Pasta is one of the foods that has fallen by the wayside since I discovered I needed to go wheat-, dairy- and various-other-free. Dairy has crept back a little, but wheat is far less forgiving. So I went looking for wheat-and-gluten-free pasta. There is a fair amount of choice, but after some experimenting I found that many simply go from sticking-in-your-teeth hardness to a squashy softness in mere seconds, and few withstand being mixed with a few ingredients in the manner I like to serve it. Brown rice spaghetti is one of the few that stand out, but its taste is more of a plain noodle.
Recently I happened to go looking for various recommendations once more, having spent some resigned minutes in an Italian delicatessen selling delicate little yellow nests of fresh pasta. So it was that I came across the intriguing idea of making my own. From scratch. It even looked simple!
The original recipe is taken from gluten-free girl's website, and adapted a little for the sizes of egg I had and confusion over garbanzo-fava flour. (Translated into UK English, that's chickpea-broad bean flour, and I just had chickpea.) But after kneading and peeling dough from between my fingers, and rolling it out and slicing it up (it rolls out! It doesn't stick or tear!), we had pasta. Real pasta, with a delicious wholegrain taste to it and a hearty chewiness that I've not had in years. I had that rare experience (although it's becoming more common) of a stomach that felt it was glowing - not a single twinge, bloat or gurgle. It's possible the garlic, mushroom and crème fraiche sauce we mixed into it had something to do with it too. My cohort, something of a durum wheat pasta lover, was happily telling me how good it was for most of the meal. I think we'll be making this one again. Pasta! At last!
Tagliatelle
This is pretty close to the original, but you may wish to go see the unaltered recipe to make this part. Unless you, too, want to know what to do when XL eggs are nowhere to be found and fava bean flour is an unknown novelty.
2oz brown rice flour
1oz chickpea flour (plus a little extra - 3 tsp or so)
3oz millet flour
3oz potato starch
1 heaped tsp psyllium husk powder
A little fresh grated nutmeg (I think I put in 3 - 4 swipes on the grater, about 1/8 tsp)
1 tsp salt
3 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Whisk up your flours, starch, powder, nutmeg and salt, ensuring there are no lumps and everything's looking a little fluffy.
Mix up your eggs, then add the water and oil and whisk it a bit. (There's a lot of egg, but it works. The original recipe uses XL eggs, but I couldn't find those - after using large eggs, adding all the suggested water and oil, I had crumbly dough. Realised the liquid deficit, and added another egg. Had overly sticky dough.
Added brown rice flour (some 4 - 5 tsp in the end) until it all came together, and then it was fine.)
Once you have a nice supple ball of smooth dough, wrap it in cling film and set it aside on the counter for half an hour. Set the largest pan you have (or at least, a reasonably large one) on to a medium heat, having filled it with water and a good few teaspoons of sea salt. Bring it to the boil for half an hour's time.
Take the rested dough, form it into a cylinder and slice into four parts. Sprinkle potato starch over a counter top or rolling board, and roll out the dough as thin as you can. Keep it moving with each roll, adding a little extra starch to the rolling pin occasionally. You should be able to get it to at least 2mm thickness, but try for as thin as you can go. My second, didn't-get-stuck-to-the-counter and much thinner batch definitely made for better eating.
Using a (bluntish, paring) knife score the sheet of dough into long thin strips. If you kept the dough moving when you were rolling it out these should now lift easily and onto a waiting plate. Each quarter of this lump of dough forms about one portion, so keep going until you have the desired amount.
Tip your prepared pasta strips into the ample bubbling water. They will be cooked in 2-3 mins - try one and drain as soon as it's done. Toss with a little olive oil before serving.
Tagliatelle sauce
6 medium-large chestnut mushrooms, thickly sliced (5mm or so)
Extra virgin olive oil, butter
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
Crème fraiche
Few handfuls of baby leaf spinach
A little more nutmeg, fresh grated
Black pepper
Sea salt
Fresh grated parmesan cheese
Bring some olive oil, and a little butter if you care for it, to a light sizzle in a large wide pan.
Stir in your sliced mushrooms, and sauté for a few minutes until just softened - but still with some bite.
Mix in the spinach leaves, just wilting them. Turn off the heat.
Add a few heaped teaspoons of crème fraiche, add the nutmeg, pepper and salt, and stir together.
Serve up your tagliatelle, and spoon over the mushroom sauce. Allow everyone to mix it together as they like, at the table.
Leave out a small bowl of grated parmesan, salt and pepper, for seasoning.
Enjoy the feeling of a deeply contented stomach.
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