Why combine spelt and pulses in pasta?

Freshly extruded spelt and pulse pasta in a British production facility before slow drying

A grain led story

Pasta made from grain and pulses might sound like a modern idea, but it really isn’t. Long before nutrition panels and supermarket categories existed, cereals and legumes were combined out of necessity and instinct. When harvests were poor or wheat turned out too weak, pulses were folded into flour not to make a claim, but simply to make food that worked.

Italian culinary history is full of these quiet adjustments. In Liguria, chickpea flour becomes farinata, a thin golden flatbread, crisp at the edges and soft in the middle. Across central Italy, fava beans have long appeared in breads and soups, stretching grain without displacing it. Pulses were never outsiders, they were companions to wheat, especially when wheat alone was not enough.

At Carleschi, we did not invent this idea. We recognised it and chose to reinterpret it through stone milled spelt and British grown pulses.

British grown emmer and fava bean pasta, stone milled and slow dried in the UK

How the British chapter began

Our version of the story began in 2020, when we met Nick and Josiah at Hodmedod’s in Beccles. They work closely with British farmers who grow pulses within rotations that rebuild soil rather than exhaust it. These British grown pulses, fava beans, wrinkled peas and rare lentils, are not commodities to them, but part of a long term agricultural system.

We were having lunch together next to a field of buckwheat, which we later turned into pizzoccheri, talking about how their own story began with fava beans, how many pulses thrive in British conditions, and about wrinkled peas and the rare lentil seeds they had managed to secure. Those British grown lentils in particular felt like an untold story.

Sitting there, it felt obvious that these crops deserved more thoughtful use than commodity channels often allow. The idea of three pastas, fava, peas and lentils, was born over that single lunch six years ago. It was the beginning of what would later become our spelt and pulses pasta range in the UK.

At the time we were already working deeply with stone milled spelt and slow drying. We understood what wholegrain structure could do inside pasta when it is given time to consolidate properly. The question was never whether pulses were fashionable, but whether they could be integrated without compromising the architecture of the pasta itself.

Most pasta technicians we consulted were sceptical. The standard approach to legume pasta, especially at industrial scale, relies on pre gelatinised pulse flours. In simple terms, the pulse starch is partially cooked before extrusion so that it binds more predictably under high speed production. It reduces variability and creates technical security, particularly when pasta is made entirely from legumes rather than grain.

From a manufacturing perspective, it makes sense.

But pre gelatinising starch changes its behaviour before the pasta is even formed. It alters hydration, modifies texture and affects how the matrix consolidates during drying. We were not interested in starting by modifying the raw material.

So we didn’t.

We stone milled the pulses, untreated and intact, and integrated them directly into a grain led dough. The early trials were emmer and fava beans. They were honest. Dense, flavourful, structurally coherent, and we liked them immediately. What emerged was not a typical pulse pasta, but something more balanced.

Slow dried spelt and pulse pasta on trays ready for final drying in the UK

Why grain leads

Now that we have refined the process, our pasta remains at least seventy percent stone milled spelt, and that proportion is deliberate. Grain leads because grain builds structure.

When flour hydrates and passes through the die, proteins align and interlink, forming a continuous network that traps starch granules within it. Under pressure, and later during slow drying, this network consolidates gradually into a compact matrix. That consolidation determines how the pasta cooks, how water moves through it and how accessible the starch becomes over time.

Pulse flours behave differently. Their proteins do not form the same elastic network, and their starch granules differ in size and composition. Used alone, they can produce pasta that is brittle or chalky unless heavily modified.

Integrated at around thirty percent, however, pulses do something more interesting. The spelt matrix remains dominant, providing cohesion and continuity, while the pulse flour disperses within that framework, contributing fibre, minerals and flavour without destabilising the structure.

The result is not pulse pasta replacing grain. It is grain pasta with structural depth, what we would describe as properly made spelt and pulses pasta.

Within that dense, consolidated matrix, starch remains embedded rather than freely exposed. Fibre remains integrated rather than scattered as an afterthought. Slow dried pasta, produced at low temperatures over extended hours, allows the protein starch network to stabilise gradually rather than setting abruptly at the surface. What remains is a compact, coherent architecture shaped by milling, proportion and time.

Structure first, and everything else follows.

Why wrinkled peas, fava beans and lentils

Originally, we imagined fava beans, lentils and chickpeas as the three pillars of the range. Chickpeas are familiar, historically grounded and commercially straightforward.

Wrinkled peas, however, carried a story that felt impossible to ignore. They must be harvested at a precise sugar level to meet premium specifications. If that window is missed, they lose much of their market value and are often returned to the soil. They are considered too lean for certain feed uses, yet agronomically powerful, fixing nitrogen and strengthening rotation systems.

Choosing wrinkled peas was not about novelty. It was about recognising value where it already existed and giving it a form that respected both flavour and farming. These are not imported legumes, they are British grown pulses, cultivated within rotational crop systems.

Each pulse brings something distinct. Fava beans carry a broad savoury depth with a faint bitterness that gives backbone. Wrinkled peas lend a gentle sweetness and fresh green note. Lentils contribute an earthy undertone that grounds the grain rather than overshadowing it. In our spelt and lentil pasta UK customers now know, that earthy depth sits quietly within the grain rather than dominating it.

These flavours do not overpower, they sit within the grain, shaping character without overwhelming the spelt.

What this changes on the plate

When spelt and pulses are combined, stone milled and slow dried for around forty hours at temperatures that never exceed forty seven degrees, the internal organisation of the pasta becomes layered and stable. During cooking, water penetrates steadily through a compact structure rather than flooding an aerated one. The matrix hydrates without collapsing, and starch accessibility is moderated by density and fibre integration.

That is why these pastas feel composed rather than hollow or brittle. Energy release reflects structure because digestion interacts with architecture, not just chemistry.

Fava bean sedani carries sauces with a rounded savouriness that pairs naturally with bitter greens and olive oil. Wrinkled pea fusilli suits lighter preparations, herbs, lemon zest, spring vegetables, where its subtle sweetness lifts rather than competes. Lentil tubetti lisci brings depth to broths and vegetable ragu, offering an earthy undertone that complements rather than dominates.

This is not functional food in the language of trends. It is functional pasta in the sense that it has been built deliberately, slow dried, stone milled and entirely British grown.

Grain first. Pulses integrated. Stone milled. Slow dried. Entirely British grown.

Sources

Delcour, J.A. & Hoseney, R.C. (2010) Principles of Cereal Science and Technology
Shewry, P.R. (2009) Wheat (Journal of Experimental Botany)
Van der Kamp, J.W. et al. (2014) Dietary fibre and whole grains in wheat
Petitot, M. et al. (2009) Impact of pasta structure on starch digestion
Fardet, A. et al. (2014) Structure digestibility relationships of cereal foods

Notes

The information shared here is for general educational purposes and is not medical or nutritional advice.

Individual responses to foods vary. If you have specific dietary or medical concerns, seek advice from a qualified professional.