Gluten Free Egg Pasta Recipes

GLUTEN FREE EGG PASTA

Steps:

• Combine the flours and xanthan gum in a large mixing bowl. You can also do this on the table (as is traditional) but I always get excited and under-form my flour well. Either way, form a well in the flour and add in the eggs. Use a whisk to break up the yolks, and then begin to incorporate the eggs into the flour.
• Once the eggs are mostly incorporated (the mix will look clumpy) add in the water, using one hand to bring the dough together. Keep adding water only as necessary, noting that you really need to work the dough to bring it together. If you're cheating by adding extra liquid, the pasta will be a lot harder to work with. Best to put in the effort early. The dough should be stiff and firm with a drier surface but with little to no dry flour in the bowl.
• Once you have brought the dough together into a relatively smooth ball, tear off a piece and cover the remaining pasta in cling film or a slightly dampened tea towel.
• Lightly flour the bench with tapioca flour, using as much as necessary, whenever necessary.
• Use your rolling pin to roll the piece of dough thin enough to get through the thickest setting of your pasta machine. After getting it through the thickest setting (mine is a 7) run it through the machine again. Continue rolling it through on decreased width settings until it's thin enough for your tastes, noting that it swells during cooking (so go a little thinner than you think.) I like to get mine through smoothly at setting 2 or 3 on my Jamie Oliver machine.
• I don't have a special technique - I keep running the pasta through until it's smooth and (ideally) has relatively straight edges. You can save a bit of time and sanity by trimming the edges of each piece you roll out before putting it through the machine. You won't toughen the pasta from rolling, so you can re-roll as often as you see fit. If it's wonky, you can start fresh. You can also add extra water to very dry pieces that have toughened from being rolled out.
• Once the sheet of pasta is thin enough, put it through the fettuccine setting. Arrange into a little loose nest and set aside.
• Repeat with the remaining pasta dough until you have used it all. From here, you can either cook immediately, refrigerate overnight as nests, or freeze as nests. I find it tastes best fresh, but they're all delicious regardless.
• To cook, bring a large pot of very well salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and use tongs to gently but thoroughly separate the strands. This is particularly important if you made them the night before, as they have the tendency to stick together. Cook the pasta for 2-3 minutes, until it's lightly chewy but cooked through. If in doubt, pull it out - homemade pasta doesn't take long.
• Leftovers keep well in the fridge for a day or two and can be frozen. The pasta might be a little fragile after cooking and freezing, so I recommend either freezing it raw or using it up within a few days.

HOMEMADE GLUTEN FREE PASTA (GLUTEN & DAIRY FREE)

Steps:

• In a bowl, mix together the gluten free flour and xanthan gum until evenly distributed.
• Make a well in the middle of the flour + xanthan mixture and crack in the eggs. Scramble the eggs slightly and start mixing in the flour + xanthan mixture. Eventually, you will end up with a slightly sticky pasta dough.If the dough doesn't come together in a ball and feels crumbly or dry (this can happen if you use a different gluten free flour blend from the one recommended in the recipe), you can add another egg at this point. If, on the other hand, the dough feels too wet or soft, you can add a small amount of additional flour.
• Turn the pasta dough onto a generously floured surface and knead it for 2 - 3 minutes, until you get a smooth ball of pasta dough.Because this is a gluten free pasta dough, there's no gluten to stretch and "activate", but kneading ensures a smooth dough with no flour clumps.
• Cut the dough into four evenly sized pieces. Wrap the three pieces of dough you won't use immediately in cling film so that they don't dry out.
• Flatten one piece of gluten free pasta dough and flour it generously on both sides. Pass the flattened piece through the pasta machine, starting on the widest setting. You will stay on this setting for a few minutes, so get comfy. (See also Note 2)Different pasta machines can have different widest settings, so that the "widest" setting can produce pasta sheets of different thicknesses. In my case, the widest setting gives pasta sheets about 2 mm thick, which is actually quite thin compared to some other machines.
• Fold the rolled-out pasta dough like a book or letter (into thirds, see step-by-step pictures in text) and dust the outsides with flour. Turn the piece by 90 degrees (so that the smooth edges are left-right, not top-bottom) and feed it again through the machine. Repeat this process until you get a smooth, velvety gluten free pasta sheet. (See also Note 2)I repeated the folding + rolling steps 5 times before I got a perfectly smooth pasta sheet.
• Generously dust the pasta sheet with gluten free flour and feed it through the next narrower setting on the pasta machine. (Note that there's no more folding!) Keep reducing the settings until you get to a sheet about 1 mm thick.For me, that was just one setting down from the widest one, but it might be different on your pasta machine.
• Using a knife or the cutting setting on your pasta machine, cut the gluten free pasta sheet into tagliatelle (about 1/3 inch / 1 cm wide).
• Toss the cut pasta in some more flour and shape it into a nest.
• To dry the gluten free pasta, place it on a cooling/drying rack near a source of heat (radiator or fireplace in winter, kitchen counter in summer) and leave it to dry at least overnight.
• The next day, check the pasta for dryness - if it still feels damp, leave it for an extra few hours or a day.
• For the first few days after making it, keep the dried gluten free pasta in an opened container. The pasta may still be a bit damp on the inside and closing the container may lead to mould formation.
• After that, keep the dried pasta in a closed container in a dry place. It should keep for at least 2 - 3 weeks.
• To cook the fresh (not dried) gluten free pasta, place it in boiling water, seasoned with a pinch of salt, for 4 - 8 minutes, depending on how well-cooked you like it.
• To cook the dried gluten free pasta, place it in boiling water, seasoned with a pinch of salt, for 6 - 10 minutes, depending on how well-cooked you like it.

FRESH EGG PASTA-GLUTEN FREE

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, combine flours, salt, and xanthan gum.
• Beat the eggs lightly and add the oil.
• Pour the egg-oil liquid into the flour mixture and stir.
• This will feel much like pastry dough.
• Work the dough into a firm ball.
• Knead for 1 or two minutes.
• Place the ball of dough on a potato starch-floured (rice flour turns noodles gray) breadboard and roll as**thin as possible**.
• This dough is tough and, when almost transparent, will still handle well.
• Cut into desired shape.
• For fettuccine and spaghetti, slice very thin strips.
• For a noodle casserole, make slightly wider noodles.
• If using for lasagne, cut into 1 1/2-by-4-inch rectangles.
• To cook pasta: Cook in salted boiling water, to which 1 tablespoon of oil has been added, for about 10 to 12 minutes depending on the thickness and size of your pieces.
• You will have to test for doneness.
• Drain and rinse well.