Pasta alla Norma
It IS possible to make great GF homemade pasta! And you'll want to have this simple eggplant/cherry tomato/ricotta salata sauce on everything
Hello!
I’m so glad I decided on pasta for this week because I just had oral surgery and am mandated to eat soft food for the next few days. WIN-WIN because this project was so fun and educational!
It’s ridiculously easy to make GF pasta. I’ve been intimidated to make it forever, but like the pile of laundry I’ve been walking by for the last week, once I wrapped my head around it and directed all of my energy to it, it didn’t take that long to do.
The sticking point is, of course, gluten, and how to find the workaround. There’s just no way around the need for something to bind the flour and allow it to be rolled out so thinly and not fall apart while cooking.
I experimented with psyllium husk, xanthan, no xanthan (it fell apart when rolled), scalding the flour (a bread-making technique that pre-gelatinizes starch), and using sweet “glutinous” white rice flour (which is gluten-free, but very sticky and what mochi is made from).
I landed on a whole-egg pasta that has a lowish amount of xanthan, uses my Have Your Cake GF flour blend, and some sweet rice flour (if you don’t have, just sub with more GF flour). The pasta dough is beautifully smooth and very easy to work with, and can be rolled out as thin as you need.
I give instructions for both hand-rolled and cut, and for manual machine. Pasta machines are easy to come by on eBay and yard sales, which is where I found my Marcato for $10.
It’s this one on Amazon, or you can find plenty on eBay like this one or this one with extra attachments or this vintage one. There’s SO many.
The alla Norma sauce is a classic, and so perfect for this time of year going into fall and winter when we still have cherry tomatoes. The eggplant cooked in olive oil makes it a perfect vegetarian meal; you could add sausage, which would be the perfect meat for it.
Or make your favorite sauce and play around with different cuts and thicknesses. I’m dying to try ravioli next.
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