Recently, I had a debate with my Epi colleague Adina. I maintained that when cooking whole grain pasta, it’s important to boil it for longer than you might traditional semolina pasta in order for it to be palatable. Her stance was that whole-grain pastas have a tendency toward mushiness, so they should be cooked for less time.
To settle the matter I turned to Thomas McNaughton, chef and author of Flour + Water: Pasta. According to McNaughton, we were both right—and we were both wrong. The chef said that you can’t make a blanket statement either way, because some grains absorb water faster and some slower than the pasta you may be used to. The only way to know when pasta is fully cooked, he says, is to take a bite.
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To start, the same rules apply as when cooking traditional pasta: Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Once boiling rapidly, throw in the noodles and set your timer. “If the box directions say ‘cook for 12 minutes,’ then start checking at 8,” instructs McNaughton. “When you bite into undercooked pasta there will be a white, floury circle at the center of the noodle. The second that dot disappears, the pasta is perfectly cooked.”
The chef also had something to say about the mush factor. “In general,” McNaughton says, “the texture of 100% whole wheat pasta is really bad!” It just doesn’t have enough structure to retain that snappy al dente bite once cooked. When he makes fresh whole wheat pasta, he generally uses a ratio of 50% whole wheat to 50% “00” flour, a type of Italian flour popular for making pasta and pizza dough. Other grains, such as farro, spelt, and even lentils (which is a legume, not a grain), may have a gummy texture or be too strongly flavored to use in large quantities. For those, he says a good ratio to start with is 20% alternative flour to 80% “00” or semolina flour.
Of course, when pasta night rolls around, making from-scratch noodles isn’t always an option. When buying alternative grain pastas, there are a few small-batch purveyors McNaughton likes. One of them is Community Grains, a maker of traceable whole grain foods (including 100% whole wheat pasta) that are available for purchase online. Otherwise, he says to check the ingredients list of other market brands for eggs, which will at least give the noodles more strength.
McNaughton also pointed out that alternative flours don’t only add nutrients to pasta—they add flavor as well. He loves to serve lentil pasta with a ragù made from cotechino, a type of pork sausage often served with braised lentils on New Year’s Eve in Italy. The darker, brown flavors of alternative grains can enhance richer, heartier sauces, he notes. (Think duck ragu or bitter greens.)
But it’s a good idea to experiment until you find the combinations of pastas and sauces you like best. The trick to saucing whole grain pasta is the same as the trick to cooking it: let taste be your guide.
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This post was last modified on December 10, 2024 11:09 am