How to Make Grano Duro Pasta Dough

Name: Grano Duro Pasta Dough
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 2-3/4 cups durum wheat flour, plus additional 1 cup for work surface; 4 jumbo eggs (10 ounces total); 1 teaspoon salt

Italian culinary expert Amy Riolo, shares her recipe for making a traditional pasta dough at home using hard wheat or "grano duro."

By Amy Riolo

12:00 PM EDT on September 16, 2023

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Basic Pasta Dough. — Pasta dough process. Photo by Francesco Sapienza, courtesy of Pasta Corner.

Grano Duro pasta dough is used to make taglierini, pappardelle, fusilli, orecchiette, cavatelli, lagane, spaghetti, ziti, and many other traditional pasta shapes.

Pasta in most Southern Italian regions is generally made with grano duro durum wheat flour, “hard wheat,” which is higher in protein than other kinds of wheat and is considered a whole wheat product because it contains the germ, bran, and other parts of the wheat grain. During the milling process, durum wheat can be ground into semolina, and semolina is sometimes used to make these shapes as well. This dough is not used for stuffed pasta recipes

Semolina, einkorn, spelt, and other heirloom varieties of wheat can be used when making this pasta.

Originally, Grano Duro pasta dough was made with only flour and water, but nowadays many Italian chefs include eggs. If you prefer to make this type of pasta without eggs, you can use 3 cups of durum wheat flour plus 1 1/2 cups tepid water along with 2 tablespoons of lukewarm water and 1 teaspoon salt as ingredients.

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Grano Duro Pasta Dough

Recipe by Amy Riolo

0.0 from 0 votes

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Ingredients

2-3/4 cups 2-3/4 durum wheat flour, plus additional 1 cup for work surface
4 4 jumbo eggs (10 ounces total)
1 teaspoon 1 salt

Directions

Place the flour in a mound on a clean, dry work surface.
Make a hole in the center and break the eggs into the middle.
Using a fork, carefully mix the eggs together and incorporate a little flour into the eggs at a time.
Add the salt, and mix well by hand to form a solid dough.
Lightly flour the work surface, and knead and fold the dough energetically until it forms a smooth ball.
Using your hands or a floured rolling pin, flatten out the dough to form a 10-inch diameter disk.
Cover and set aside to rest for 30 minutes.
Scrape up and discard any unused bits of dough.
Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to form a rectangle about 12-inches long. Cut the rectangle into four equal pieces.
Roll each piece on a lightly floured surface until it is 1/8 -inch thick.
Cut pasta sheets into desired shapes called for in your recipe.