Welcome to the July 2011 edition of the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally! This month, we’re making gluten-free pasta.
Before you read any further, be sure to pop over to Jenn Cuisine to check out all of the other recipe results of the hard work that went into crafting gluten-free pasta! Thanks to Jenn for hosting.
Pasta
Pasta, my dears, is sometimes just flour and egg. The base ratios that we were using were three parts flour to two parts egg. So all that I had to do was to figure out how to substitute both flour and egg… Easy-peasy, right?
After finding some homemade vegan pasta recipes that used flour, water, and a little oil, I was hopeful that I could create pasta that would stay together without the binding properties of either gluten or albumen.
From the other gluten-free bloggers, it seemed like a high starch to whole grain flour ratio—1:1 or even higher—would work well.
When I began to mix my first attempt, I had an inkling that that particular ratio wouldn’t work out well. The mixture felt like, well, a corn starch and water science experiment. (I played around with it for a while before adding more flour, I’ll admit…)
I didn’t want to give up on that dough, though, so I still wrapped and refrigerated it.
In the mean time, I made a second iteration with flax seed meal that became the base for this recipe.
The pasta will also keep for leftovers! It tastes best if you reheat it. This was one of my test batches after an overnight in the fridge.
The Ratio
For my gluten-free flour mix, I used a ratio of 3:2 whole grain flours to starches.
For my pasta, I used a ratio of 10:7 flour to egg/liquid—so just over the 3:2 recommended. The whole ratio is 10 parts flour to 6 parts egg to 1 part oil.
I use achiote oil for colour, but you could probably use red palm oil as well. I’ve never used it myself, but I’ve seen it in other vegan pasta recipes.
I didn’t know this when playing around, but traditionally, pasta is made with one egg per 100 g flour. Apparently I was onto something, because that’s the ratio that I ended up with. I did add about 10 g of oil, though, in addition.
The Sauce
There’s just something so luxurious about artichoke hearts.
I wanted to make a cream sauce, mostly because I’ve been obsessed with cashew cream lately. Cashew cream adds this wonderful whole cream taste and texture to your dish, and all it takes is to soak some cashews in water and then blend them up with some more water. It’s got a great big ROI.
The rest I just sort of made up in my head, imagining that all of them would work well together.
Feel free to play around as you see fit, but I really recommend sticking to the recipe for once.
You’ll have fun with each step: the almonds create this great nutty smell, the onions are aromatic, the herbs make the kitchen smell fantastic, and whoever is nearby will find themselves unable to resist whatever culinary delight is about to be bestowed upon them.
The Shameless Plugs
Click for all of my vegan gluten-free recipes.
Click for all of my gluten-free ratio rally recipes.
Click below for each of my gluten-free ratio rally recipes by month:
- June: vegan gluten-free Cardamom and Rose Water Cream Puffs (with Rad Whip!)
- May: vegan gluten-free Simple Scones with Clotted Cream and Strawberry Jam
- April: vegan gluten-free Apricot-Orange Bread
Now on with the show!
Vegan Gluten-Free Homemade Pasta Recipe
By Published: July 6, 2011
- Yield: ~1/2 Lb. Pasta (2-4 Servings)
- Prep: 30 mins
- Cook: 15 mins
- Ready In: 45 mins
Homemade pasta isn't that hard—even vegan, gluten-free homemade pasta. Have at it! It goes well with a Summer of Riesling, a plate of olives seasoned with herbes de Provence, and a fresh green salad with a mustard vinaigrette.
Ingredients
- 8 g flax seed meal (~1 T)
- 4 g Ener-G egg replacer powder (1 1/2 t)
- 50 g water
- T or so olive oil
- big pinch achiote seeds (substitute oil and achiote with red 1 T red palm oil)
- 35 g brown rice flour
- 25 g garfava (garbanzo-fava) flour
- 20 g corn starch
- 20 g potato starch
- 1/2 c cashews
- handful slivered almonds
- 1 small onion small diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- big pinch herbes de Provence
- pinch rosemary
- salt and pepper
- 1 can artichoke hearts drained
- 1 wine glass white wine I used Riesling, because it's the Summer of Riesling
- juice of half a lemon
- few handfuls baby spinach de-stemmed
- few sun-dried tomatoes
- zest of half a lemon
Instructions
- Start the cashews and the pasta water. Just cover the cashews in water and let them hang out. Put on a large pot of water to boil. You can always turn the heat off it the water boils too early.
- Make the pasta dough. To make the egg, mix the flax seed and Ener-G well. Add the water and let this egg mixture hang out while you make the oil and measure out the flours.
- To make the achiote oil, heat a small pan over medium-high heat. Add the oil and achiote seeds. At the instant that the seeds begin to turn dark red/black, remove the oil from the heat and strain it into a small bowl. Be careful while straining, as the seeds may sizzle and try to tag you with hot oil.
- Sift the flours together in a small bowl.
- Traditionally, you'd turn the flours out onto a clean, flat surface and make a well in the middle for the wet ingredients, slowly gathering flour into the middle before kneading. Since this recipe makes a small amount of pasta, however, I mixed the egg, oil, and flour together in the bowl.
- Either way, pour the egg and oil into the middle of the flours. Slowly incorporate the flour into the egg and oil until the mixture is wet throughout, then turn onto a floured (I used brown rice) surface.
- Knead for 5-8 minutes, then form into a ball.
- Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.
- Toast the almonds. Heat a small pan over high heat. Add the almonds and stir constantly until they begin to brown. Once they begin to brown, remove from heat to a small plate.
- Start the sauce. Drain the cashews and add them to a blender with 1/2 c water. Blend them for a few minutes until completely smooth—rub between your fingers to make sure that no graininess remains.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil. Once the onions are softened, add the herb(e)s and spices.
- Line up the drained artichokes and run your knife down them. Add them to the onion mixture and stir well.
- Throw the wine in there and turn the heat down to low. Let the mixture cook down until there's barely any liquid left.
- While the sauce is cooking, roll out and cut the pasta. Take your pasta dough ball from the fridge.
- Roll out, either with a pasta machine or between two sheets of parchment paper with a rolling pin. I used a rolling pin, as gluten-free pasta is fragile and you have to be gentle with it.
- Roll out very thin (traditional tagliatelle are only 1 mm thick). Try to keep the dough rectangular, but don't worry if it isn't perfect.
- Once rolled out, slice with a pizza cutter or a sharp knife into slices 8 mm (1/3") wide.
- Let the pasta dry while you finish the sauce.
- Finish the sauce. When the wine is cooked off, add the cashew cream, lemon juice, and a wine glass of water. Stir to combine and turn off the heat.
- Cook the pasta. Once the water is boiling, salt it well. Add the pasta to the boiling water. I picked up my parchment paper and made a little slide for the noodles to go down into the water.
- Fresh pasta takes only a few minutes to cook, and this pasta will finish in 2-3 minutes. The pasta will probably break in half or so, but don't worry—at least it won't dissolve into starchy water.
- Drain when done, saving a little bit of the pasta water if your sauce seems a little thick.
- Finish it off! Add the lemon juice and the spinach (and any pasta water, if necessary) to the pasta sauce and stir. You should add way more spinach than you think—it'll cook down.
- Add the pasta to the sauce and gently fold to combine. Transfer to a serving platter or plates and garnish with sun-dried tomato, toasted almonds, and lemon zest.
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