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Transforming Two Ingredients
How a simple combination of semolina flour and water changed how I cook
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A column about how the struggles of being a millennial are ruining our summers for Tone Madison
Making shapes
Cooking is, above all else, following directions and ignoring directions at the exact same time. Unfortunately, the instinct for the latter only comes with excessive practice of the former. While I’m sure there are some true prodigies out there who never read a recipe, but, like art, most avant garde stylists come from a classically trained background. For the home cook, this might look like a cooking class, or reading in depth cooking manuals (like Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking or Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food or Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat). Without this sort of tutelage, you’re likely to find someone who has a “signature dish” and that dish is more likely than not a stir-fry of random limp vegetables drowned in a store-bought sauce (or the spaghetti equivalent).
This isn’t exactly talking shit—I’m describing my very own relationship with cooking. Things like roasting a chicken, or baking bread, or butter basting a steak felt like restaurant specific tasks that were achievable with professional equipment—not something. But none of that is true. Anyone can make anything they want, as long as they learn about the ingredients they’re using and are willing to practice over and over. And it was semolina pasta that got me there, personally.
Semolina is a processing method for grains, but in general, we’re talking about durum wheat, which is usually prized for pasta making do to it’s high protein content but lower elasticity. Semolina flour is coarsely ground, and adding it to pie crusts or egg pasta dough gives the final product a bit more texture and chew. But it’s also the main ingredient for dried pasta, which usually is made from semolina and water (and maybe a preservative or two). And while I do enjoy how delicate and light and silky an egg pasta dough can be, fresh semolina and water pasta just grabs me in a specific way.
It’s not an easy dough to stretch, making it more suitable for smaller handmade shapes than rolling out into sheets, and it can be tricky to get the flour to hydrate: the rougher and coarser granules aren’t as absorbent as processed white flour, so you have to work your water into the dough in stages. But as you can see in the photo above, the end results are gorgeous, and the pasta itself is hearty, high in fiber and protein, and dead simple to make.
The first few times I tried making semolina pasta, I struggled. The dough was intensely crumbly, or too stiff, or too sticky. But there’s something beautiful about a two-ingredient dough: there’s only so much you can do when adjusting it for the next batch. More of one, less of the other. It’s the perfect formula for finding success when tackling a new home cooking project. Some of those lessons, however, I don’t think you should have to learn on your own.
Here’s the key: Weigh your water and pasta, and start with a 40% hydration ratio.
That means if you’re using 100 grams of semolina, you’d need 40 grams of water to start. By weighing your ingredients, you know exactly how much water you’ve added every single time. If you use too little water, the dough will be stiff and hard to work. Too much, and it’ll be sticky and have a hard time holding shape. Every semolina flour is different though, so 40% might not be the magic number. And the dough won’t look right.
Tip #2: Let the mixture rest before trying to form it into a dough.
Semolina flour takes time for each granule to hydrate. After you mix water and flour together, give it a minute or two for the craggy ball to absorb moisture. It’ll likely feel pretty crumbly at first, but with a short rest (5 minutes, max), the crumbly bits will easily press together and start to form a dough. But if, even then, it doesn’t want to coalesce, it’s time to add more moisture.
Finally: Use a spray bottle filled with water to adjust hydration.
If you can’t get the dough to stick to itself, spritz it with water to add moisture in gradually. At this point, you’ll want to start kneading it on the counter, spritzing as need to get the dough to come together into a smooth ball. If kneaded properly, the dough will change from a mild yellow into a paler shade of cream. This usually takes about 5-8 minutes, and don’t skimp on the kneading. Since you’re not running it through a pasta roller, give it some extra elbow grease on the counter.
The final dough should be wrapped in plastic wrap and rested at least 15-20 minutes (though 1-2 hours in the fridge is also good). From there you can go on and form whatever shapes you like. I personally like using a gnocchi board to make ridged cavatelli.
For this batch, I fried up some bacon lardons and removed them when crispy, sautéed corn and jalapeño slices in the bacon fat, tossed in the pasta with finely shredded hard cheese and a pat of butter, and drizzled in some pasta water to make a sauce. Top with crispy bacon and fresh basil. You can pretty much make any type of pasta dish by rendering a pork product, sautéing a vegetable in it, then adding cheese, butter, and pasta water, but that’s for a different newsletter on a different day.
The pasta itself is incredible—it’s tender but firm, with a nice chew that compliments pasta dishes with lots of little bits (like corn, bacon, and jalapeños). It’s dead simple to make, but it takes practice, some thoughtfulness, and a good understanding of the ingredients themselves. For one, always use good, filtered water. No brainer. But also be cautious of the semolina you buy: coarse semolina is great for keeping your pizza peel nonstick, but you’ll want an Italian semolina that’s processed finer to turn it into a pasta dough with less stress. If you think you’re ready to tackle it, here’s a quick recipe.
Semolina Pasta
Serves 4-6
400 grams finely ground semolina flour (like Caputo)
160 grams filtered water
Spray bottle with filtered water
Using a stand mixer with a dough hook, a food processor, or a large prep bowl (don’t do this one on a kitchen counter), add the semolina and form a well in the center.
Pour the water into the center, and start mixing by machine or hand until it forms a craggy ball.
Let it rest for around 2 minutes to hydrate better.
Start picking up the crumbly edges and pressing them together until it sticks into a single dough. Keep pressing until the dough coalesces.
If needed, spritz the outside surface with water if some parts are still crumbly.
Begin kneading: if the dough is too hard to work, spritz with more water and roll and press it around the counter until it becomes pliable enough to knead. If the dough feels sticky and too soft, sprinkle some regular flour down and knead it into the dough. It’ll be too hard to work in extra semolina flour.
Knead for 5-8 minutes. The final dough should be somewhat pliable, like modeling clay, and have turned from a pale yellow to more of a cream color.
Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest on the counter for 15-20 minutes, or in the fridge put to 24 hours.
The dough is now ready to begin shaping.
Read
If you’ve spent any amount of time listening to punk or hardcore, you’re likely to know Steve Albini as a producer (or as he prefers, engineer). His ethos are pretty plain: he’ll record anyone at his Chicago studio, as long he has the availability, and everyone pays a flat fee. He’s probably most notable for stripping back production for Nirvana’s In Utero as the band was frustrated by the push and pull it was receiving from the record label. But if you know Steve Albini you also know he built his own music career with bands like Big Black, Rapeman, and Shellac around saying intentionally inflammatory things in order to push boundaries. This profile from Jeremy Gordon is absolutely incredibly well-crafted, and it details how Albini has had to confront his offensive past while championing progressive political stances on social media: in short, it’s refreshing to see people say “I’m sorry.”
Watch
I’m a huge fan of cooking shows that are about cooking. Or baking. I don’t love shows where people yell—they’re not really about food. And I don’t love shows with wacky ingredients. Those shows are more about wacky ingredients than cooking. But Crime Scene Kitchen is an incredibly captivating gimmick: bakers get two minutes to run through a staged dirty kitchen, decide which desert was made, and then recreate it exactly. Whoever guesses the best (and makes a good tasting and looking version) wins that round. Fox has done a great job with their competition shows (see LEGO Masters and also Domino Masters) and Crime Scene Kitchen fits the bill: passionate people get to show off their craft, everyone is collaborative, and the network never mines people’s personal lives for riveting tales of trauma (unlike NBC who can’t seem to stop after The Biggest Loser broke viewership records for years). The show just finished its second season, and if you haven’t watched either, it’s time to dig in.
Listen
Opioids scare the shit out of me. They provide one of the deepest highs and are one of the most addictive drug classes out there. Fentanyl overdose deaths have been an epidemic, and the Search Engine podcast put together a two-part series to try and figure out why fentanyl seems to be showing up in every drug traded on the street. And on the flip side, The Retrievals is a podcast about a nurse at a Yale fertility clinic who siphoned off a massive amount of fentanyl to supply her own personal habit, causing hundreds of women to endure an extremely painful egg retrieval procedure without any pain medication. They’re both really incredible narrative podcast series, but back-to-back it pains a much bigger picture of fentanyl addiction in America.
Consume
Corn and jalapeño ravioli from Odette Williams’ Simple Pasta
More pasta, sure, but it’s summer in Wisconsin. Produce is incredible, bountiful, and cheap. That’s why I ended up making two pasta dishes with the same ingredients: I simply purchased too much. This is a dead simple ravioli filling of fresh sweet corn, simmered jalapeños and shallots, and ricotta and parmesan. It’s topped with a corn and jalapeño brown butter, and packs a huge flavor punch with relatively few ingredients. While the recipe isn’t online, Williams’ cookbook itself is great—it walks you through really easy pasta dough recipes, shaping techniques, and then composed pasta dishes (along with seasonal sides and drinks). You can probably wing the proportions if you’d like to recreate it at home, but I think if you’re fresh pasta curious, it’s worth picking up the book.
Artwork by Ashley Elander Strandquist. You can view her illustration work here and check out her printing business here.