homemade pasta and where to buy semolina flour [Moved from Manhattan board]

[aahnnt]

hey all

i've recently discovered how delicious and how much fun it is to make home-made pasta, but have found semolina flour not that easy to come by. has anyone seen it for sale in bulk/bins anywhere. i purchased some at fairway but it was rather expensive for quite a small prepackaged amount.

also, anyone have any favorite homemade pasta recipes, methods, approaches, etc? i made orecchiette (this is a good pasta to make without a pasta maker, which i don't have at the moment, though i have access to at my sister's place if the right recipe compells me!) from a simple mixture of 1 cup semolina, 2 cups regular flour and about 1 cup water. after it was cooked i mixed in garbanzos, feta, mint, cilantro, green onions, sundried tomatoes and garlic - so so good!

thanks!

[Joe MacBu]

[Deleted]

[thecountryrose]

I get mine from a store in Chelsea Market in New York.
http://www.buonitalia.com
Sometimes I use the Semole along with double 00 pasta flour. but most of the time, just the double 00 flour.

[Smileelisa]

I recently purchased semolina flour at Amazon. I got 12 1 lb bags. I like the fact of individual packages. I gave 6 bags to my daughter and I put 5 bags in the freezer. I made homemade ziti the other day using half semolina flour and half regular flour. Was very tasty. better than what you buy in the store.

[coll]

Go to any Italian store that makes their own pasta or semolina bread and ask to buy a lb or two. They probably won't charge you too much as they buy it in 50# sacks and probably spill that much every time they take some out ;-).

[The Chowhound Team]

We've moved this from the Manhattan board to the Home Cooking board, since the replies have focused on that part of the OP's question. The OP is welcome to repost the request to where to find semolina flour on the Manhattan board, so that we can keep the discussion here focused on cooking.

Thanks!

[mahalan]

I'd recommend NOT buying a pasta machine. Using a rough, wood rod to roll your pasta produces a texture that a metal roller just can't duplicate. Yeah, it takes a little more work but it's more than worth it.

[Smileelisa]

I disagree with mahalan. I have both an automatic pasta machine which makes fantastic pasta in minutes and I also have a manual for making rag noodles and such.

[MagnumWino]

This past Sunday I broke out this month's Saveur magazine and made fresh tagliatelle and the Bolognese sauce with chicken livers to go with it. Awesome! It was a perfect combination. I've made the Bolognese sauce in Batali's cookbook many times, but this one blew it away. The chicken livers added a whole other dimension to this sauce IMO.
Also if you're into making pasta and don't have a machine, try making potato gnocchi. It is not hard at all and the results will amaze you. Just make sure you have a potato ricer on hand to use.

[Hurner]

I've used and enjoyed the methods outlined in Lidia Bastianich's "Lidia's Family Table" for classic homemade pasta.