As I mentioned in my last post, I have been awaiting an opportunity to try a number of recipes from Living Without Magazine. I have had fresh pasta exactly twice since going Gluten-Free and both were delicious. First, I had homemade corn pasta at Cafe DeVille in Edmonton, AB and second I had homemade rice pasta at Pagliacci’s in Victoria, BC ever since then, I have wanted to try and make my own.
I followed the instructions for Gluten-Free Handmade Pasta exactly as they are listed, using the flax seed egg replacement (so that I could share with my little man who doesn’t eat egg whites yet), however I didn’t have the patience to go over to my parents to borrow their pasta maker. Instead, after reading a bunch of ravioli recipes, I decided to divide the dough and roll it out as thin as possible using a rolling pin between pieces of saran wrap. This worked reasonably well, but I need a LOT of extra cornstarch to ensure the dough didn’t stick and to be able to transfer it to parchment paper.
I rolled each piece into an elongated rectangle and then placed 3-4 teaspoons of filling (depending how well I rolled the pasta) in a row along the pasta sheet, dabbed watered down egg yolk around each dollop of filling and then folded the dough over, gently pressing the dough together. I did not use a fork or anything fancy to mark the edges, I just used my fingertips and the dough stayed together well through the cooking process.
The end result was delicious, if a bit chewy, however I’m pretty sure that if I had rolled my pasta thinner using a pasta machine that chewiness may not have been an issue. I’m also positive that the ravioli was delicious and as good as I could have hoped for considering that it was my first attempt EVER to make pasta. I did have to cook the pasta for a good 15 minutes, flipping the ravioli a few times, which is considerably longer than I expected based on the recipe citing the noodles would cook within a few minutes.
All in all, a good recipe and a delicious meal…and my little boy liked it too!! Good luck making pasta, I hope yours also turns out great.
As for filling, I decided to make my own up, here’s what I used:
- 1/2 pound lean ground turkey
- ~3 oz of frozen chopped spinach (defrosted)
- ~1/4 onion diced fine
- 3/4 of a 500g package of feta cheese
- 2 Tbsp goat cheese (optional)
Directions:
- Brown the turkey over medium heat, until no longer pink.
- Add onion and chopped spinach, and ook until the onions have softened and the turkey is fully cooked.
- Remove meat mixture from heat and stir in the cheeses (I had goat cheese on hand and it really helped hold everything together, you could also add one egg yolk.)
- Use to fill your homemade ravioli and enjoy!!
ps. I also used the leftover filling on a pizza!! Yum yum!
