Pasta possibilities

For a while now, I've wanted to experiment with gluten-free, low-carb homemade pasta. Why? Because I like stuffed pasta like ravioli & tortellini, gluten and grains in general make my joints hurt, and the Covid-15 really has to go.

After trolling a lot of different recipes that looked promising (and a lot that didn't), I gave it a go this afternoon.

If that looks like a bit of a mess...it was. I opted for a lupin-based flour mix, which sounded promising. The dough actually came together pretty well. 

Trying to make sheets out of it with the pasta machine was tricky--but I have little experience doing that, so was still optimistic. I tasted the raw dough, and it did have a slightly-bitter, green characteristic that is often mentioned as a downside of the lupin flour. Still, I was hopeful.

The sheets were fragile, and making the ravioli without tearing it was tricky. Three of four kinda worked. 

I'd seen advice to cook in a shallow pan at less than a full boil, and to avoid overcooking. Along the lines of 2 minutes for fresh pasta, 6 for dried. I called it at about 3 1/2, even though they didn't really seem cooked.

They didn't really taste cooked, either. But, they totally fell apart when I plated. I ate some, but this was decidedly not a successful experiment. The ricotta-cream cheese filling with parmesan and sautéd morels was tasty?

I don't recommend reproducing this, but here's the pasta recipe:

50g Lupin flour

8 g Almond flour

8 g Coconut flour

1/2 tsp Xanthan gum

Salt

Healthy pinch porcini powder 

1 egg

1/2 tsp water

1. Add dry ingredients to a bowl & whisk together.
2. Crack egg into a bowl & whisk together with 1/2 tsp water.
3. Make a well in the middle of the bowl & add the egg.
4. Gradually whisk dry ingredients into the egg with a fork.
5. When it comes together & most of the dry ingredients are mixed in, knead by hand in the bowl until it’s picked up all the dry ingredients.
6. Put on a silpat or parchment & knead together by hand  until is forms a smooth ball. 
7. Cover in plastic wrap and let rest for 20-30 minutes.
8. Form your pasta. I ran it through a pasta machine down to the 2 setting, then hand-formed some rustic ravioli.
9. Cook 3 1/2 minutes drain, and serve with sauce. (I made a simple morel brown-butter sauce, as I mostly wanted to evaluate the pasta itself.)

I think one of the problems is there is just too much fiber in the flour mix, and the almond flour is particularly never going to taste cooked after 2 minutes at a barely-boil. Not sure the lupin flour will, either, TBH. My thought behind the coconut flour is that it's a finer texture, and provides a bit of sweetness to counter the bitterness of the lupin flour. (Some recipes I looked at actually add a sweetener.) 

One recipe I looked at used tapioca flour in the mix, which is an interesting idea because of its thickening properties. Some give up on the notion of cooking the pasta in water, opting for a fried version. Others ditch the gluten-free notion, and add gluten. 

I didn't really expect to nail this out of the gate, but it was still disappointing. 

Trying to convince myself to heat up the leftover mushroom soup instead of ordering a pizza consolation prize...