If you love Italian cooking, and making pasta in particular, why should you be denied it because of a dietary requirement? If you are coeliac, you can make fresh gluten free pasta at home or buy gluten free pasta to use within your home-cooked recipes. This post will look at what gluten free pasta is made of and provide you with some recipes to make it at home or how to use store-bought gluten free pasta within an existing recipe. For all you pasta lovers who were worried being diagnosed coeliac would stop you eating pasta, this is for you.
What is gluten free pasta?
Wheat flour is mostly used as an ingredient when making pasta from scratch. The problem is that it contains gluten. If you are gluten free, this makes it an obvious no-no. As the demand for gluten free pasta has increased in recent years, the trial and error and the use of different types of gluten free pasta methods have increased and improved. Gluten free pasta is made from all sorts of gluten free alternatives, such as brown rice, chickpeas, quinoa, and more. An ingredient like xanthan gum is crucial in most cases, as this provides the flexibility that pasta dough needs to not crack and crumble when being worked.
Is there a different taste to gluten free pasta than regular pasta?
As there are so many varieties of gluten free flour that can be used to create gluten free pasta, there isn’t one defined flavour or taste to gluten free pasta. As long as you add salt to boost the flavours.
What’s the best way to cook gluten free pasta?
You can cook al dente fresh gluten free pasta in just 3-4 minutes. As it is starchier than regular pasta, it might create more of a foam in boiling water, so we would advise that you only fill your pot about 2/3 of the way up to prevent overflow during boiling.
Gluten free pasta recipes
Here are a couple of gluten free pasta recipes that you can easily create at home. One helps you make gluten free pasta from scratch; the other is gluten free pasta that you can purchase and use within your existing pasta recipes, just cutting out the gluten.
Gluten free pasta from scratch
This gluten free pasta recipe takes under an hour from preparation through to cooking.
Ingredients
- 200g gluten free flour
- 100ml water or 2 large eggs (use water if you are making white pasta)
- 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil
Method
- Make a mound with your gluten free flour
- Mix in the water or the eggs with the extra virgin olive oil using a fork to the centre of the mound
- Mix until you have a rough dough
- Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. This should take around 15 minutes
- Rest for 15-30 minutes and then cut into the pasta shape of your choice
Your choice of pasta shape is entirely personal. Some of us enjoy eating pasta shaped as bowties, as spaghetti, fusilli, or a wide range of weird and wonderful shapes.
Creamy avocado and pesto pasta
This recipe that we’ve found from Glutafin uses its gluten free pasta spaghetti, and takes under half an hour, serving four people.
Ingredients
Method
- Add pasta to boiling water and cook for 14-16 minutes
- Blend 2 avocados, pesto, lemon juice, basil, olive oil, garlic, and parmesan to create a smooth sauce
- Mix the pasta with the sauce over a medium heat
- Serve with the remaining avocado and sprinkle with pine nuts to serve
Glutafin provides a large range of gluten free products available from your pharmacy. All the products are gluten free and suitable for coeliacs. If you have been diagnosed with coeliac disease, check with your GP or dietitian to see if you are eligible for gluten free products on prescription.
