How To Make A Fresh Homemade Trofie Pasta Recipe

Trofie pasta is really a lot of fun to make. It’s a great way to spend some bonding time in the kitchen with your favorite fellow foodies. And kids really love to get their hands involved in the process too.

So plan a pasta making night, and I’ll teach you how to make this truly delicious hand-rolled pasta dish from the Liguria region of Northern Italy, so you can make it with your family and friends in the kitchen. And then join together at the dinner table, to feast on an amazing trofie pasta meal.

This hand-crafted pasta has a primitive, rustic appeal. It’s unique, rolled shape gives it a slightly chewy texture. And it really helps it to hold onto any sauce you pair it with.

You can pair it with whatever sauce you like best. I just made a batch topped with rich, creamy pumpkin alfredo sauce. It was out of this world! And I often top my trofie pasta with sauces made from compound butter. Also, out of this world!

But, if you’re looking to keep the dish more traditional, you will want to serve it with basil pesto sauce. And you’re going to want to add some potatoes and green beans to it as well. This is the way you will see it served most often in Italy.

A simple homemade pesto sauce can be made in minutes by blending fresh basil, parmesan cheese or pecorino cheese (or both), a garlic clove or two, some lemon juice, a little extra virgin olive oil, and a few handfuls of pine nuts in a food processor. White wine makes a nice addition to this sauce as well.

Reasons To Make Homemade Pasta

As with most other from scratch foods, homemade pasta is significantly better than store-bought. I don’t know much about the industrial process used to commercially produce the pasta that lines the grocery store shelves.

I assume it’s tainted as are many other mass produced food items available in stores today. But, considering the minimal ingredients in a box of pasta, it’s probably just not all that bad for you.

The biggest issue is likely the quality of the flour used to make the product. When you make your own pasta from scratch, you control the ingredients. So that’s one win for the ‘make homemade pasta team’.

However, I think the bigger win is how homemade pasta tastes. And, if you’ve ever had it, you know exactly what I mean. Homemade pasta has a better texture and a richer flavor than anything you can get in a box.

​Eating it turns dinner from a time to satisfy your hunger to a culinary experience to be savored. And the time spent making it is an experience as well. These are the real reasons to make your own homemade pasta.

And, if you’re going homemade, trofie pasta is a great variety to go with. It is very hands on, making the final dish feel even more rewarding. And, though there is no logical reason to explain it, it makes it taste much better too.

Ingredients Needed To Make This Recipe

You don’t need a lot of ingredients to make pasta. And trofie pasta is among the simplest recipes out there. Just two ingredients and you are all set to go.

• SEMOLINA FLOUR – Semolina flour is made from hard durum wheat. It is a high gluten, high protein flour that has a really nice elasticity. This quality helps it keep it’s shape when cooking. It’s texture is coarse and grainy. It has a distinctive yellow color and a notable rich, nutty flavor.
• WATER – Source pure water to make this recipe. I use the tap water that comes from my kitchen sink. It is derived from a well. If your tap water is not fresh and clean, then pick up some spring water at the store.

How To Make Homemade Trofie Pasta

To make the pasta dough for this recipe, you’ll start by creating a mound of flour on a clean working surface in your kitchen.

Create a well in the center of the flour. Pour the water into that well.

Then work the flour, from the edges of the mound, into the water with your hands. Once the flour and water are well blended, knead them together for just a few minutes. 

When the dough forms a ball, you’re done kneading. Wrap the ball in a flour sack towel, and let the dough rest for 30 minutes to an hour. You can also place it in the refrigerator to use anytime in the next 2 or 3 days.

After the dough has rested, divide it into quarters. Work with one quarter at a time. Keep the other quarters covered so that they don’t dry out.

Roll the quarter you are working with out into a 1/4″ thick rope, on a clean, un-floured work surface. Then cut the rope into 1″ segments.

The next step is to shape the segments into the little firm, twists that are characteristic of this type of pasta. Following are the instructions that I’ve found on the great big worldwide web on how to do this.

Imagine a triangle, with the upper tip pointing away from you, on the work surface in front of you. Place a piece of dough at the lower left corner of the triangle.

Use the palm of your hand to roll the dough to the upper tip of the triangle. And then down the other side to the lower right corner of the triangle. The goal is to roll the dough segment in such a way that when you reach the lower right corner of the triangle it will have rolled out of the edge of your palm.

Full disclosure … I’ve never been able to make this technique work. I’ve tried to do it on several different surfaces. Each time the dough just slid along the surface. It wouldn’t roll at all. 

I saw videos of people using this method online. Obviously, it can be done. I suspect that they were using all-purpose flour to make their pasta. I know that I have rolled pieces of dough made with all-purpose flour on the counter before.

However, I wouldn’t trade out the flours. Semolina makes a darn good pasta. Instead, I rolled the 1″ pieces of dough into strips between the palms of my hands.

And then I twisted the strips into cylindrical shapes by hand. Time consuming, but not terribly so. Well WORTH THE EFFORT!

Place the shaped pasta pieces on a tray, that has been dusted with semolina flour, to dry. You will want to allow them to dry for at least 2-3 hours before you cook them. The drying process will help them keep their shape while they’re cooking.

Boil a large pot of water. You can add a pinch of salt to it if you like, but it isn’t absolutely necessary. Add the pasta to the boiling water. Cook for 6-8 minutes.

Strain the pasta from the water. And it’s ready to be topped with your favorite sauce and enjoyed.

Pro Tips For Making This Recipe

There are a few tips that I can share with you that will make this recipe turn out the very best it can for you. Here’s a list of them for your review …

• The dough for this recipe dries out rather quickly. Be sure to keep the portions you are not working with, when shaping the dough, covered to prevent this from happening.
• It is best to work on an un-floured surface when shaping the dough. Otherwise, there may be too much flour worked into the dough during the shaping process. This will make it too dry.
• If the dough is sticking to the surface, or to your hands, while you’re shaping it, go ahead and run a damp cloth over the surface (or your hands) to prevent this.
• Allow the pasta to dry sufficiently before cooking it. If you get a little too impatient and try to cook it before it’s ready, it won’t retain it’s shape during the cooking process. You may end up with a nasty pot of pasta gloop.

How To Store Trofie Pasta

If you have leftover trofie pasta that has been cooked, and is not topped with anything, you can roll it in a little oil and keep it in the refrigerator for about a week or so. 

The oil will keep it from sticking together. And all you need to do to serve it later is drop it in a pot of boiling water for about 1 minute to heat it through.

If it has been topped, than you can simply put the leftovers in an airtight container and store them in the refrigerator until you’re ready to enjoy them. They will also last for about a week when refrigerated.

It is possible to dry trofie pasta and keep it at room temperature. I have no experience with this process. From what I’m reading on the big ‘ol interweb, you need to dry the pieces completely by laying them out on a baking tray dusted with semolina flour. 

And then they can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 8 weeks. When I want to store my pasta long term, I prefer to freeze it.

To do this, you simply lay the pasta out on a parchment lined baking sheet and place it in the freezer.

Once it is completely frozen you can transfer it to a freezer safe, airtight container and it will last in the freezer a good 3 months, perhaps longer.

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