Channel your inner pasta granny with a two-ingredient dough and a summery burst-tomato sauce
Unless you’re a seasoned pasta granny, making pasta from scratch can be a complicated and time-consuming affair. Most commonly, the fresh pasta enjoyed in the United States is a Northern Italian style made from a mixture of flour and eggs. This egg-based dough is rolled into thin sheets before being cut into long strands or formed into various shapes. Southern Italy is home to a slightly different style of pasta that might just be simple enough for a weeknight dinner. It’s made from semolina, a type of flour milled from hard durum wheat.
Pasta made from semolina flour is extra chewy thanks to its high gluten content, and it’s also incredibly simple to make. The recipe calls for only two ingredients, semolina flour and water, and, thanks to its strong glutinous texture, the dough can be shaped easily by hand—no pasta machine or even rolling pin required. The resulting pasta is delightfully toothsome and has a more substantial bite than anything you can buy in a box. I like to serve mine with a quick, summery sauce made from ripe cherry tomatoes for a homemade pasta dinner that feels (almost) effortless.
A finely ground flour is key to making great pasta. Confusingly, products labeled as “semolina” are often too coarse for the job. Look for flours labeled as “semola” or “semola rimacinata,” which are twice milled and yield a smoother-textured pasta. Once you’ve procured the correct flour, the rest is easy; just combine the semolina flour with water and knead until smooth. After a short rest, the dough is ready to shape.
There are several simple pasta shapes that can be made by hand: ear-shaped orecchiette, long rolled strands of pici, and pointy capunti, which resemble small pea pods. My favorite, and perhaps the easiest shape to make, is gnocchetti sardi, which look a lot like classic potato gnocchi but have a much springier bite. Their ridged shell shape is traditionally made by rolling small pieces of dough down a grooved gnocchi board. If you don’t have a gnocchi board (I don’t), a fork placed upside-down on the counter is an excellent substitute. As the dough is rolled against the tines of the fork, it curls up on itself, creating neat ridges and a little pocket perfect for catching sauce.
My favorite sauce to make at this time of year takes advantage of candy-sweet cherry tomatoes, which require little adornment other than a few cloves of garlic and a glug of olive oil. After just a few minutes in a hot pan, the tomatoes cook down into a jammy sauce that’s just thick enough to cling to the ridges of the pasta.
While this sauce is arguably flawless as is, I like to add a dollop of creamy ricotta into each bowl to contrast the acidity of the tomatoes. Since the sauce comes together so easily, the extra time spent shaping the pasta seems negligible—even enjoyable. I would never lug out the pasta machine on a Tuesday, but I’ll gladly make these gnocchetti sardi any day of the week.