Poppyseed Rigatoni: A Guide to Pasta Dough Inclusions

One of my most-loved pasta creations is this poppyseed rigatoni — it's a joy for the eyes, but also for taste and texture. The process itself isn't complicated, but the payoff is huge: poppy seeds are tiny, yet scattered through pasta dough they make a real visual and textural impact, giving every bite a subtle crunch. Here's the full method, from dough to shape.

Ingredients

• 200g semolina flour

• 100g water

• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Tools

• Dough scraper

• Large wooden working board

• Brass pasta cutter

• Gnocchi board

• Wooden dowel

• Kitchen towel, for resting and storing

Mix the dough

Place your semolina in a heaped mound at the center of your board, and use your fingertips to create a well in the middle. Add a tablespoon of poppy seeds along with the water into that well — the key with any inclusion (poppy seeds, or anything else you want to fold in) is adding it right at the start, so it distributes evenly as the dough comes together.

Bring it together

Using a dough scraper, start incorporating the water and poppy seeds into the semolina, chopping in all directions. This breaks everything down into smaller and smaller crumbles. Keep going until there's no loose semolina left and the water is fully worked in.

Knead and rest

Set the scraper aside and bring the crumbles into a central clump, using the heel of your hand to apply gentle pressure and smooth the dough back toward the center. After a few minutes, it'll start feeling smoother. Let it rest for around 5 minutes to let the gluten begin forming, then continue kneading. You'll know it's ready with the finger-poke test — press gently, and if the dough springs back, it's done.

Shape into rigatoni

Sheet your rested dough to a slightly thick setting (around setting 4 on a standard pasta machine) — this gives your rigatoni enough body to hold its shape. Use your brass cutter to cut the sheet into squares.

Place a dough square onto your gnocchi board, aligned with the board rather than at an angle, and position your dowel along the edge of the square. Pull the dough around the dowel while pressing down, rolling it forward — this creates the ridges. When the two ends of the dough overlap, apply slightly more pressure to seal them together, and you've got your first rigatoni.

A variation to try

If you place the dough square diagonally on the board instead, and follow that same diagonal direction with your dowel, you'll get ridges that spiral around the pasta rather than running straight — a small change in angle for a noticeably different finished look.

Beyond poppy seeds

The technique here applies to any inclusion you want to try — the principle is always the same: add it to your well at the very start, alongside your liquid, so it works through the dough evenly as you knead. Once you're comfortable with poppy seeds, this is an easy method to experiment further with.

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