Saturday, October 23, 2010

Making fresh pasta, gluten-free.

Sir and I purchased a pasta-maker today. Meaning we're basically Italian now (boopa-da-bee-bo!).

We're hosting our first family dinner tomorrow night, a tradition he started with his two cousins and their ladies when he first moved out to NYC. A delicious, delicious little tradition - we love family dinner. We've been holding off on hosting - a shameful admission - because honestly, we only had four plates. We hoofed it to Bed Bath and Beyond (a nice little Saturday) and bought some more plates, and now we're ready to entertain.

Tomorrow, we're going to attempt a pumpkin ravioli, spurred on by a confidence I've mustered up after seeing all the food-bloggers rave over the Gluten-free Girl's fresh pasta recipe. Tonight, we wanted to give the new pasta-maker a shot.

It turned. Out. Awesome.




We made linguine using Shauna's blend of gluten-free flours, including a red quinoa flour that lent a delightful color and texture to the pasta. The recipe is from her latest cookbook - available for purchase here. It was my first time blending gluten-free flours - a little intimidating in theory, exceptionally easy in practice once I got my hands in the bowl. After a quick boil in salted water, we tossed the pasta in a brown-butter-fresh sage reduction, shaved some parmesan on the top, and boom. Tender, chewy, salty, buttery, sagey hot goodness. It had a zippy freshness that we couldn't quite put our finger on - srsly amazing flavors. Truly delicious eats.

Have no fear in the kitchen, and don't be precious. You can always, ALWAYS make amazing food gluten-free. Thank goodness for that. Definitely looking forward to pumpkin ravioli, hosting family dinner, and all the steaming piles of gluten-free pastas to come.

15 comments:

  1. Yum! Looks delish :)

    /Amy

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  2. Well that seemed to work. Have fun tomorrow...you have a constructively critical group coming for dinner......but pasta is always a hit. bada bing,bada-boom!

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  3. Thanks Amy!!

    DP - yes, similar to cooking for food-critics. I think we're going to swap out the red quinoa for a standard quinoa and let the pumpkin flavor do the talking. Fingers crossed.

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  4. Yum! Your posts have taken a decidedly domestic turn.

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  5. I've been annoyed by other people pontificating on the ad industry as of late, so I've gone country. Pasta is more interesting sometimes, and always more delishy.

    If this is Beth Stebner, miss you :) If not, thanks for reading! xxx

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  6. Correct on the Beth! Miss you too and glad that your move has brought you closer to country. Although the dish looks Top Chef-worthy

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  7. Aw thanks Lizzie :) weird that moving to the big city makes you go country, right? Such is life.

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  8. Oh so mouth-drooling! I'm half Italian, and though I'm gluten-free, you can't keep me away from my pasta. I was thinking of using my gluten-free potsticker recipe for a pasta recipe. It is made from several gluten-free flours. What do you think? Pasta is pasta, right?

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  9. I think that could be super good! Definitely worth a try! Let me know how it turns out, and don't be shy with the recipe! j.ann.beio@gmail.com

    Thanks for reading!

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  10. LMJ, that looks mouthwatering. What kind of pasta machine did you purchase, if you don't mind me asking? I was considering one that attaches to my mixer, so if you have a recommendation, let me know :)

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  11. Bets - we just bought a cheapo no-name one at Bed Bath and Beyond and it worked just great. I bet the one that attaches to your stand mixer would be good as well! I have a feeling it'd be tough to get a bad one, especially if you don't know what you're doing (like me).

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Thoughts?