Gluten-Free Pasta: Fusilli

I inherited a pasta maker. Nobody died...at least they hadn't yet and I knock on wood they still haven't. So maybe "inherit" is not the right word, but like Greg "inherited" a slow-cooker, I, loosely, inherited a small pasta maker.

...and I've been on a gluten-free flour kick. So for my amazing mango salad a few weeks ago I used a gluten-free flour for the home-made pasta. It made all the difference in the world - the home-made, not necessarily the gluten-free. I do think the gluten-free part helped, though, because there's more chew, more texture, and less air to the denser flour, and I like that for a recipe where I want to feel full.

The recipe was easy...kind of. You just have to be careful about how much liquid and egg you use, since the different flours require different amounts of liquid than a standard high-gluten dough. I used my first gluten-free flour blend recipe, and decided to use two eggs instead of one in the actual pasta recipe to keep the dough together better.

Ingredients:
2 cups Gluten-Free Flour Blend
2 Eggs
1 tbsp Olive Oil
approximately 1/4 cup of water to start

My pasta maker comes with a handy little measuring thing. It's not really a cup, but it comes with a quasi-lid that doesn't really seal well, but you can use to shake the egg, oil and water together inside. It's kind of awful for kitchen contamination since small amounts of egg fly everywhere. It has these ambiguous lines on the outside. The lines themselves aren't ambiguous, but they say things like "Small Load" and "Regular Load" even though the instructions that came with the machine say you should only ever make one size of load. So I never know which lines to use and every time I mess up I forget to mark down which line I should have used. Insanity or forgetfulness? Forgetfulness, I hope.

If you don't have a pasta maker you can still make this by hand. Just combine the egg, oil, and water in a sealable jar and shake until they're combined. Then create a well in a big bowl of the 2 cups of flour and incorporate it, stirring in only one direction. Then knead for 4-7 minutes, until the dough is ready. I have no idea when the dough will be ready, since I only ever use the machine and I don't think the elastic bread dough trick will work. My advice is to google some home-made pasta recipes and see what they say. Also keep in mind that you'll have a tougher time with gluten-free flour since it doesn't like to stick together. Even with the pasta machine I had to play with the amount of water and flour (adding 1 tbsp at a time of either) until the mixture resembled small pea-sized crumbs. In fact it got to this point in the 4 minutes that the machine required, and I started extruding it through the pasta die (their words, not mine) until it wouldn't extrude anymore. Some dough twirled into fusilli more easily than others, but a lot of dough was left over. So I added some more flour to get it unstuck and kneaded again in the machine, and then extruded that too. All in all, it was one of my less painful pasta-making experiences. Maybe I'm learning? Intelligence or luck? Hmm...

The pasta gets boiled like any other fresh pasta - in a large pot of salted water until it rises to the surface. That means for about 3 or 4 minutes. Fusilli is pretty thin so it doesn't take much time at all. Then it gets drained, to stop the cooking process and keep it al dente. Half of the dough got boiled for the mango pasta salad, and half got frozen for easy fresh pasta at a later date. I have just today bought eight mangoes - four different kinds - from my fruit guy in Jean Talon (Leopoldo's) and will choose which ones will be good for the salad. I didn't buy any sweet yellow ones (Ataulfos) this time. I bought some Haitian, some Mexican pit-less (I think that was the translation - I have no idea how that's possible, and kind of hope I'm wrong. It could also mean seedless, but all mangoes are seedless except for the pits...maybe some time in the distant path mangoes had more seeds? I don't think so), some organic Hadens from who knows where in South America, and some $3 vine-ripened ones. I am SO excited. Normally you can only find two kinds in North America, and here were four. I forget the names of the other varietals, but one was more green and elongated. We shall see...

Anyway, if you're making your own pasta without a machine, there's no 'extrude' button, so you need to roll it out thin and slice it into the lengths you want. I recommend fettucine or tagliatelle (wider flat noodles) for first-timers, since everything usually ends up looking this way anyway. If the pasta's for yourself or an indiscriminating family or group of eaters, it doesn't matter if each piece is the same width or length. With the gluten-free pasta you're going to have a hard time transferring it from the floured kitchen counter you used to roll it out to the pot, so expect some strands to break. It'll taste great no matter what. Don't worry and don't lose heart. Also don't get so frustrated that you knock everything all over the floor and get flour everywhere. You'll just need to clean it up anyway. The nice thing about rolling it by hand is it doesn't really matter if it's the perfect consistency. It'll taste heavier or lighter, so it does make a difference, but again, it's just for yourself, so give it a try, and then you'll do it better next time. Or not. Or it could be perfect the first time.

Or just meet someone who wants to give you a pasta maker.

Good luck!