So, Santa very kindly gave me a pasta making machine for Christmas, which I was very exited about. Don’t get me wrong, shop bought dried gluten free pasta is perfectly fine, but I love fresh pasta, and being able to make it, and freeze it for ease on another night to make a quick tea, is really convenient.
I’m sure that I’m telling you something that you already know, but Xanthan gum is soooo important for gluten free cooking and baking. It’s a game changer. This is the good stuff that replaces gluten and makes pastry softer, pasta more pliable, and cake edible! You can buy this easily, and cheaply, online.
If you don’t have a pasta making machine, don’t panic! You can make this recipe and use a rolling pin to roll out your pasta, and a sharp knife to cut it into strips. It still works I promise. I have done this with success prior to my gift from Santa. Just roll the pasta until it’s thin, flouring in between, and then cut unto ribbons.
I followed this easy recipe to make the pasta dough, then passed this through the pasta machine to thin the pasta sheets before rolling it through the pasta cutter to make the tagliatelle ribbons. You can dry them out and freeze them or cook them straight away and freeze the remainder fresh without drying. I did this and it was absolutely fine.
Gluten Free Pasta Dough – Coeliac UK
Bring salted water to the boil and then add your tagliatelle. I use about 90 grams of fresh raw pasta per person. Cook for about 3 ½ minutes, then drain in a sieve.
For a simple past dish, I chopped mushrooms, and added them to a frying pan with a couple of sprays of oil, over a medium heat. When the mushrooms start to soften, add pasta sauce of your choice – tomato and basil works really well. Then add olives. When the sauce starts to bubble add the sieved tagliatelle and stir carefully so that the pasta strips don’t break but the tagliatelle all gets covered in sauce.
After about a minute, simply serve with black pepper and grated fresh parmesan. Absolutely delicious, and really quick and simple pasta.
For the tagliatelle that you don’t use today, freeze in individual portions and cook or about 4 minutes on boiling salt water from frozen when you want to eat it. It will still taste great.
Next, I’m going to try the ravioli cutter on my pasta machine – look out for my next post to see how this goes!