Gluten-Free Pasta

When I first went gluten-free, I was in a panic about how I would live without pasta. At the time (6 1/2 years ago), there were very few GF pastas available in stores, and they were all very clearly not “real pasta”. So I did what any kitchen nerd, and I asked for a pasta maker for Christmas, convinced I would quickly become the queen of gluten-free pasta.

Santa Claus brought me the pasta roller attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer, I found a recipe to try… and I completely failed.

I don’t remember what flours I used, or in what proportions… I remember it was a sticky gooey mess, it tasted terrible, and there were a lot of tears involved. I think i tried one more time (this time making buckwheat noodles for lo mien, which was also a giant failure), and the pasta rollers went back in their box, where they stayed for 6 years.

Over the summer, I was in Earthfare and noticed a box of Jovial brand tagliatelle. I bought it on impulse, and when I cooked it up, I was shocked by how delicious it was! I had just accepted that only penne/fusilli/shell type pastas could be good without gluten, but I was inspired once again. I spent some time on Google and Pinterest, read many many recipes, and finally got up the courage to try again.

This recipe was my starting point.

A lot has changed for me in the last 6 years when it comes to gluten-free cooking and baking. I have learned that I just don’t love the taste of chickpea flour. I have learned that I feel like complete garbage if I have too much tapioca starch. I have learned that, when armed with my kitchen scale, how to convert and tweak recipes very well. So I tweaked the recipe based on what I like and had on hand, measured by mass rather than volume, and it was a resounding success!

Gluten-free Pasta Dough

Ingredients

40 grams cornstarch
40 grams sweet rice flour
40 grams sweet white sorghum flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
2 whole eggs
1 Tbsp olive oil
1-2 extra Tbsp water (I didn’t need this, but on a less humid day maybe I would have)
extra flour for dusting surface (I used white rice flour)

Directions

Measure out the dry ingredients and sift them into the food processor bowl. Pulse a few times to mix.
Whisk eggs and oil together in a small bowl, and gradually pour them into the food processor, pulsing to combine. My dough formed together into a ball, and wasn’t too sticky, so I decided it was probably ready.
Dump dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and gently knead a few times to make sure everything is incorporated and not too sticky. Then divide dough into 4 pieces.
At this point, I followed the directions for my pasta roller. The goal is to get it really thin, and I suppose it is possible to do that by hand as well.

A bowl of hand rolled gluten-free garganelli

Fresh basil flavored gluten-free tagliatelle

Variations

Ravioli

My first adventure into successful pasta-making was the ugly ravioli seen in the bottom right photo above. For the ravioli filling, I sautéed some finely chopped onion, garlic, crimini mushrooms, and mixed greens seasoned with salt and pepper. I let it cool a little bit, mixed in some goat cheese, and then added about a teaspoon of the mixture to each ravioli. My only complaint is that I wish I had been brave enough to add more filling to the ravioli — next time I definitely will!

Basil Tagliatelle

I had tons of fresh basil in the garden, and tossed a big handful into the food processor while mixing the dough. The added moisture from the fresh basil made the dough stickier, so I added a little extra white rice flour to balance it out. The basil flavor was subtle, but really wonderful, and the color looked a bit more green in person than in the photo. I would love to try different flavors and colors. I have read about using roasted beets to make a red pasta, and saffron for yellow. Sounds fun! I sliced the dough into wide noodles with another roller attachment for the Kitchen Aid.

Garganelli

Penne has always been one of my absolute favorite pasta shapes. There are plenty of gluten-free penne pastas available at the grocery store, but I love when I can make something myself! Penne, however, is made with a pasta extruder (like a Play-Do Fun Factory for grown-ups), and I don’t have one of those. It turns out garganelli is rolled by hand, and is basically rustic penne.

I ordered a garganelli board and a ravioli/pasta wheel (shown at the right). When it arrived, I made another batch of dough, rolled it out really thin with the pasta roller, cut it into little squares, and I feel like I was pretty successful! It reminded me of taking pottery classes — it was very relaxing, and if I screwed them up really badly I just scrapped them and eventually re-rolled that dough to try again (or just cooked and ate it anyway, because my stomach doesn’t know the difference).

Farfalle

I was really proud of this experiment! I cut the dough into little rectangles using the pasta wheel, using the straight side in one direction and the fluted side in the other. I then gently pinched the little rectangles in the middle, dotted the center with water so it would stick, and let it dry. Aren’t they adorable?

Embracing Epsilon

Gluten-Free Pasta