For each pasta dough, I used the classic ratio of 1 whole egg to 100 g of the flour: first 100 g semolina, second 100 g whole wheat, last 50 g semolina plus 50 g whole wheat. Whiz the egg in a food processor, while spinning add the flour, and process until it comes together in a ball. The semolina came together quickly, and was quite wet. The half-n-half took some more processing but came together. I had to add a couple teaspoons of water to get the whole wheat batch to come together. Shape each by and into a tight ball, cover with film, and let sit in a fridge for an hour to hydrate thoroughly.
Roll each dough ball into sheets with a manual Mercato Pasta Machine to thickness #7 (of #9), dust with flour to prevent sticking; I had to add quite a bit of flour to the pure semolina dough to keep it from sticking. Run each sheet through the fettuccine cutter.
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| Whole wheat, mix, semolina |
Boil each in salted water until toothsome, drain, and taste.
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| You can see the color differences; left-to-right: whole wheat, mix, semolina |
The semolina pasta was light and delicate, and the egg flavor may have come through a bit. The semolina/whole wheat was more toothsome. The pure whole wheat was more toothsome but a bit like cardboard in texture; it also reminded us in taste of everything we hate about "health food". I preferred the combo for its body, but Irene preferred the semolina for it's delicacy. Served naked, it also became painfully obvious which was boiled in properly salted water (the mix, in this case; the others were under-salted).
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| You can still see the color differences, semolina's the lightest, whole wheat the darkest |
We served each in separate nests, topped with a sauce we made from tomatoes, some chili, and baby octopus that had been hiding in our freezer. Not too shabby. Our favorites remained unchanged with the sauce.
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| Sauced with spicy baby octopus and tomato sauce |
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