It's the 1980s. My grade-school teacher quickly makes paste from flour and water. The following week she wows us with dough. Two simple ingredients create a fantastic variety of shapes and forms. We watch with awe and wonder. What keeps it together? Gluten! A ball of sticky gluten results from washing a glob of dough in the sink. Crazy, eh?
There's more to flour than gluten. To create a building block, we need protein. The more protein we have, the better the bread, whereas the less protein we have, the denser the cake. Sounds wild, right? So, with bread, if we have a high protein flour, we must have rest periods in our dough production since too much kneading can make the bread dough tough.
I like to experiment with different flours, so I tweak my pasta recipe with plain all-purpose flour instead of durum semolina. Even in pasta production, what does it mean when we see a "00" grade? It's the grade of the meal of the flour. A coarse "01" or "02" meal makes various loaves of bread. We can use all-purpose to make pasta. Just understand the texture will be different than with semolina flour.
Today is the age of food intolerances, so we must adjust our everyday diets. We can make flavorful loaves of bread and pasta with different flours from garbanzos, black beans, lentils, potatoes, and kinds of rice. Choose a variety of spices, umami, and herbs to elevate the taste. In the end, good olive oil or finishing oil drizzles can make our entrée come together beautifully.
Sometimes it’s best to be a kid for a moment and see what we create. Who knows? We may make the best roti ever! Just remember to record the process; we all are excited to see where this twisty food adventure takes us.