use whole-grainflour straight from the mill to make fresh pasta without adding white flour. However,depending on your grain selection and mill grind, the pasta made with whole-grainflour will likely lack elasticity and plasticity (i.e., the ability to take andhold a shape). These qualities may not matter if you want to create a rustic,flat noodle. If so, 100 percent whole-grain flour may suit your needs. However,if you want to make a less rough and/or shaped pasta, then you will need to considerhow to mitigate the impact of the grain’s bran (and, to a lesser extent, itsgerm) in your milled whole-grain flour.
Bertolli’s recipe forFarro Flour Pasta evidences his approach of blending to maintain the taste andaroma of whole-grain pasta without suffering some of its structural drawbacks.When he wrote Cooking by Hand in2003, the market for specialty grain flours differed from what consumers canpurchase today in 2017. In his Farro Flour Pasta recipe, Bertolli writes: “Ifyou own your own grain mill, you may wish to grind your own farro flour, whichpresently is available only in whole form.” Now one can buy milled-to-orderorganic farro flour online. Bluebird Grain Farm in Washington State currently sellstwo different varieties of farro flour: einkorn (also known as farro piccolo) and emmer (aka farro medio). However, if you own agrain mill, farro pasta benefits from the taste and aroma of just milled flour.Here’s Bertolli’s recipe for Farro Flour Pasta for 4.
5 ounces whole farro,freshly milled
5 ounces Extra Fancysemolina
4 ounces cool water
Place the farro andsemolina flour in a bread bowl and make a well in the center. Add water to thewell and stir with a fork to combine. When the dough begins to form a shaggymass, reach into the bowl with your stronger hand and alternately squeeze andpush down the dough with your palm. Press any loose bits of flour into themass. When the dough feels tacky and fully incorporated, transfer it to a clean,lightly floured surface and knead it for 4 to 5 minutes, or until it loses itssurface moisture, is a uniform color, and springs back when depressed. Wrap thedough in plastic and allow it to hydrate for at least 1 hour before rolling.
Bertolli writes that“farro makes pasta the color of caffè latte with a subtle wheat taste.” Thispasta also boasts a pleasant chewiness. And, for the record, freshly milledfarro flour smells intoxicating.
A few notes. I like towork with grams so I convert ounces to grams when I make this dough. Fiveounces equals approximately 142 grams; four ounces equals about 114 grams.
Some experts recommendfreezing grain before milling because they believe the resulting flour smellsand tastes better, and further, provides health benefits. In Mastering Pasta, Marc Vetri quotes GlennRoberts of Anson Mills on this subject: “Milling temperature determines howflavor develops in flour. If viable grain is milled cold, the resultant flourretains fresh milled flavors and is considered ‘live’ flour because thebiostructure of the viable grain is retained in cold milling.” I have also readthat freezing grain may cause the grain’s bran to shatter which, in turn, can furtherimpact a dough’s gluten fabric. I remain reluctant to go too far downthis particular rabbit hole because so many variables affectone’s analysis: Type of grain; grain temperature; mill-type/technology; mill speed;grain feed rate; impact upon bolted vs whole-grain flour; etc. If I comeacross milling information that materially informs my pasta making process, Iwill report back.
So, to prepare for milling,I first weigh out my grain. I have made Bertolli’s Farro Flour Pasta with bothwhole-grain einkorn from Bluebird Grain Farm and with farro piccolo from Anson Mills. I adjust the grind on my KoMoFidibus Classic grain mill to Fein(fine) with the round grind marker 4 clicks to the left of the unit’s top leftmiter joint. From my experience, 142 grams of farro grain produces 142 grams ofwhole-wheat farro flour.
Although Bertolli’s recipecalls for hand mixing the dough, I have also made this dough in a Kitchen Aidstanding mixer using a paddle attachment. If you opt for this method—which Iprefer because I can gradually add water and gauge how the dough develops—addthe farro and semolina flour to the mixer’s bowl, turn the machine to stir andvery slowly add the water to create the dough. When making this dough, I foundthat I need to add just a bit more water—maybe a gram or two—than Bertollirecommends. In general, freshly milled whole-grain flour absorbs more liquidthan store-bought flour because of its bran. When adding additional water tofinish a dough, I suggest using a spray bottle filled with water so as tospritz just enough liquid to bring the dough together. This farro dough softensconsiderably during its one hour hydration, so use a light hand when addingadditional moisture.
Finally, note thatBertolli blends freshly milled farro flour with Extra Fancy semolina (aka ExtraFancy durum). Farro’s low gluten benefits from a partnership with a wheat flourthat contains high gluten levels. (The same holds true for other low glutengrains such as rye or with buckwheat seed, which has no gluten.) The pasta maker quickly learns that sheneeds to consider the quality of gluten in the grain milled when making pastadough. For example, if you want to use a whole-grain soft white wheat, yourdough may benefit by adding Extra Fancy durum or some other high gluten wheatflour. However, if you decide to bolt your soft white flour, adding a highgluten flour may not be as critical (because the dough will become moreworkable after removing bran and germ from the milled flour).
In summary, one approachto making fresh pasta with freshly milled whole-grain flour is to blend thewhole-grain flour with a refined flour. Consider using a high-gluten refined flourto blend when using whole-grain flour milled from a grain with low glutenlevels, such as farro or rye. Start by experimenting with a 50/50blend of whole-grain and refined flour.
