Easy Peasy Gluten Free Pasta

So after a bit of a bad first experience (check out Pasta Almost Disaster)  with the pasta machine, I've been saying for weeks (actually months) that I need to get over my hump and try again.

Armed with some delicious fresh crab-meat from our local fishmongers I was set on crab ravioli (aiming high then). I wanted something fresh so after a quick search I came across this recipe in the Telegraph:

Crab ravioli with tomato and basil

The filling and the sauce seemed easy enough (although I didn't go to the effort of skinning the cherry tomatoes) but the big dilemma was the pasta. I watched a programme months ago and recalled watching a young Italian make gluten-free pasta claiming you couldn't tell the difference so after another (not quite so quick) search I came across the recipe from Michella Chiappa:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/simply-italian/articles/all/gluten-free-tagliatelle-with-chilli-and-garlic-recipe

Next dilemma was that I didn't have potato flour and my rice flour was out-of-date. I therefore decided to loosely take this recipe and concoct my own...and it worked a treat!

So if you fancy some delicious gluten-free pasta I would seriously recommend making it. It was really easy, tasted yummy and now means I can be more inventive with ravioli, tortellini and lots of other lovely types of pasta.

Gluten Free Pasta

Wheat Free Yes Gluten Free Yes
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients 
100g cornflour
250g GF plain flour (I use doves)
2tsp xanthan gum
4 medium eggs
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
Pinch of salt
Plain flour for dusting
 
Method 

Making the pasta

1. To make the dough, add the cornflour, plain flour,  xanthan gum and a pinch of salt to a food processor, then pulse to mix. 
2. Next, put in your eggs and oil. Blitz until everything is well combined. Knead a little to bind and form a dough, then wrap in clingfilm and rest for 30 minutes.
3.  If the dough is a bit sticky then lightly dust with flour.
4. If you are using a pasta roller, take a tennis ball-sized amount of dough, squash it flat with your fingers (remember to keep the rest of your dough covered with the cling film so it doesn't go dry and crusty), push it through the pasta roller on the widest setting. Because there is very little gluten in this flour you will find that the dough crumbles as it comes out of the pasta machine. If it does patch the pieces together gently and push through again on the widest setting. Repeat this step until your dough comes out in one piece. Just have a little patience.
5. Once it comes out in one piece, fold the sheet into 3 pieces and roll through the widest setting. Repeat 3 times until you have a rough square shape, then start working it through the machine, taking it down one setting at a time, until the thinnest setting. You should end up with a long, wide sheet of pasta. You can also roll this by hand using a rolling pin but you'll need some serious elbow grease to get your pasta sheets really thin (about 1 playing card thick).
6. Once you have it down to the thinnest setting use the required attachment to cut your pasta. 
7. Place on a tray dusted with the plain flour to dry a little until ready to cook.

 Cooking the pasta

• To cook the pasta place in a large pot of boiling salted water and cook until al-dente. For tagliatelle this will only take around 30s, ravioli about 3min.