Flour for Pasta

As you can tell, I spend a lot of focus on cooking. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, and learned a lot from them. Refer to the Food & Stuff page for more recipes.

This is the hand powered pasta making machine I use. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

HOWEVER...the point of this entry is because times have changed from what we used when cooking, mainly in the "flour" department. Why is that important? Because I use a lot of flours and yeast when making my pizza dough and pasta. Yes, I still make them from scratch, they might become future entries. I spend more time in the kitchen instead of outside. Sure, I keep a box or two of pasta in the pantry for "quick use," but I prefer to make it from scratch. I use my grandmother's process to make pasta and dough (all by hand, lots of Italian herbs, a wood rolling pin, lots of olive oil), and an Imperia pasta machine. And yes, I still do it all by hand...no plugs involved...

But another reason this is important, is that I am a bit of a "hippie," (yes, I was born before the original Woodstock), and always strive to find healthier ways to live. So, I started looking at the flours and pastas available at the store, and decided to do some research about them, just so I could make healthier choices. It actually surprised me to do some research online (of course), and rather than redo all the typing and food tasting, here are a couple of sites that share the information.

• This one (click HERE) is a Nutritional Comparison of Whole Grain Pastas
• This one (click HERE) is a taste test comparison of most of the whole wheat pastas available at most stores

When learning to make pasta with my grandmother, we always used unbleached white flour and durum semolina (1 to 1 ratio). The durum semolina gave the texture and taste that we liked, but the white was less expensive. But, in trying to make healthier decisions, and with the rise of whole grain pasta, I decided to look at it all. I was surprised by the results. Sure, using the durum semolina mixed with white isn't "horrible," but there are better choices available today for pasta and flour. So, where does that leave us?

Basically at the point, where I have to choose the flours that I will use to make healthier pizza and pasta. I think I will always add durum semolina, because it reminds me of Grandma. But in doing some "research" about flour (click HERE), I'm leaning towards using organic white wheat flour with the durum semolina.

I'll let you know how that all turns out...stay tuned.