Gluten Free Fresh Pasta

Gluten Free Fresh Pasta

Today I bring you an easy to make, two ingredient gluten free fresh pasta dough. 

This is big folks. 

Remember when making pasta was simple?  I remember those good old days when pasta dough used to be 100 grams of flour to each egg that was used.  Enter the gluten free diet to throw a monkey wrench into that well-oiled machine.   

Suddenly pasta making required multiple flours and xanthan gum with those eggs.  And if the correct ratios weren’t maintained, the whole thing could turn into an unusable mess.

So last year when I started using Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1  baking blend pretty frequently, I began to wonder if it might work as the substitute for the all-purpose flour in my old pasta recipe.  

Lo and behold it works nearly perfectly.  

The only real difference I found is that I needed 3 eggs with 200 grams of flour to form the ball of dough that eventually had an additional quarter cup or so of flour worked in.  You can see the details in the video tutorial below. 

So maybe the ratio of flour to eggs was a little different now, but the simplicity of a two ingredient pasta dough had definitely returned.  This is a game changer. 

Gluten Free Fresh Pasta

Prep time:  1 hour

Cook time: 2 min

Servings: 3

Ingredients:

• 200 grams Bobs Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour blend (plus more to work into the dough as needed)
• 3 eggs

Video Tutorial: 

Instructions

1. Add the flour and eggs to a food processor and process until you have a slightly sticky dough.
2. Turn the dough out onto a heavily floured work surface and knead as you continue to work in enough flour to form a ball of dough that’s supple is no longer sticky.
3. Wrap the dough in plastic and set aside for a few minutes then cut the dough into four pieces.  
4. Flatten down each section into a rectangle and roll it though the pasta roller at the widest setting.  If it doesn’t go through smoothly on the first pass, just gather the dough back together, flatten into another rectangle and pass it through again.
5. I like to fold the pasta sheets onto themselves a few times as they pass through the widest setting to square up the edges.  And once the section looks like a pretty nice sheet change the roller to the next thinnest setting. 
6. My machine has 6 settings but I never like to go below the third or fourth setting. (in the video I rolled it to the fouth setting).  If the pasta is rolled too thin, it could get mushy or even start to fall apart when it’s cooked.  
7. When rolling the pasta it’s easiest to start rolling the sheet through the machine then grab it gently with the hand that’s not turning that crank and once the whole pasta sheet passes through the cutter, lay it down onto a lightly floured surface.
8. To cut the pasta, start rolling the sheet through the machine then grab it gently with your free hand and when it all passes through the machine, slightly twist the bunch of pasta onto a floured cutting board or baking sheet.
9. Once all the sections are cut, to cook the pasta, bring some heavily salted water up to a boil, drop in the pasta and cook for 2 minutes.  Be sure to have your heated sauce ready since the pasta cooks very quickly then toss the drained pasta with the sauce and serve.

Notes:  There is no salt added to fresh pasta dough.  Adding salt would attract the humidity in the air and cause the dough to get stickier as you work with it.  Be sure to cook the pasta in heavily salted water so that your final dish doesn’t taste flat.