Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts

Saturday, 9 June 2012

Gluten Free Pasta Round-up

I've been asked about gluten free pasta quite a lot recently, so I thought I'd do a wee round-up of my favourite pastas.  There are a great range of pastas available now - certainly, when you compare the variety to what we used to have, even just five years ago, you'll agree that things are pretty good for the Coeliac pasta fan!  Where we used to glad for anything resembling pasta, now we can find many more shapes, beyond the standard fusilli, penne, lasagne sheets and spaghetti.

Doves Farm Organics have expanded their range over the last year to include ditalini (perfect for soups and salads) and macaroni. I'm a mac 'n' cheese fiend, so this has made me very happy indeed.  I haven't seen these pastas in any supermarkets yet, but you can buy them from the website.

Farabella pastas are available online from Drossa Ltd and have a fantastic range of some more unusal pasta shapes (and gnocchi!).  Their acini de pepe won this year's pasta category at the FreeFrom Food Awards; it is a brilliant cous cous subtitute and ideal for summer salads and winter stews.  Their orecchiette, chitarrine and cannelloni are also definitely worth a try.  Drossa stock some brilliant gluten free breads and baking ingredients, too, so the website is one to check out!

Le Veneziane corn pasta, from Molino di Ferro is available from health food shops and online here.  They have a good range with great pastini and spaghetti.  Ask at your local health food shop, it is a delicious pasta.

I never cook gluten free pasta for as long as it says on the packet, I have found that the recommended time is usually a couple of minutes too long for an al dente pasta.  Corn pasta in particular tends to make the cooking water very starchy and yellow, so if you're using the pasta in soups or stews, I would suggest cooking it separately and rinse well before you add it to the rest of the meal.  

If you need a bit of inspiration for what to eat with all that pasta, here are a few of my favourites.

Ino's Greek Octopus Stew is a delicious way to use a rather intimidating creature.  Tender and rich, this is a real celebration dish. 
photo taken from www.kitchen22.co.uk

This lemon spaghetti from Domestic Sluttery is seriously tasty but ridiculously simple to make.
photo taken from www.domesticsluttery.com

My new favourite pasta dish is this bacon pasta from Elizabeth at Rosalilium.  It's easily made gluten free by swapping the soya sauce for gf tamari.
photo taken from www.rosalilium.com

I love my fennel frond pesto stirred into pasta.  Top tip: keep a bit of the cooking water to loosen it a bit, if needed.
Fennel Frond Pasta, by Gluten Free[k]

You can't go wrong with good old spag bol and Kate over at A Girls Guide to Gluten Free Baking hass a great one to keep up your sleeve.  Head over there and be inspired!

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Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Pepperoni Pasta

Yes, I know that I've been a bit sporadic on here since going back to work.  In my defence, I have had a fair amount going on.  On top of work and studying, I have had a few jaunts to Scotland and the New Forest to spend time with family.  Oh, and I have joined the team at Domestic Sluttery!  Check out the site every Friday for a gluten free recipe from me.

I have been eating a few more meals for one recently, too.  The Husband's job has meant that he is working away some weekends and after the first few weekends of surviving on crisps and ice-cream, I decided to adopt a slightly healthier meal plan!  Cooking for one has has its challenges - I tend to be an overgenerous cook, so attempting single portions isn't easy - especially when you are busy or tired, or both.  I am still fighting exhaustion since the operation, so I have been eating a lot more quick and easy food; buckwheat noodles with stir-fried vegetables, lentil soups, omelettes and frittata-type dishes, and this pasta.  It's basically all the things I like on a pizza, with pasta and it's jolly good.  Go on, give it a try.


Easy Pasta for One

1tbsp oil
2 anchovy fillets
50g sliced pepperoni, cut into bite-sized pieces
85g pitted black olives, sliced
1 large plum tomato, peeled and chopped
15g fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
75g gluten free pasta (I like Doves Farm Organics penne)

  • Cook the pasta in boiling salted water, drain when ready (but reserve a cup of the pasta water for later on).
  • Heat the oil in a pan and add the anchovies, cook for a couple of minutes until it breaks down into the oil.
  • Fry the pepperoni in the anchovy and oil for a minute. Chuck in the olives and tomato and bring to a simmer.  Stir in the chopped basil. 
  • If the mixture is a bit thick, pour in some of the pasta water to loosen the sauce. Taste the sauce and season as you like - remember that the anchovies and pasta water will be quite salty anyway.
  • Add the cooked pasta and mix well with the sauce. Serve with a little Parmesan cheese, if you fancy.

Friday, 24 February 2012

FreeFrom Food Awards 2012

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

Ok, at the start of February; in London (It just feels an age ago, since the whole ileostomy/colectomy thing happened in the meantime.) I was lucky enough to be a judge for this year's FreeFrom Food Awards. Founded and run by Free From Foods Matter, the FreeFrom Food Awards are in their 5th year and celebrate those food producers who create product that are free from one or more of gluten, wheat, dairy, soya, egg, yeast or sugar.  

Coincidentally, I have been Coeliac for 5 years, so the FreeFrom Food Awards have been guiding me since the beginning of my journey!  I have bought products on the merit of being shortlisted in previous FreeFrom Food Awards and I look forward to the list being published each year, so it was a huge honour to be invited to take part in the judging process this year.

As the various judges arrived, I started to feel completely out of my depth; all the other judges were established food writers, journalists and bloggers with far more experience and influence than me.  Once the judging was underway, however, I started to relax and enjoy myself and Michelle was very warm and made me feel that my opinion was just as important as everyone else's.  I was excited to be involved with some really interesting categories, (bread, ready meals, desserts and beer) and made some very inspiring discoveries in the process.  Two of my favourite discoveries turned out to be from the same producer, Butterfly Snacks, who make the gluten free roti and gluten free spring rolls that I was thoroughly impressed by.  Also worth a mention, I think, are Dietary Specials tortelinni (filled gluten free pasta!) and The Food Resource's Fusilli al Funghi, both would make a quick and tasty lunch and are made with pasta with a decent bite to it.

The shortlist was published at the start of this week and you can view it on the FreeFrom Food Awards website  


I am very much looking forward to the awards ceremony on the 17th April and I will fill you in on all the winners then.


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Wednesday, 20 July 2011

Gluten Free Pasta? I'm all ears!

Way back at the start of this month the Gluten-free Ratio Rally posted their pasta recipes. If you missed it, check out host Jenn Cuisine for the round-up.  I had spent a few happy afternoons in June working on my own contributions, but as July started I found myself swept up in work and exhaustion and I missed the deadline to post it.  I had so much fun making it that I decided to post it anyway.  Better late than never, as they say!

The ratio for pasta is 2 parts egg to 3 parts flour.  That's it.  Easy, right?  Well  read the other posts to see that it's not that simple.  'Normal' pasta uses flour that is high in gluten to ensure that the dough is pliable, without it you may find it a bit on the crumbly side.  The answer, as it turns out is to use more egg yolks than egg whites, I unwittingly did this by using duck eggs with massive yolks, if you are using hen's eggs then I'd add an extra yolk for every whole egg you use.

I don't have a pasta maker.  It's a standing joke in my family that a pasta maker is an under-used gadget in my  Mum's kitchen (even more so than the ice cream maker...) I have avoided taking the plunge for fear that mine too will become ammunition for ridicule.  That said, I opted for orechhiette which is hand shaped, so no need for the fore-mentioned gizmo.

Orechhiette means "little ears", which gives you a clue to what they should look like.  If you search the word on YouTube you will find videos of Italian nonas making piles of these at the speed of light.  I took much longer and the finished product was far from perfect, but given a number of years perhaps I'll have my own video online!

Orechhiette
As a general rule, one egg will make enough pasta for one serving.  The easiest way to measure all the ingredients is to first weigh the eggs, then you know how much flour to use (especially if you are not using duck eggs because they will be different sized.)

2 duck eggs
110g brown rice flour
110g tapioca flour

  • Add the flours to a large bowl and combine.  Make a well in the middle of the flours and add the eggs
  • Combine the flour with the eggs, a little at a time, using your hands until you have a stiff dough.
  • Wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
  • Once the dough is chilled, flour your surface well and knead the dough to soften it slightly.
  • Break off a chunk and roll into a sausage about 1cm thick.

  • Cut of a piece, 1cm wide and using your thumb squash the dough flat then pull your thumb towards you to shape the orechhiette.
  • You can round it off in the palm of your hand if you like. 
  • Repeat until all the dough is used up and you have a pile of little ears.
  • Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta.  Bring back to the boil and cook for about 5 minutes, the pasta should still have some bite.
To serve, I took the skins off a couple of sausages and broke them up in a pan with some chopped garlic and tomatoes.  Once the meat was cooked I tossed in the cooked orechhiette and served with lashings of Parmesan cheese and ground black pepper.