Blending Grains

We have been making noodles to explore the grains from Castle Valley Mill. The flavors are intense. The whole wheat is rich, grassy, slightly bitter and intense. By itself its texture resembles a cats tongue. That is not something we are usually going for. So, we blended the hard whole wheat with emmer flour. The emmer has its own nuttiness. It has strength and flexibility. We blended the two together. The noodle is intensely flavored by the grains. It has a good chew and the cat's tongue texture has subsided. For our initial tasting we used olive oil and butter. The combination lets the noodle shine. Perhaps too brightly. These noodles want sauce. There is so much flavor that on their own we are not used to it. The sauce brings balance to the equation. It demonstrates that sauce and noodle should be equal partners in delivering flavor.