Who doesn’t love traditional great tasting pasta that cradles its sauce instead of it splatting onto the plate? Apparently, the key is semolina, which adds texture, taste and shape.
Imagine visiting the beach and trying to make a sandcastle out of the superfine sand…it’s the same with making pasta; if you want it to keep its shape, hold together and have bite you need this pale yellow durum wheat flour that is granulated rather than dusted. Depending on the delicacy of your sauce you add more or less semolina to your pasta dough, this is what makes it porous and clings to your sauce, rather than the slip & slide effect.
My morning’s pasta workshop in Manoppello, Pescara, was hosted by Giulia, owner of the friendly organic Casale Centurione, (restaurant and B&B) in with some great views out to Italy’s mother mountain, the Majella. The Abruzzo pasta lessons now include the region’s famous other low-gluten flours like solina and saragolla for those who’d like to see just what the differences are when using the great ancient flours of the Egyptians.
Author: Sam Dunham
Sam is a very lucky midlife 'mamma' to A who is 12 and juggles her work as a self-employed freelance SEO food and travel copywriter and EFL teacher. She is the founder of the Life In Abruzzo Cultural Association, co-founder of Let's Blog Abruzzo. she is the founder of the 'English in the Woods' initiative, teaching English outdoors in a forest style school.
