Homemade Whole Wheat Pasta Made with Freshly Milled Prairie Gold Wheat
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Homemade freshly ground whole wheat pasta is all new to me. I’ve never had freshly ground flour as that is almost too homestead for me. Writing this blog has changed me forever and my cooking has evolved to a level I never thought possible. Grinding my own flour is no longer a remote possibility. This incredible flour was actually milled by my friend. She told me that her children never get sick and she thinks it’s because she’s been baking her own bread for years, milling her own flour. This is called Prairie Gold found here at Wheat Montana. I begged her to grind some for me and let me taste the difference.
This is a beautiful flour. It’s nutty, lighter and sweeter than all purpose, stripped down white flour. I decided to try it as a pasta, just to see how it might perform. Normally I like to use semolina flour which is grittier than all purpose flour because I like the life and bite it brings to an egg pasta.
All homemade pastas are usually egg-based pastas, very different from store bought boxed pasta. I don’t think homemade is necessarily better because both types of pasta have their place, depending on what the dish is.
Papparadelle is an egg pasta that looks like ribbons, and is best when it’s homemade. It’s hard to find it packaged and any quality papparadelle is quite expensive, usually $5-$8 for 16 ounces. Homemade is the way to go.
Get the rest of the recipe, the meatballs and chunky tomato sauce here.
I thought I might make bread with the flour, but I had this craving this week for homemade papparadelle and thought I’d give this the Prairie Gold a go. Surprisingly, it performed very similarly to a semolina pasta. It has its own sweetness, but enough body to stand up to the sauce. Papparadelle is pairs well with chunky sauces such as a bolognese.
You can make this pasta with any whole wheat flour (or even semolina flour if you want). This heartier flour absorbs the liquid of the eggs rapidly, so don’t overdo the flour. You can always add in flour, but you can’t help dry pasta dough. I ran it through a pasta machine and then hand cut it. Prior to cutting, I dried it out for about twenty minutes to prevent sticking, when rolling up to cut. That’s an important step. I used a Kitchen Aid Pasta roller to roll it out. You can roll the pasta with a rolling pin.
This pasta was used for a chunky tomato sauce and prosciutto dish, which I’ll be posting in full assembly soon.
Tell me, have you had a good homemade pasta lately, and have you ever milled your own flour?
Homemade Freshly Ground Whole Wheat Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons water you may not need
Instructions
- Take the freshly ground wheat and put a hole in the center. Add the eggs, and mix with a fork one at a time. If the pasta appears too dry, add in a little water, just a little at a time. Flour hands and form pasta into a dough by kneading. Wrap in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Once rested, roll pasta out, as thin as you can with a rolling pin or take through a pasta roller on a Kitchen Aid. Once you have the pasta strips, allow to sit out on a cloth to dry slightly, up to 20 minutes. You want the pasta hard enough so that it doesn't stick when you cut and soft enough that it doesn't crack.
- Fold strips in half and roll up and cut in one inch strips. Place in nests on the cloth. These can dry or you can cook immediately.
- Fill a large pot with salted, boiling water. Cook about 3 minutes.
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If egg pasta was cooked directly into the sauce rather than boiled in water first would this make much difference?
more flavor as the pasta soaks up the sauce as it cooks… takes longer as you wont boil the sauce
Great recipe. Could you please tell me where to get the bird bowl and your other bowl with the dots on it? They are absolutely gorgeous!
I found a local co op with a mill you can use with their wheat berries. I picked up 4 lbs of freshly milled flour. I’ll be making a loaf of no knead artisan bread tonight/tomorrow and the leftover flour will go for pasta.
Will be using this recipe to make pappardelle this weekend to go with a short rib ragu I want to make.
VERY excited about trying fresh milled flour!!
Great. I can’t wait to hear how it goes.
Would this work with a more common type of wheat such as hard red wheat? Thank you for the wonderful poast.
How do you dry your own pasta? Do you just leaving it out or with a dehydrator? Thanks for your recipe, so easy!!
I’ve been milling my own flour for about a month to make breads and was looking for a pasta recipe to use with my KitchenAid pasta attachments. I will try yours. Have you used Kamut?
Susan, that sounds so interesting. No I haven’t used kamut. I’d love to hear about how it turns out.
I just made pasta for the first time Saturday night. I have been grinding my own wheat for a few years now, and have never tried the pasta because I tried some made from fresh ground semolina and didn’t care for it. I heard another lady say she makes hers from Kamut, which is an ancient type of wheat that is only grown organically. She said it was not gritty, which the other type I tried was, and it has an almost buttery taste. I don’t have a pasta machine so I rolled it out by hand, and everyone loved it and felt very special that I would make pasta by hand for them! It was so easy and my picky eater said, “these are the best noodles ever!” By the way, my kids hardly ever get sick now too! It sounds like a weird thing to grind your own flour, but it is awesome to be able to grind up healthy, nutritious flours fresh for whatever you are making! Blessings!
Tried making pasta for the first time yesterday using your recipe….came out great…..Thanks 🙂
Ooohhh.. I am so wanting to accomplish this soon! I’ve been hinting to the hubby how yummy it would be to make our own pasta. I just need to find a reasonably priced attachment and then it’s ON!! Someday soon! Smiles!
I’ve never milled my own flour, but it’s funny because just this morning I was thinking that it no longer seemed like a remote possibility, something only homeschooled people in long skirts and black hats would do, or some other such stereotype, but rather like something I would love to try! Funny how a little food blog can change a person 🙂
That’s funny. I thought the exact same thing. See how blogging changes us.
Angela
This looks so wonderful, Angela. I’ve only tried my hand at homemade pasta when I took cooking classes a few years back. I love the taste and texture of homemade. Boxed pastas do have their place, too. I will look for this flour, get the attachment for my KitchenAid, and give this a whirl! (or is it a “roll”?) xo
Gorgeous pasta! I really have to buy a pasta machine soon…
Cheers,
Rosa
Ooh i would love to do this! I’v never worked with freshly ground flour but it sounds amazing! 😀
we use a mix of 2/3 fresh ground wheat to 1/3 all purpose flour (sometimes half and half) in all our bread and pasta making at home.
just remember that wheat bread stales in 2 or 3 days at room temperature but keeps forever frozen.
fresh ground wheat TASTES so much better too 😉
I have definitely never milled my own flour. Living in the valley I am many hundreds of kilometres from fields of durum wheat on the prairies. It is however available to us. The unbelievable thing would be that I have never made my own pasta outside of a cooking class.
Val
I know you can do it.
Wow that looks good! I think I’m going to have to teach my kidlettes how to make pasta this weekend . . .
I hope you do teach them to make pasta. Kids love to play in the kitchen with this.