Growing up in an Italian household pasta has always been a very important dish, cooking family recipes with my parents that have been passed down through the years. On occasions up to 4 times a week! The taste and texture is such an important characteristic and a hard one to duplicate without wheat. The gluten in wheat pasta is what makes it so flexible. I am quite fussy and I find the majority of the gluten free pastas do not have the correct consistency or flavour.
This recipe uses a gluten free flour, and to help the pasta have flexibility I have used xanthan gum. I was extremely impressed with how this recipe turned out. It passed the test with flying colours. The pasta held together well, it was flexible and it tasted much like my Nonna’s homemade pasta. It received 2 thumbs ups. Buon Appetito!!
Serves 2-3 Prep time 30 minutes Cook time 4 minutes
Gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian friendly
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups of gluten free flour (I used Orgran all purpose plain flour)
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 3 eggs
Method
- In a medium bowl mix the gluten free flour and xanthan gum then make a well in the middle.
- Crack the eggs into the well and slightly whisk them and then start mixing them into the flour.
- Once it starts to form a dough and you can handle it, then take the dough out of the bowl and place it on a well floured bench top.
- Start to kneed the dough until its is a nice consistency (around 3 minutes) and then cut it into 3 portions.
- Start to roll each portion out flat with a rolling pin until its is its smooth and about 3-4 inches thick, remembering to add flour to ensure it doesn’t stick. Because there is no gluten it will tend to break up a bit at the start but keep at it. Try to make sure you roll the dough into a rectangle shape as best a possible.
- Now you can start to use your pasta machine to get the sheets as thin as possible, starting on the widest setting first. Remember to keep flouring the sheets on both side. You may need to pass the sheet through the machine a few times to get the correct consistency. If the sheets get a little too long to handle you can cut them in half. I usually have each sheet around 30cm long.
- Once the sheets are around 1mm thick you can feed them through the cutter part of your pasta machine. Remember to dust the sheets with flour first. I chose the spaghetti cutter buy you can choose which pasta width you want.
- Lay each sheet of cut pasta out flat on a tea towel or twist into a nest shape and leave to dry over night or each fresh which I highly suggest.
- Cook for only 4-6 minutes from fresh and 6-8 minutes when dried, taste the pasta and strain once it is cooked how you like it. Always salt the water for extra flavour.
- Enjoy with your favourite pasta sauce.
This recipe was inspired by The Loopy Whisk.
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