I'm not advanced by any measure, but I can recommend 00 flour if you wan t a silky pasta. You shouldn't have any trouble finding it where you live, at Whole Foods if nowhere else.

Also, the whole kneading enough and resting just the right amount of time is vital.

The rest is just practice. :)

I've gotten into extruded black bean pasta, which is totally different. I suppose it's possible to make at home, with an extruder, but I'd rather just buy it. Can't make ravioli that way, though. I've had ravioli on my list of things to try.

The cake flour may not have enough gluten in it, which pasta really needs. I second the recommendation of 000 flour.

I'm not a big fan of white pasta, so my favorite has basil added to the dough. It is very green, though, and so would not look as pretty with some fillings, LOL. I do add my vote for the 00 flour, we finally broke down and ordered some from Amazon.

This recipe is for noodles, but I've found that it also works for thinner pasta shapes and will go through the pasta machine pretty well.

Basil Noodles

1-1/4 cups fresh basil leaves 3 cups all-purpose flour 3 eggs 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon water 2 teaspoons olive oil

1. Place basil in a food processor; cover and process until finely chopped. Add flour; process until blended. Add the eggs, water and oil. Process for 15-20 seconds or until dough forms a ball.

2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Divide into fourths.

3. On a floured surface, roll each portion of dough to 1/16-in. thickness. Roll up jelly-roll style and cut into 1/4-in. slices. Separate and unroll the slices. Hang to dry or let stand on a clean towel for 1 hour. Cook noodles in boiling salted water for 4-5 minutes or until tender; drain. Yield: 8 servings.

Annie

The wheat family saga, and why all-purpose flour isn't the "right" flour for all-purposes..... REALLY, it's NOT! The following is in part from classes I teach on grains and home milling. -Grainlady

***The bottom line....you can make pasta and noodles with any kind of flour (including non-wheat varieties, low-gluten, and gluten-free varieties, bean flours, etc., but not all wheat flours are the optimum choice for making pasta and noodles.

There are 6 wheat varieties (both red wheat and white wheat, hard and soft, as well as spring and winter wheat). Each variety has different characteristics when considering the type of food you want to make. There are varieties that have bread-making characteristics - "strong" wheat, or hard wheat. Wheat with a high protein (gluten) content. (t. aestivum)

There are wheat varieties that have characteristics best used when you don't want/need a lot of gluten formation - "weak" wheat, or soft wheat. (t. aestivum, t. compactum)

As a quick note, up until the 1880's, the only type of wheat that was readily available in the U.S. for making flour was soft wheat. Bread making was a completely different process than what we use today because of the type of wheat grown throughout the United States. There weren't tall lofty loaves like we get today. If you can find some of the heritage wheat varieties, they are also best used with the long, slow, bread making processes from the early 1800's.

What about "gluten"? The protein group we refer to as "gluten" is predominantly glutenins and gliadins. For both hard and soft wheat the dominant protein is glutenin.

All-purpose flour is a mixture of hard and soft wheat, making it strong enough to make yeast bread, weak enough for most cakes, cookies, quick breads, pastry, but it's not the optimal choice for anything, except maybe soft dinner rolls.

Cake flour is milled from soft wheat.

Enter the 6th variety of wheat - durum (t. durum) - the best choice for pasta and noodles.

Durum wheat came to the United States from south Russia in the late 19th century, as did the hard red winter wheat varieties that are the granddaddy to today's bread flour. Durum represents only 5% of the wheat crop in the U.S. It is the hardest of all U.S. wheats with a high protein content, but unlike hard wheat (which also has a high protein content), the dominant protein of the protein group in durum wheat is gliadin, which makes it the best wheat variety for pasta and noodles.

Durum comes in three subclasses which are according to the color. Hard amber durum, amber durum, and durum. Hard amber durum contains sufficient glutenins to make good bread and produce tall, slightly yellow loaves. Another characteristic of bread made with hard amber durum, the baked loaves keep better. Durum flour also improves the texture of bread made with hard wheat flour. As an aside, I've never been able to find/purchase hard amber durum, just amber durum and durum wheat, and I milled my own flour for pasta and noodles from durum wheat.

"Durum - from the Latin word for hard - is an appropriate name for the firmest of all wheats. Durum's hardness makes it the wheat of choice for producing pasta. When most wheats are milled, the endosperm, or heart of the wheat kernel, breaks down into a fine, powdery flour, but the endosperm of durum is hard enough to hold together. The result is a granular product called semolina. Durum kernels are amber-colored and larger than those of other wheat classes. Also unique to durum is the fact that its endosperm is not creamy white, but yellow, which gives pasta its pleasing yellow hue."

The better the durum, the better the pasta. When regular wheat flour is mixed with durum flour for making pasta, it's considered an inferior product in the industry.

You can mill durum fine to coarse. Semolina is milled from the endosperm of durum wheat (the bran and germ are removed), while whole wheat pasta is milled from whole durum grain with the bran and germ, as well as the endosperm. When making pasta (for extruding), use a coarse grind. When making noodles (flat and cut), choose a fine grind.

The ancient version of durum wheat is Kamut, and it is also a good choice for making pasta and noodles.

-Grainlady

Grainlady, this is fascinating. Not that I'm going to make pasta, but it makes such an interesting read.

Thanks everyone. I will get some 00 flour and some durum flour, and try combinations with the semolina flour I have.

I suspect this will end up like bread making. By the time I learned to make the kind of bread I like (crusty, chewy, big crumb), my waistline told me to stop.

The recipe I use is from a friend's Italian momma. Basically one egg per cup of flour and an extra egg for every three cups of flour. I roll it out by hand.

Recipe Link

To be clear, 00 refers to the fineness of the flour. The commonly available 00 flours are specifically designed for pizza and pasta. Make sure you're getting the pasta version. :)

I agree with ann-t. Keep it simple. I do 100g flour to an egg. I don't knead too much as the roller does the hard work for you.Are you working your way up all the settings? Ravioli pasta must be very fine or it's horrid to eat.

Nice ravioli fillings are things like minced chicken, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper and ricotta. It will cook in the time for the pasta to cook. Make them small.

Another favourite with us is minced prawn, garlic, salt and pepper, ricotta. You can always add a little grated ginger.

What sauce are you serving them with? I love a really simple fresh tomato sauce.

I like ravioli served with crispy sage leaves.

Sounds good! Getting a feel for the gluten development and relaxation is the hard part. Master it and pasta becomes easy. :) Or so I'm told. :)

The ravioli sounds tasty, and the sides even better (homegrown guava? yum).\

Inspired by this thread I picked up some 00 flour (the Italian brand) at Whole Paycheck (Foods). I haven't tried making some in months, so I'll give it a try.

You can let the pasta machine do the kneading. By the time you've put it through the biggest roller a few times, it will be silky and smooth. It MUST be thin.