Pasta, Homemade, Gluten-Free

From: Art of Gluten-Free Baking http://artofglutenfreebaking.com

Yiedl: 1 lb pasta

Ingredients

2 cups (290 g) Jeanne's Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix, plus more for your work surface

4 extra large eggs

Large pinch of salt

Place the flour in a medium bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour. Add the salt and the eggs to the well. Using a fork, pierce the yolks of each egg and then slowly beat the flour into the eggs and salt by going around in a circle and gradually incorporating more and more flour from the sides into the eggs in the middle. When the dough becomes too lumpy to work with the fork, use your hands to press the remaining flour into the dough ball.

Lightly flour your work surface with additional Jeanne's Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix. I know that in all other of my recipes I ask that you use tapioca flour for the work surface. This recipe is different. You will be kneading more flour into the dough via the work surface. So, you want to have more of your working flour to add to the dough.

Sprinkle your lump of dough with some flour. Pull a corner of your dough from the back to the front of the lump and press it into the opposite corner of the lump just as if you were kneading (wheat) bread. Give your dough a quarter turn, sprinkle with more flour, and repeat the kneading process. Make sure the work surface is adequately floured throughout. Keep turning, adding flour, and kneading.

The dough will be quite stiff and you will be using a bit of "elbow grease" to knead the dough. After a few minutes of adding more flour via the kneading process, the dough will become smooth and will no longer feel "tacky" (sticky). Press your finger into the middle of the ball to check to see if the inside is tacky. If it is, continue the kneading process for a few more turns. Check the inside again. It might feel the slightest bit tacky--that's OK. You just don't want it to be really tacky inside.

Form the dough into a disk, wrap it plastic wrap so no air gets to it, and let it rest on the counter for about 30 minutes. This resting time will give the dough and the xanthan gum in the dough time to relax a bit. You can let it rest for longer--even overnight (place in the fridge if you do this). When you unwrap the dough, you will be surprised at how much more supple the dough is than it was before you let it rest.

When you're ready to roll out and cut your dough, unwrap your dough and cut it into four equal(ish) wedges--each wedge will be about 1/4 lb of dough. You will now work separately with each wedge. I don't (currently) have a pasta machine, so I roll the dough out on a long wooden board (the same one I used for my puff pastry recipe). If you have a pasta machine, you may use it now.

To roll and cut the pasta by hand:

Flour your work surface with more Jeanne's Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix. Take your 1st wedge of dough and hand-shape it into a little rectangular block. Place this block on your work surface, sprinkle it with flour, and start to roll it into a long rectangle. The dough will be elastic and will bounce back a bit as you roll it. Keep rolling it, making sure you roll it out to the sides, as well. Sprinkle the dough with flour as needed so the dough doesn't stick to the rolling pin. Roll the dough until it is as thin as you can get it.

Now you will cut your pasta. You may cut it into any (flat) shape you want. I usually cut it into 1/2" or 1/4" wide noodles. If you really want your pasta to look uniform, you can go crazy like I do and measure out your noodles with a ruler. Then cut them with a sharp knife. Or, you can be like my grandma and just cut them out so they're all somewhat the same width. It doesn't really matter--it will taste delicious either way.

Pile the cut noodles into a medium bowl. Cover these already cut noodles with a damp dishtowel while you are rolling and cutting out the others. Repeat the rolling and cutting process until you have used all 4 wedges. (If you need less pasta, you can also use just the number of wedges you need and store the rest, tightly wrapped, the fridge). The dough will stay good for a couple of days.

To roll and cut with a manually operated pasta machine

Work in wedges. Take the first wedge and form it into a ball. Lightly flour a rolling surface with tapioca flour (not my flour mix). Roll the ball into a fairly even oblong that is about 1/8 in thick.

Set the pasta rollers to the largest size. On my Atlas machine, this is setting 1. Carefully and slowly roll the pasta through the rollers, catching it as it comes out. Set the rollers to the next smallest setting. On my machine it is a 2. Again, carefully and slowly roll the pasta through the rollers, catching it on the other side. Repeat this process until you have rolled the pasta through the 5^th smallest setting. For my machine this is a 5. The sheet of pasta will probably break somewhere around the 3 or 4 setting. That’s OK. Just roll each piece separately, keeping track of what setting each piece is on.

Next, roll the thin sheets through the cutters you want. My machine comes with a flat noodle cutter and a smaller spaghetti type cutter. Either is fine. Place each clump of cut pasta in a bowl (I usually make the whole batch, so it all goes into the same bowl).

You can also cut the thin sheets with a cutter and create ravioli. Be sure to brush water on the perimeter of each lower piece of the ravioli dough so the upper piece sticks to it.

The rolling tapioca flour that is left on the noodles is usually enough to keep the pasta from sticking to itself in the bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out. If you are using it within a couple of hours, you can store it at room temperature. If you are storing it in the refrigerator for longer periods of time.

To Cook the Pasta

When you're ready to cook the pasta, boil well-salted water in a large pot. Once it's at a rolling boil, add the pasta and stir a gently to distribute the noodles in the water. Cook for about 3-4 minutes, until it is cooked through when you test one noodle.