Pasta: Trial 1

To be fair, I have to admit that I've made pasta several times in the past; however, I have never felt completely prepared and all previous attempts have been artful rather than scientific. So, in an attempt to discover the best homemade pasta, I began Trial 1 of my pasta tests. The key will be care with ingredients, monitoring of recipe differences, and many, many taste tests.

I've decided to do at least 2 and possible 3 trials depending on the quality of recipes I can find. This first test is between two reasonable pasta recipes from two cookbooks - the Italian classic Silver Spoon (get it) and a book given to me at Christmas one year.

At this point, semolina flour is easily sourced from nearly any grocery store. Unfortunately, the preferred grind of white flour used in some recipes (such as Silver Spoon) is Italian 00 or doppio zero flour. For this, my brother brought me a few pounds from NYC. I prefer to source closer to home, and especially not from NYC, due to a desire to find local foods and also a desire not to ever admit that NYC is, in any way, culturally or culinarily superior to the Midwest.

Recipe 1, Silver Spoon:
1 and 3/4 cups doppio zero flour
2 eggs, lighly beaten
pinch salt

Recipe 2, :
2 3/4 cups doppio zero flour
1 1/4 cups semolina flour
10 egg yolks, 3 whole eggs

Results: Both versions proved perfectly good, but there were differences. The Silver Spoon's version proved much smoother, but with a little less flavor. The second version had a lot more texture and flavor and made a much more durable dried noodle, but was not quite on par. Between the two, I think I preferred the Silver Spoon version, but for the sake of added texture and durability, I think adding some semolina is a good idea. Also, I think that the Silver Spoon version might make a better thin noodle.

So, for next time: Silver Spoon recipe with a cup of semolina added. But what about the eggs??