My attempts to make a better emmer pasta continued last Sunday with a new approach to milling the emmer berries. I wanted to make a semolina using nearly the whole grain, removing only as much of the bran as possible. Through my various attempts, I found that removing just the bran or even getting anything close to a clean separation is very difficult. Regardless, I did end up with a nearly 100% whole grain emmer semolina flour that made an excellent ravioli.

The milling process was to grind the berries on a medium setting (close to mid-way between the fine and course on the Komo mill). This resulted in a good mix of fairly course meal and some finer semolina and flour. I sifted off the first gring using my basic mesh sifter (no specific # grade, but considerable larger mesh than my #50). I then tried to remove some of the bran using a standard kitchen strainer and through manual separation via shaking in a bowl and letting the lighter flakier bran float to the top. This worked somewhat (it works better with hard red wheat and spelt). I then ran the course grind portion through the mill again at a course-fine setting. I again sifted off the biggest flakes of bran.

In the end, I was left with a somewhat uniform fine emmer semolina. I did leave in the flour portion with the semolina. I started to sift out some of the fine flour, but realized it would be necessary for the ravioli dough. I also blended in some medium fine hard red wheat flour, again to add more pliability to the dough.

Final pasta recipe: 157 grams emmer semolina, 68 grams hard red flour (225 total grams of flour), 2 large eggs, and a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil.

mixing flour and eggs

dough ball ready to rest

The final product: Without a pasta roller, it is hard to get the dough thin enough consistently across the length of the rolled dough.I should have given the dough just a couple more final rolls, as the edges where the pasta is double-thick was tad too much. Even with that, these were the best ravioli I have made to-date. That is not saying much though, considering some disasters I have had in the past. The emmer pasta itself was wheaty with a good solid bite and nutty flavor tone (a very emmer flavor). Unfortunately, this didn’t match well with the spinach in the filling though and I would stick to hearty flavors next time to pair with the strength of the emmer semolina

Overall, I think emmer can make a decent pasta, but it takes some effort to get it right and probably not useful for a go-to everyday style pasta. I still really need to get my hands on some durum wheat.