I know we've discussed this before, but I'm STILL confused. I think here in Italy Farina "0" is like bread flour...a bit heavier, and farina "00" is lightER, more equal to All-Purpose flour in the states...or do I have it backwards?
So, what EXACTLY is semolina, and how is it different from the "0" and "00" farinas?
I've discovered that I like fresh pasta made with semolina much better...it's much easier to handle when rolling it out, and it's not as sitcky, but I'd really like to understand WHY.
Sooooooo What we call bread flour in Italy is mostly Manitoba, a special kind of wheat that has more gluten than "normal" wheat and less than durum wheat. I think that 0 could be called "all purpose" here in Italy and you only use 00 for specially light cakes and someone uses it for egg pasta (I do not understand why, personally). Semolino is thickly ground wheat, less thick than burghul and thicker than flour. Semola di grano duro is durum wheat flour.
Giulia, because that's the flour to use if you want a traditional Emiliana texture. ^___^ Traditionally, pasta must be extrathin, almost impalpable. Personally, I like mine with a bit more body, but if you go to parma the tagliatelle will always be as thin as air.
someone uses it for egg pasta (I do not understand why, personally).
I know that these food opinions are stronger than political ones. For me, pasta made with 00 flour is not only thinner, which I love, but it is also a lot easier to handle beacuse it is less sticky.
In the South of Italy some pasta is made with semola di grano duro, I am not sure that this can be translated "semolina". It gives a chewy thick pasta, more suitable to special shapes such orecchiette.
Semolino is coarser and it is used for the Roman "gnocchi di semolino", a sort of dumpling that is baked in the oven with a lot of butter on it.
I know that these food opinions are stronger than political ones. For me, pasta made with 00 flour is not only thinner, which I love, but it is also a lot easier to handle beacuse it is less sticky.
Not me Letizia... you're welcome to use 00 flour and, if you invite me I will never ever complain about it and I will enjoy it greatly!
Barb, the best book I ever invested in for cooking was Cookwise, which explains all the details on ingredients, and the most interesting was on flours. The "body" of the flour comes from the protein in it which creates the gluten. High gluten flour is for bread, low gluten for muffins and more delicate things.
In Italy both teh 0 and the 00 are lower in gluten than the all purpose in America
As Giulia says the Manitoba ( from canada) is bread flour, there is also great hard wheat flour for bread down in Puglia.
in the COOP you can find all types.
Semola is not semolina. Semolina is like cream of wheat, which is sometimes labeled FARINA in America, all very confusing and can create disasters, as when my friend came on vacation here and made pasta with FARINA ( cream of wheat) like eating small stones!
Not only does the pasta change from hte use of the different flours, but also if you use whole eggs, just yokes or flour and hot water!
When I was working in a 5 star hotel in America for 7 years before coming here... we made an all egg yolk pasta with semola... hard to make at home, but with GREAT BODY and BITE, the mouth feel is what it is all about!
When I was in the COOP I saw that Fecola,( potato starch) was only 20 cents.. you shoul have bought it to make your dessert.
Each different starch responds differently with liquids,and gives a different mouth feel.
When I teach Pizza making at my summer grill class we do a flour workshop showing the difference in the dough. I do the same with pasta on a past workshop.
I have several books in English, but it is always a great difficulty to advice about equivalence of ingredients back home. Many guests have mentioned that with US pastry flour they get the same results as the pasta we prepare together here using 00 flour. I have been told that US cake flour has starch added to it, but I have no way to verify it from here.
thanks for the replies, but sheesh! flour in Italy is complicated!
I should have typed "semola", not "semolina", so thanks for pointing out that those words are NOT the same ting.
So....for bread I should really be using the Manitoba flour...or maybe part Manitoba part semola? Of course they're both a lot more expensive than "0" or "00" flour.
So far I'm using the semola for pasta and again, I really like it since it's not as sticky, and generally I don't make 'delicate' pastas, so no problems there. Yesterday at the grocery I asked one of the clerks what I should use to make lasagna and cannelloni, and she grabbed the semola.
I don't know why I find all these different types of flour so confusing, but I get a headache just standing in front of all the different flours at the grocery store
This is the Wikipedia page on Semolina . I can't find an english page for "semola" but the Italian page confirms that "semola" is the flour of durum wheat.
So we now only need to be sure of the difference between semolino and semolina
Letizia... yes that is the book... FAbulous as the author shirley is a food scientist and explains it all in an easy to understand fashion.. about the chemistry then gives recipes.
and the problem with Wikepedia is that anyone can write for it!
and in the states.. there is double labeling which is what creates the problems.
If in American semolina or semolino is the FLOUR, then what is semolino?
For Americans the semolino to have hot as breakfast food, is called cream of wheat.
AHHH
Most cookbooks tell Americans for a cup of all purpose flour, to take out 2 tbs of flour and add 2 tbs of corn starch. ( lowers the gluten!)
Barb.. experiment! is it cheaper for you to make your bread than buy it? or are you making special breads? using Semola for bread gives it a fabulous yellow sort of color.. like the bread from Puglia!
GLuten adds elasticity to bread and gets a chewier dough. Good for trying to make a sourdough bread, bagels etc
Originally posted by Diva: For Americans the semolino to have hot as breakfast food, is called cream of wheat.
Breakfast? It used to be one of my favorite dinners as a child, along with riso e latte (rice boiled in rice) and polenta e latte (leftover polenta slices, grilled until slightly charred, broken in pieces and dumped in room temp milk). Now that I think of it: my granny's idea of a summer Sunday lunch, last snday, turned out to be polenta with salsiccia and beans, so we have leftover polenta... Tonight it's a polenta e latte night! YEAH!
I wish we would have more information on our package flour here. And provenance. The smell of the bread has changed so much in the last few years. Nobody knows where the flour is coming from!
Letizia, the problem is not only the flour, it's the way it's treated. With the exception of a few DOP, IGP and STG breads that MUST be prepared with the proper type of yeast, most bakers now use flours already added with chemical yeasts, which may be easier to use than the traditional way of making bread, but also produce a much worse result in terms of taste and overall quality.
Topic Closed
