I've recently returned from Italy, and was inspired by the
wondrous pasta to have another go at homemade fresh stuff. I
have the rolling/cutting machine, so I just needed(!) to
make dough.
Having dim memories that pasta is made from ultra high
gluten wheat (durum), I bought the highest gluten flour the
super market had - Hovis Super Strong white bread flour:
(INFO) fabflour.co.ukfabflour.co.ukOpen ↗ A patent grade bakers
flour which uses the flour from the centre of the wheat
grain to give an exceptionally high quality protein flour
for bread baking, producing loaves with supberb volume,
colour and texture. (END INFO)
A recipe book I found in my pile also spoke of bread flour
as being the way to go.
So I confidently set out, mixing, kneading, (10 minutes, by
the clock), resting, rolling and cutting.
I cooked the resulting pappadalle, and served with my
favourite ragu type sauce.
Disappointment - the pasta was distinctly tough and
leathery. I made another batch, and cooked it a *lot* more.
Still leathery.
From reading some USENET archives (thank, google), it
appears that Northern Italian (I was taking a cheap long
weekend in Florence) fresh pasta is *actually* made from
"soft" flours.
So I need a new bag of flour.
Any one know anything, or have anything to add?
BugBear