At Bellegarde Bakery in New Orleans, baker Graison Gill is part of a generation of renegade bakers who are eschewing industrially ground white flour in favor of grinding their own flours from crops like red Ruby Lee wheat and heirloom corn. “White flour is a corpse,” says Gill. “It’s a dead, shelf-stable product. Freshly stone-milled flour is a living ingredient, full of flavor, texture, aroma, nutrition, and nuance.” Buy Bellegarde Bakery’s stone-ground flour online at bellegardebakery.com. At Pêche in New Orleans, chef Ryan Prewitt kneads Bellegarde’s flours into a pasta with nutty flavor and a bouncy chew. If you can’t find freshly milled Bellegarde flour, King Arthur makes a durum flour that will work in this recipe.
How to Make It
Whisk together all-purpose flour, durum flour, whole-wheat flour, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together egg yolks, eggs, and oil in a medium bowl. Using 2 forks, gradually incorporate egg mixture into flour mixture until roughly combined. Turn dough out onto a floured work surface; knead until dough is very smooth, about 10 minutes. If dough is too dry and does not come together, add water, 1 teaspoon at a time, as needed. If dough is too sticky, lightly flour hands and work surface as needed. Wrap smooth dough tightly in plastic wrap; let rest at room temperature at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.
Unwrap dough, and divide evenly into 4 portions. Set rollers of a pasta machine on widest setting. Working with 1 dough portion at a time (keeping other portions covered with a towel), flatten dough to 1/3-inch thickness. Roll dough through pasta machine. Fold dough in half crosswise, and reroll through pasta machine. Continue folding and rerolling dough until it is as wide as the pasta machine (about 5 inches), 1 or 2 times. Once appropriate width is reached, continue rerolling dough through pasta machine, reducing width of rollers 1 setting at a time, until dough has been rolled through Setting 4 (spaghetti thickness), flouring dough as needed to prevent sticking. Cover rolled dough sheet with a towel. Repeat process with remaining 3 dough portions.
Attach spaghetti cutter to pasta machine. Pass each rolled dough sheet through cutter, flouring dough as needed to prevent sticking. Sprinkle cut spaghetti with flour; place on a lightly floured rimmed baking sheet. Use immediately, or cover tightly with plastic wrap and chill up to 3 days. Uncooked pasta can also be frozen up to 4 weeks; to cook, boil pasta from frozen, increasing cook time to about 5 minutes (or until tender).