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2-Ingredient Pasta Dough, 3 Ways

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Orecchiette con broccoli Photo credit: All, Linda Pugliese

You know how people say “Oh, that’s actually really easy to make yourself!” and it totally isn’t? Like, jam. Okay, that’s easy. But brisket? Not easy. And pasta? Also not easy. You have to mix the stuff, but not over-mix it; get it thin, but still allow for that bite; slice it and work with it without getting it too wet or too gummy or too coated with extra flour. Blergh.

Pasta made with semolina, though, instead of eggs and flour, actually issorta kinda easy. Linda Pugliese, a food photographer who spends much of the year visiting family in Italy and perfecting her pasta shapes, showed us how to make the dough—two ingredients only!—and roll three of the major shapes: cavatelli, orecchiette, and trofie. And now we’ll show you.

Make Your Dough

Basically, you use two parts semolina to one part water, keeping a little extra semolina on hand to dust the board and even out the texture if need be. To serve two people, for example, you’ll use two cups of semolina (plus 1/2 cup extra) and one cup of water. (Here are two brands of semolina that Pugliese likes “because they have been milled to the perfect texture, neither too coarse nor too fine”: La Grande Ruota and Molino Spadoni.)

Mix the semolina and water in a large bowl using your fingertips at first. Then, knead it with your hands until it feels like Play-Doh, for about two to three minutes. If it’s humid outside or the dough feels too wet, add a bit more semolina. If it’s too dry, dip your fingers into a glass of water and continue kneading. “You don’t want it sticking to your hands or the board, but it shouldn’t be so hard that you’re building up a sweat!” Use the videos below to reference the consistency and look of the dough you’re trying to achieve.

When it’s ready, fold the dough over itself a few times, closing it up so no additional air will get to it, and form it into a ball. Cover the dough and allow it to rest for at least 20 minutes.

To prep the dough for shaping, roll it into a 1 to 1 1/2-inch tube.

Roll Out Your Shapes

To get that pasta perfect, just watch what the Italians do over and over and over. And over. For each shape below, you’ll find, as Pugliese put it, “all the pasta videos on semolina dough you’ll ever need to become an Italian nonna overnight.” (Note: Many of these videos show the dough being made using a well, straight on a wooden board or kitchen surface, but you can mix the ingredients in a bowl, like we said above. It’s easier, and just as correct.)

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Cavatelli

What it looks like: Basic cavatelli looks like cowry shells. (See above.) Cavatelli lunghi is longer and less stout. Click here for a visual, on the right.

What it’s good for: Because of its crevices and ridges, cavatelli is good for trapping chunks of vegetables and meat. Think: whole chickpeas, chunks of lamb or tuna, or roughly chopped leeks. Pugliese prefers to serve cavatelli lunghi with a fresh tomato sauce.

Watch a nonna: Skip to 2:37 in this video to see a rustic way of doing this. If you scroll back to 2:13, you can see the cook making orecchiette, the first part of which is cavatelli—it’s just the roll, made by dragging the knife against the board, without flipping it inside out. Then, at 3:05, she’s rolling gnocchetti, which are basically smallcavatelli made on a gnocchi paddle; it’s actually the easiest (and most impressive-looking to friends who don’t know any better).

Orecchiette

What it looks like: Cavatelli turned inside out. Because that’s what it is! Click here for a visual.

What it’s good for:  Broccoli rabe and sausage is the go-to pairing for orecchiette. Like cavatelli, it can take on chunky sauces because it is truly bowl-shaped, cupping those hefty tidbits of meat or whole beans.

Watch a nonna: Here, orecchiette is being made in the beginningand cavatelli at the end. (We can only wish to be this fast one day!) And Pugliese, although not a nonnamade a great stop-motion video.

Trofie

What it looks like: A curlicue or a smaller, tighter curly fry. Click here for a visual (on the left).

What it’s good for: Trofie is mostly served with pesto, as the shape originates from Liguria, and pesto is common there.

Watch a nonna: We had a hard time getting the hang of this one, buthere’s someone (a nonno!) who clearly has it down pat.

We don’t cover strozzapretti or maccheroni here, which are other pastas you can make with the semolina dough, but Pugliese says that you can find good tutorials online for pretty much any shape. Just search the name of the pasta, with “fatta in casa" or "fatta a mano" on YouTube, and let the nonnas guide you.

Cook Your Pasta

Bring a large pot pf water to a rolling boil, add salt, and throw in your pasta. If it’s fresh, only cook until it floats, less than a minute. Drain the pasta, saving some of the  water. Mix the pasta with your warmed sauce, binding them together with some of the saved pasta water. Serve it immediately (with a big chunk of Parmesan cheese and a grater on the side)!

You can also make pasta in the food processor. Yes, for real: