In honor of being back, I am returning to my last post topic. Gluten free pasta. You may recall that I have been in a year long battle to find a proper gluten free pasta recipe. I finally landed on recipe that I was sure couldn’t possibly work, but it turned out it worked on the very first try. Even better news, it worked the second time and I was able to replenish my pasta stash. If you want to know more click here for a refresher on this recipe and my the story that goes with it.

The recipe has been a total success!!  But there are some have issues I have noticed while making this pasta. So, I thought I would bring those to light as I know they have affected the process for me. Here we go!

First up, gluten free pasta can be finicky, so give yourself time and a little of patience when you make this recipe. Or maybe include a glass of wine or your favorite adult beverage to help take the edge off. Trust me, it helps!

The beginnings of our pasta dough.

Since this pasta needs a truck load of moisture to give the dough the proper structure, it can be a real pain to work in enough flour. It really does take a fair bit of patience and time to get the dough fairly dry and smooth. Even on my second attempt, which I just made, I didn’t add quite enough flour. I did add quite a bit more than the first try, but it still needed more. So, be prepared for that as you work your dough. Remember, the dough should be smooth and dry. If it feels tacky as you are working the dough then keep adding flour. If you don’t get enough flour in the dough when you run it through the pasta maker it will be too wet and will break apart in your pasta machine. What I found most interesting is the amount of dough that gets wasted in this recipe. I am talking about bits and pieces that fall off or crumble as you are rolling the dough or running it through your pasta maker.

Dough Scraps

I am convinced is that because you need so much flour, and any gluten free dough can be really fussy, that no matter what you do you lose some of the product. It isn’t a total loss though as I did manage to salvage some scraps and get some more noodles out of the remnants. But there is dough that is lost and can’t be revived no matter what you do. This is particularly evident in the edges of the pasta sheets.

Pasta sheet with brittle edges

Those pieces get brittle or just break off I end up having to shape the sheets with my dough cutter to get the most usable bits of dough processed. Or you have the dough all the way across the sheet. The most effective fix I found was to just run the pasta back through until you could form a more complete sheet. Sometimes I had to run it through three or four times. I don’t think I can say it enough, but be patient and remember your beverage!

Having said all that, you can’t go wrong with the recipe. Why, you ask? I think this picture says it all and this was my second attempt!

The finished product

I know a few of you are hoping to try this recipe. I can’t wait to see what you guys think! This is a really cool recipe and I am so glad that I have been able to find a way to make this work.

Enjoy!