Disclosure: This post features a recap of my gluten-free pasta-making class. Sprouts provided groceries and goodie bags for the class, and this post contains affiliate links.
Yummy pasta.
Us gluten-free folk sure to love our pasta, don’t we?
OK, I know it’s not the healthiest food because of the white flours, but when I prepare it at home, I use only fresh and clean ingredients, and I slather it in a healthy tomato sauce to bump up the nutrition factor. Plus, I’m not eating meat when I eat homemade pasta, which is a good thing for your body and overall health.
Earlier this week I hosted another gluten-free cooking class in Denver… this time we made gluten-free pasta (from scratch) and homemade marinara sauce (both recipes below).
First thing’s first – we made homemade marinara sauce. So many of us grew up on tomato sauce from a jar and honestly have no idea how to make a sauce from scratch. Fortunately for my class, I know how to make a basic red sauce using Sprouts’ crushed canned tomatoes, finely chopped onions and garlic, dried Italian seasoning, olive oil and fresh basil (we added the olive oil and fresh basil at the end of the cooking cycle).
As the sauce was simmering, we decided to add a little red wine to our sauce because, you know, we’re adults and we can – lol! The red wine cut the acid level of the sauce and really gave the sauce a smooth texture. It was delicious – rave reviews!
We simmered the red sauce to allow the flavors to come together while we prepared our fresh gluten-free pasta.
Making gluten-free pasta is actually fairly easy if you use a gluten-free flour substitute that measures like real flour. I personally use Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour (I got my flour at Sprouts, but if you can’t find it there, you can get it on Amazon). It is the gluten-free flour I use in most of my baking recipes and it almost always works like a charm.
Getting the measurement right took me some time – but I found the right mix of eggs and flour.
Once you have the gluten-free pasta dough made, you can spend about a minute kneading it while incorporating a bit more flour into the mixture to ensure it’s not sticky, but still a little wet. Most pasta dough needs to be kneaded for a few minutes in order to develop the gluten, but there’s no gluten here, so just a few seconds will do. Remember, the gluten-free pasta dough mixture can’t be too wet because it will stick to the pasta machine rollers, but it can’t be too dry because then it will crack and fall apart. Your gluten-free pasta dough needs to be just right – that comes with time and practice.
I showed everyone how to roll the dough through my electric pasta machine from Marcato. This pasta machine is something I think every gluten-free home chef should have! I’m grateful that my mother-in-law purchased one for me as a birthday gift in the year following my celiac diagnosis – she knew how much I love pasta so this gift was perfect!
This pasta machine flattens the dough into long, even lasagna noodles. Then the pasta machine cuts the pasta into even strips. When you use a pasta machine, your pasta is uniform and just-right.
However, I know most people don’t have an electric pasta machine, so alternatively, you can roll out the dough with a rolling pin into a nice thin layer (on a floured surface, you don’t want the dough to stick), and then use a pizza roller to cut even strips. Your pasta won’t be uniform, but it will still taste doughy and delicious. (Just be sure to make the dough thin so you don’t have a thick, doughy pasta.)
I encouraged my students to try rolling and cutting the dough by hand and in my electric pasta machine. There’s something special about seeing the pasta you made come out of the pasta machine for the first time… there’s quite a sense of pride, accomplishment and excitement.
Look at all those beautiful gluten-free noodles!
Can you believe this pile of gluten-free noodles we created?!? We were getting hungry at this point so it’s a good thing these noodles cook up fast.
We boiled the noodles for about two minutes in heavily salted water and then they were ready for eating!
Sprouts Farmers Market provided us with all the ingredients needed to make the gluten-free pasta dough and sauce as well as some fun bean pastas to sample, including Explore Cuisine’s Mung Bean and Edamame noodles and Banza’s chickpea noodles.
We sat on my deck, chit-chatted about being gluten-free and ate up all these yummy gluten-free pastas. Having homemade pasta really makes you feel normal again. Just look at these happy, well fed gluten-free students!
So you might be wondering what everyone thought of the other pastas? Well, as you can imagine, nothing beat the homemade pasta. Most of the class liked the Mung Bean and Edamame pasta, but the Banza noodles weren’t as big of a hit. I think it was hard for these alternative gluten-free pastas to compete with the homemade stuff that we mixed, rolled, cut and cooked ourselves.
At the end of the night, everyone got to take home a reusable shopping bag from Sprouts, as well as a can of Sprouts’ crushed tomatoes and an Explore Asian black bean or adzuki bean pasta. They also got to take home the leftover sauce, noodles and dough!
All in all, my students seemed to enjoy themselves. They learned how to make gluten-free pasta and marinara sauce from scratch, left with full bellies, and even took home a few treats to help them cook up their own gluten-free pasta feast at home.
Two-Ingredient Gluten-Free Pasta Dough
April 26, 2017
You’re going to love making homemade gluten-free pasta. The texture is amazing – you won’t miss the gluten! Plus, you can make this recipe more quickly than gluten pasta because you don’t need to knead the dough and wait for the gluten to develop.
Double this recipe if you’re feeding a family.
- Prep: 35 mins
- Cook: 10 mins
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35 mins
10 mins
45 mins
- Yields: 2 servings
Directions
Add 1 cup + ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp. Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour and eggs to a food processor using the dough blade.
Mix well until dough forms. Do not overwork dough.
Remove dough from food processor and place on a floured surface.
If dough is sticky, add a sprinkle of flour and knead dough for 1-3 minutes until the texture is still wet but not sticky.
Wrap in plastic wrap and set aside as you prepare your pasta machine or workspace.
Cut dough into four sections, working dough in batches
Flatten section on a floured surface
Run it through your pasta roller on the largest setting (0). (To get clean edges, fold the dough onto itself and roll through the 0 setting twice). You can also cut the dough in half again to make for more manageable strips.
Run dough through the roller on setting 1, then setting 2 until you have lasagna strips.
Run the strips through pasta maker to make linguine or spaghetti.
Roll out first section on a floured surface into long, even strips of dough.
Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut dough into pasta strips and set aside.
Work dough in batches until all dough is in desired shape
Add noodles to salted boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Pasta cooks fast – watch carefully!!
Drain and rinse noodles with cold water. Serve immediately with your favorite sauce.
Watch the cook time carefully. This dough cooks FAST!
Easy Gluten Free Marinara Sauce Recipe
April 26, 2017
Super easy and oh-so-delicious gluten free marinara sauce recipe
- Prep: 15 mins
- Cook: 30 mins
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15 mins
30 mins
45 mins
- Yields: 4-6 servings
Ingredients
2 Tbsp. avocado oil or other high heat oil
1 onion, finely diced or pulsed in food processor
2-4 garlic cloves, finely diced or pulsed in food processor
2 Tbsp. dried Italian seasoning
2 28 oz. cans of crushed or diced tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine of choice (optional)
6-8 fresh basil leaves, chopped (optional)
Directions
Heat avocado oil over medium high heat in large pan or stockpot
Add onion and sauté for 2-3 minutes
Add garlic and sauté for another minute until fragrant
Add Italian seasoning and tomatoes – stir ingredients together
Cook for 30 minutes or longer to allow flavors to develop
Add red wine (optional) and allow mixture to simmer, uncovered, for 5-10 minutes
Before serving, add fresh basil leaves and olive oil drizzle (optional)
Simmer the sauce all day to develop the flavors even more!
The recipe calls for 1 Cup + 1/4 Cup + 2 TBSP of flour, but nowhere in the instructions does it say the breakdown. Do you start out with the 1 cup, then add more or is the 1/4 cup for the rolling out?
What size of eggs? Better yet, how did they measure? You are very specific with the flour: “plus two tablespoons” and I would like a specific measurement for the eggs (since I always use jumbo)!
I live your recipes and your blog! Debbie
I use large eggs. I will update the recipe so thank you. Even large eggs are slightly different in size, so you’ll have to work to get the texture right. If it’s a little too wet, add a bit more flour.
I actually put all the flour and eggs in the food processor at once and let it work it’s magic. So 1 Cup + 1/4 Cup + 2 TBSP of flour in the food processor with the eggs, and then you’ll want some extra flour on top of that for rolling out the dough (it will be a little sticky) so just a tad more will make the dough wet, but not so sticky that you can’t roll it out. I hope that helps. I will update the recipe with these instructions, Sandy.
is it possible to dry this pasta? if so how long will it keep?
Hi Lisa – I’m not sure if it will keep if you dry it. I make and cook it right away.
We don’t get “Bob’s” flour here. Is it a regular gf baking flour with which ingredients? Some are more rice flour, some with Guar Gum etc. I will try a local gf baking flour and cross my fingers!
I have tried this pasta recipe. I even doubled the recipe for the flour and 5 eggs were perfect! So easy to make with the pasta machine! The family enjoyed it very much with my own sauce and if I had not told then gluten free they would not have guessed! Now I can make my own gluten free pasta! Yeah!!!!
Thank you for sharing Odette. Glad it worked so well for you!!