
I don’t care how good that stuff in a box might be. When someone makes pasta from scratch, it’s a sign of true love. How couldn’t it be? It involves ten minutes of kneading (which really gets the heart rate up I might add). You have to feed it through a pasta maker or machine to press it gradually thinner and thinner. But most of all, homemade pasta takes a team to assemble: one person to feed it through the pasta machine, another to catch it on the other side, and several willing volunteers to help make shapes. The teamwork aspect is something you can feel as well as taste.
Now that I’ve hopefully sold you on some “fun” manual labor, let me tell you why making this pasta is easier than you might expect. First of all, this is a vegan pasta dough that’s no headache. Have you ever made sticky, clumpy vegan pasta that fell apart in your boiling water? Oh yeah, that’s never ever happened to me. 😉 This dough, however, does none of the above. Semolina adds the necessary gluten, which helps it gain a toothsome texture. This would also bee a good time to issue a whole grain alert: this dough calls for einkorn wheat, a variety that’s far less genetically modified than modern wheat.
Einkorn flour: a brief history
It’s a LONG history…
Let’s start right at the Neolithic Revolution, the transition from nomadic lifestyle to farming that took place around modern day Turkey-Syria in 10,000 B.C. Einkorn wheat was one of the original crops cultivated at this transition. Modern wheat was born when ancient farmers crossed einkorn wheat with other species to make its stem more rigid and its grains easier to harvest. But einkorn wheat, on the other hand, belongs to the same species as the wild variety.
(If you’re curious to read more, this whole subheading is paraphrased from Dave Snyder’s Jstor post.)
But this einkorn wheat variety nearly disappeared in the modern era. When mechanization took over wheat thrashing, einkorn production shrank. Recently, Jovial Farms’s einkorn flour arrived on grocery store shelves like mine. Carla Bartolucci, Jovial Farms’s cofounder, authored a cookbook aptly titled Einkorn: Recipes for Nature’s Original Wheat. In the introduction, she talks about her inspiration to grow this variety of wheat to solve her daughter’s gluten sensitivity–and to provide this wheat to others. But einkorn wheat isn’t just a luxury product. Keeping varieties of einkorn around in seed banks is essential to maintaining biodiversity and, thus, food security in modern-day Syria.
Einkorn nutrition
Compared to modern wheat, einkorn flour has less starch. The taste is nuttier, like a chickpea flour, but still light. The high protein content makes it more filling as well. One plate of pasta will definitely keep you satiated. Einkorn also has more fiber per serving, plus high amounts of zinc, manganese, and iron. You could also substitute another flour, like spelt, in this recipe for a similar effect.

Tips for making the pasta
- You may need more or less water in your dough depending on the humidity in your environment. In Florida’s rainy season, I added just shy of ten tablespoons water, which worked out perfectly.
- Knead for 10 minutes. No, five minutes isn’t enough! I’ve learned the hard way that you’ll want to knead exactly 10 minutes, either by hand or with a dough hook attachment. That way, the dough develops a smooth, silky texture that allows it to become smooth noodles. Above, you can see that this dough ball has a reptile-like coating. That’s a sign I haven’t kneaded enough!
- Use cornstarch or semolina flour (NOT einkorn or all-purpose flour) to dust the outside of your pasta, and be sure to put a tablespoon of olive oil in the pasta water before your add the pasta. These precautions will ensure that your pasta doesn’t glob together as it cooks.
- As this is a vegan dough, I prefer pasta shapes and larger noodles to smaller noodles. They don’t break as easily, and they’re in general easier to manage.
- Want to top your pasta with something fresh and flavorful? Check out this recipe for pasta with white beans and caramelized onions!

Below you’ll find two recipes using the same dough. The first one gives step-by-step instructions on how to shape pasta into fusilli, and the second one explains how to shape the dough into wide noodles.
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Fusilli Pasta with Semolina and Einkorn Flour
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 5-10 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: pasta
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegan
Description
An ornate, dense pasta shape that holds sauce well.
Ingredients
- 1 cup einkorn flour
- 1 cup semolina flour
- 10 tablespoons water
- cornstarch or extra semolina flour
- salt
- olive oil
Instructions
- Add the einkorn flour and semolina flour to a large bowl and mix until blended.
- Make a well in the center and add 10 tablespoons of water. If your weather is very humid, you might want to add a scant 10th tablespoon, since you don’t want your dough too moist. If your environment is very dry, you might want to add a splash more water.
- Begin to knead, pulling a piece of the dough from underneath and smoothing it into the center of the dough. Take a quarter turn, and do the same. Continue kneading for 10 MINUTES! Yes, you heard me. No whining. 😉 It’ll take some muscle, especially because the semolina is a high-gluten flour. This will help bolster the texture of the low-gluten einkorn. You want this gluten to develop so that your pasta holds up in the water. As you knead, you’ll watch the dough go from dry and shaggy, to moist and crumbly, and, finally, to a super smooth, elastic ball.
- Wrap your dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for one hour.
- Once an hour is up, divide the dough in six portions. Keep all but one wrapped in plastic wrap to keep them from drying out. If you need to, sprinkle extra semolina flour or cornstarch to keep the dough from sticking. (Don’t use all purpose or einkorn flour.)
- Roll your dough into a long snake about ¼ inch in width. Cut this snake into pieces about 2 inches long. Wrap the dough around a skewer or chopstick, stretching gently and pushing the dough into the skewer to make a hollow space. Place onto your counter.
- Continue rolling and wrapping your pastas (preferably with company) until they’re all finished. Don’t worry about your pastas drying out. That’s actually helpful so that they don’t stick together when you throw them in the pot.
- Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. When it’s at a rolling boil add all your pasta at once and stir. Set a timer immediately and cook for 5-10 minutes. This depends on the thickness of your noodles, so continue tasting until the pasta is cooked through but still quite chewy. I cooked mine for 7 minutes.
- Plate the pasta immediately, then add olive oil or your pasta sauce to keep it from sticking.
Keywords: vegan, ancient gains, einkorn flour, semolina flour, vegetarian, pasta, Italian food, noodles, slow food, fresh

Wide Noodle Pasta with Semolina and Einkorn Flour
- Prep Time: 1.5 hours
- Cook Time: 1 minute
- Total Time: 1.5 hours
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: pasta
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegan
Description
A recipe for wide noodled pasta.
Ingredients
- 1 cup einkorn flour
- 1 cup fine semolina flour
- 10 tablespoons water, or as needed
- cornstarch or extra semolina flour
- salt
- olive oil
Instructions
- Add the einkorn flour and semolina flour to a large bowl and mix until blended.
- Make a well in the center and add 10 tablespoons of water. If your weather is very humid, you might want to add a scant 10th tablespoon, since you don’t want your dough too moist. If your environment is very dry, you might want to add a splash more water.
- Begin to knead, pulling a piece of the dough from underneath and smoothing it into the center of the dough. Take a quarter turn, and do the same. Continue kneading for 10 MINUTES! Yes, you heard me. No whining. 😉 It’ll take some muscle, especially because the semolina is a high-gluten flour. This will help bolster the texture of the low-gluten einkorn. You want this gluten to develop so that your pasta holds up in the water. As you knead, you’ll watch the dough go from dry and shaggy, to moist and crumbly, and, finally, to a super smooth, elastic ball.
- Wrap your dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for one hour.
- Once an hour is up, divide the dough in six portions. Keep all but one wrapped in plastic wrap to keep them from drying out. If you need to, sprinkle extra semolina flour or cornstarch to keep the dough from sticking. (Don’t use all-purpose or einkorn flour.)
- Roll one dough ball out to a rectangle and then as thin as you can using a rolling pin or to number 5 on a pasta maker.
- Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut into noodles ¾ inch thick and 1 foot long.
- Place your pasta on a drying rack or lay flat on a piece of parchment. It may be too sticky to make into bird nests.
- Continue with the remaining dough balls.
- Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. When it’s at a rolling boil add all your pasta at once and stir. Set a timer immediately and cook for NOT EVEN A MINUTE. 45 seconds is honestly best.
- Plate the pasta immediately, then add olive oil or your pasta sauce to keep it from sticking.
Keywords: vegan, ancient gains, Einkorn flour, Semolina flour, vegetarian, pasta, Italian food, noodles, slow food, fresh