The best pasta video ever - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew-3-8itpjc&t=839s
The three most commonly used types of flour for pasta-making are:
Semola and 00 flour are both wheat flours, but they differ greatly in their texture and flavour.
Italians classify different types of flour based on how well they have been ground. "1" flour is a wheat flour with larger particles and a coarse texture, whereas "00" flour is a much finer powder.
00 flour is a soft wheat flour that’s perfect for baking, especially cakes and crumbly pastries.
You can also use soft wheat flour for pasta, due to its texture and powdery consistency. Not only is it ideal for softer pasta shapes like tagliatelle, it is also the best flour for ravioli pasta. These delicate parcels need a subtle flavour, so as not to detract from their sumptuous fillings.
Semola is also known, rather aptly, as pasta wheat or macaroni wheat. Made using hard durum wheat, it’s commonly grown in Northern Italy, which has the perfect warm climate for sturdier grains.
In comparison to soft wheat flour, semola flour should be used for those thick and rugged pasta shapes that soak up rich sauces so wonderfully. Semola has less elasticity than all-purpose-flour and much more plasticity. This consistency also ensures that pasta tubes such as penne or macaroni don’t lose their extruded shape whilst being cooked. Without semola, rigatoni wouldn’t have its grooves, the perfect resting place for a succulent beef shin ragù. It doesn’t even bear thinking about!
Here’s a little tidbit of information - semola flour is traditionally yellow, which is what gives pasta its trademark colour. So thank semola that your mafalde is so appetising - especially when dressed with a glossy butter sauce.
While semola is derived from durum wheat, it is not to be confused with durum flour. While they come from the same crop, the wheat is milled to create two separate types of flour.