This Christmas Santa and Mr Smith brought me a fantastic addition to My New Kitchen in the way of a pasta maker. Gluten free fresh pasta is delicious on the palate - for example, fresh fettuccini with freshly chopped basil, oil and pine nuts or blend the basil, oil and crushed pine nuts with fresh parmesan to make your own pesto. The aroma is incredible. Shop bought pasta from supermarkets is a thing of the past for this gluten free food nut.
If you shop at Asda in the UK, find the international food aisle, find the Indian section and grab yourself a 500g bag of Natco gram flour (ground chickpeas). It is about 67 pence as opposed to a lot more if you buy from the health food shops.
I prefer to use gram flour because it has fantastic elasticity and goes through the machine like a dream and of course don't forget to leave your pasta dough in a ball in the bowl wrapped in cling film for about 25 minutes. It is also a beautiful golden colour.
About an hour beforehand I had started preparing the lasagna meat Heston Blumenthal style. His bolognaise can take up to 8 hours preparation time, but being a Sunday I shortened my cooking time for my first lasagne attempt - but even so, I always slow cooked my bolognaise for at least an hour to an hour and a half.
If you shop at Asda in the UK, find the international food aisle, find the Indian section and grab yourself a 500g bag of Natco gram flour (ground chickpeas). It is about 67 pence as opposed to a lot more if you buy from the health food shops.I prefer to use gram flour because it has fantastic elasticity and goes through the machine like a dream and of course don't forget to leave your pasta dough in a ball in the bowl wrapped in cling film for about 25 minutes. It is also a beautiful golden colour.
About an hour beforehand I had started preparing the lasagna meat Heston Blumenthal style. His bolognaise can take up to 8 hours preparation time, but being a Sunday I shortened my cooking time for my first lasagne attempt - but even so, I always slow cooked my bolognaise for at least an hour to an hour and a half.Back to the lasagne sheets...I pulled sections from the pasta dough ball and started winding these through the machine. You do this six or seven times adjusting the width of the gap between the rollers until the dough is a good and smooth consistency. Cut lengths appropriately and start layering your lasagne and bake until golden brown.
