Gluten Free Fettucine with Tomato Garlic Sauce
Gluten Free Fresh Pasta in a Light Tomato Sauce
Hello friends,
A year ago I was setting out on a fabulous Italian adventure! I spent 2 weeks at a cooking school in Tuscany, learning all about Italian cuisine, and especially secrets of how they make gluten free food so much better than I’ve experienced at home.
Sidenote: Did you know this? That Italy is gluten free heaven? It’s counter intuitive for sure, but so true. Pasta, pizza, desserts of all kind GF is AMAZING there. Would you be interested in some gluten free travel guides? MORE gluten free Italian recipes? Let me know.
In any case of course I practiced pasta most of all. I’m happy to say, gluten free fresh pasta in the shape of your dreams is accessible to you. Using ingredients you can likely find in grocery stores near you, and you know what? It’s not as much of a faff as you would think it is. You can roll it out using a pasta machine, and it will definitely be a bit neater and more even, but you can also go grandma style and roll it with a rolling pin. Try it out first and make sure you like it before going all in for the machine.
There are SO many variations of this dough, from replacing part of the flour with flours of different grains or nuts or chestnuts, to mixing in vegetables of herbs. I’m excited to explore that with you through different posts/recipes here but lets start with the basics - this one is a basic that is absolutely delicious and doesn’t need one more thing to make it fancier. It is amazing just as it is.
Happy pasta rolling,
Rachel
Gluten Free Fresh Pasta
Serves 4-6
450g gluten free 1 to 1 flour blend - Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur works well or you can use my gluten free pastry flour blend
2 tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp kosher salt
6 large eggs
For the pasta, mix the flour and salt. Make a well in the middle and add the eggs. Mix with your hands to form a soft dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest. Roll out into a thin slab on a gluten free floured surface with a rolling pin, and cut into strips or shape as desired, or lightly dust with gluten free flour and put through a pasta machine until you reach the 4 -6 thickness setting (depending on your specific pasta machine, if it starts tearing you’ve gone too far).
Cut into your desired shape (fettuccine, spaghetti, tagliatelle, lasagne, bow ties) Dust with gf flour and make little “nests” on a parchment lined sheet pan until you’ve rolled all the dough.
Boil the fresh pasta in salted water for around 3 minutes depending on how big or thick your pasta shape is, until cooked al dente.
Fresh Tomato Sauce with Garlic
¼ cup (50g) olive oil
6 garlic cloves
2 lbs. tomatoes, chopped if large left whole if grape or cherry tomatoes
½ tsp red pepper flakes
½ tsp kosher salt
1 bay leaf
Crush the garlic cloves and cook in the olive oil over low heat 5 minutes. (At this point northern Italians would pull out the garlic, and just use the oil… I love to leave the garlic in) Add pepper flakes. Add the tomatoes to the pan, along with salt and bay leaf. Simmer until sauce has thickened. Boil the fresh pasta in salted water for around 3 minutes until cooked al dente. Add the cooked pasta to the pan with the tomatoes sauce, toss, and serve topped with cheese if desired
I have never tried to make fresh GF pasta, but having your recipe will give me the confidence to try it!