Busiate Pasta

This easy semolina pasta hails all the way from beautiful Sicily. It's the perfect fresh pasta for beginners, but with its long twirly shape, it is sure to impress the whole table.

When I think of busiate pasta, a typical pasta shape from Sicily, all I can think of is my freind Enza. Enza is a Sicilian private chef, who runs cooking classes in Palermo. In fact, the first time I met Enza, it was at one of her cooking classes in Sicily's capital, where over the course of 5 hours, she taught us a host of traditional recipes, including busiate.

Busiate pasta was my first go at making semolina pasta, which is much more common in the South of Italy. In the North, where I am from, fresh pasta is mainly made with eggs and '00' flour. Semolina pasta is made of just durum wheat semolina flour and water, making it a naturally vegan fresh pasta - perfect if you are hosting people with different dietary restrictions. My memory of busiate was that it was so fun to make, as you shape it with wooden skewers to give it its twirly shape.

Since then, Enza and I went on to host our joint cooking classes together in London, and when we were coming up with the menu, we knew it had to inclute busiate. And that was the right choice, as it was one of the biggest hits of the class. So as I start exploring the wonderful world of fresh pasta over here, I had to include her recipe, which Enza kindly allowed me to share.

How to Make Busiate:

1. Be flexible with water: semolina pasta is made of just semolina flour and water, but according to the type of semolina flour or even things like humidity levels or temperature in your kitchen, the level of water absorption varies, hence why you normally have a range of water measurements in recipes (eg 80ml-100ml). The best way is to start with the lower amount and then see if that is enough for your dough, If the dough keeps being crumbly, simply add the remaining water.

2. Let your dough rest: just like egg pasta, after kneading he dough, it needs time to rest so the gluten can relax and increase its level of stretchiness. About 30 mins at room temperature is the sweet spot. Make sure you cover your dough, even with a simple bowl, to ensure the outer layer doesn't dry out.

3. Small and steady wins the race: when you start shaping your busiate, make sure you take small pieces of dough, no more than 3cm thick, to roll out. Any bigger than that and you'll find yourself with very thick, too chewy busiate, and it will be even harder to get them off your wooden skewer.

Ingredients (serves 2):

200g durum wheat semolina flour

95-105ml water

1-2 wooden skewers

Method:

• Tip the semolina flour onto a work surface and create a well in the centre. Gradually pour the water into the well.

• With a fork, begin incorporating the flour into the water. Once fully incorporated, knead the dough for 8-10 mins, until you get a smooth and elastic dough.

• Either cover the dough with a bowl or wrap in cling film. Leave to rest for about 30 mins.

• Once rested, sprinkle some more semolina flour on your work surface and divide the dough into small 3cm thick pieces. Roll each piece onto the flour, then shape into a thin sausage (abouth 1cm thick).

• Take your wooden spoon and wrap the dough around the skewer (make sure you don't wrap it too tight, but that the beginning and end of the dough is secured around the skewer).

• Gently roll the skewer onto your work surface. You'll see the pasta dough thin out, become longer and become slightly looser around the skewer. Gently shake the skewer pointing down, to release your busiate, then place onto a floured surface to prevent it from sticking. Repeat until all busiate have been shaped.

• Busiate can be cooked straight away in salted boiling water for about 2 mins, or until they float to the surface. Otherwise, you can freeze them by laying them separately onto a freezer-safe tray for 15-20 mins, then transferring into a zip-lock bag and returning it to the freezer, until you're ready to eat!