Great pasta starts with great dough, it’s as simple as that. This is a basic semolina dough recipe with 50% hydration – a starting point for many hand formed pastas that often hail from the south of Italy, but of course not limited to that region.

I use this dough for a multitude of hand formed shapes like orecchiette, cavatelli, malloreddus, trofie, lorighittas, busiate, maccheroni al ferro, foglie d’ulivo – the list goes on and on. You can also use this dough to make culurgiones, which is a stuffed pasta from Sardinia.

The main difference between a semolina flour dough and egg dough which is typically made with tipo 00, is the type of wheat. In contrast to double zero flour, semolina flour is hard – it’s coarse, dens and has a higher protein content. It supports more gluten structure – great because you can get away with kneading it less. It also requires more cooking due to its density and it has a chewier texture/bite.

This dough is egg free and vegan.

Ingredients

400 g semolina flour semola di grano duro/semola rimacinata
200 ml warm water

Instructions

On a work surface, add the semolina flour and create a well in the centre. Slowly drizzle in the warm water and whisk until you have a custard-like consistency.
Switch to a bench scraper and start to flip the flour from the outer edge over and onto the water mix, using a cutting motion to then mix it in. Continue to do this around all sides until you have a crumbly, sand-like mix.
Start bringing the crumbly dough together with your hands, squeezing and coaxing it in a ball of dough that’s knead-able – scraping up and incorporating as much loose flour from your work surface as possible.
Once you have this shape, begin kneading the dough vigorously for a good 10 minutes until the dough is springy and elastic, and not sticking to your hands at all.
Cover and rest for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours if you’re planning to make shapes that require long/thin ropes of dough e.g. lorighittas.

Notes

Depending on your location and humidity, this could impact your dough. If the dough is too sticky, very lightly dust your work surface with flour and knead directly onto it to incorporate just the smallest amount of flour until the texture is corrected.

If your dough feels too dry, my favourite way to manage this is by wetting your hands under a tap and immediately returning to the dough to knead, without drying them prior.

Always, always rest your dough generously. The texture will transform and you will find as the gluten relaxes, it will be much easier to work with.

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Semolina Pasta Dough