Italian cuisine is reinvented with gluten-free, corn, buckwheat, rice or chickpea flours. Try these recipes suitable for gourmet palates.
- Gluten-free pasta: how to make it at home
- Gluten-free pasta: gourmet recipes for vegetarians
- 5 dressings for a vegetarian pasta dish
With only two ingredients, flour and water, the best recipes of Italian gastronomy are made. A simple tandem that delights the most gourmet palates.
Who doesn’t love a good pasta dish? The classics made from wheat flour are joined by other options suitable for celiacs, for cases of gluten sensitivity and for all those who want to try other flours, textures and flavors. Chef Anay Bueno—whose vegetarian restaurant is part of the list of the best plant-based restaurants in the We’re Smart Green Guide—gives us in this article the keys to success with gluten-free pasta at home. Enjoy!
GLUTEN-FREE PASTA: HOW TO MAKE IT AT HOME
Buckwheat, corn, rice or chickpea, in this article we propose that you diversify and include other types of cereals or pseudocereals in the diet, beyond wheat, with several delicious recipes and easy to prepare at home.
Making fresh pasta at home is simple. The secret is to get a homogeneous mass, neither too dry that breaks, nor too wet and sticky.
In ribbons, strips, croissants, sheets… The pasta is so versatile that it can be eaten in the form of spaghetti, ravioli, gnocchi, lasagna, fusilli, penne… Create your favorite shape!
Pasta is rich in carbohydrates. Combining it with green leafy vegetables, and eating them before pasta, is a good trick to enjoy it and that such high glucose peaks do not occur. In this way it is healthier for the body.
Accompany it with fresh arugula leaves, lamb’s lettuce, spinach, or also with a more complete salad.
Vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, nuts, aromatic herbs… All of them are good allies to combine with pasta.
They can be part of the filling, sauce or dressing, offering multiple possibilities of flavors, and also an extra nutritional contribution to the dish.
GLUTEN-FREE PASTA: GOURMET RECIPES FOR VEGETARIANS
CHICKPEA RIBBONS WITH SPINACH AND PORTOBELLO MUSHROOM SAUCE
INGREDIENTS (SERVES 4):
For the pasta:
- 200 g chickpea flour
- 2 eggs
- a pinch of salt
For the sauce:
- 2 onions
- 600 g fresh spinach
- 300 g Portobello mushroom
- 200 ml vegetable cream
- garlic powder
- A handful of pine nuts
- extra virgin olive oil
- and a pinch of salt
PREPARATION (45′):
- Mix the flour, sea salt and two eggs in a bowl. Knead with your hands until you get a homogeneous dough. Add water if the dough is dry. Just a few small tablespoons, until the texture is elastic, but not sticky.
- Flour the countertop or a cutting board to make it easier to shape the pasta with the rolling pin. You can use chickpea flour. Cut the pasta into thin strips, about a finger thick. Cook them with plenty of water and a little salt for 3 or 4 minutes.
- For the sauce, peel the onions and cut them into small pieces. Take them to the pan and put them on low heat, along with fresh spinach and cut portobello mushrooms, with a good splash of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt.
- Add the garlic powder and vegetable cream, once it has cooked, and mix. Cook a couple more minutes and crush everything with the help of a turmix or food processor. Add the pine nuts and stir over low heat for 3 minutes.
- Present the ribbons on a plate and accompany with the spinach and mushroom sauce, and garnish with some pine nuts.
CORN RAVIOLI DELICACIES FILLED WITH PORTOBELLO MUSHROOMS AND TRUFFLE BOLETUS
INGREDIENTS (SERVES 4):
For the pasta:
- 150 g corn flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- water and salt
For the filling:
- 200 g tofu
- 150 g red onion
- 250 g Portobello mushroom
- 100 g boletus edulis
- 2 tablespoons truffle paste or 1 small natural truffle
PREPARATION (1 H.):
- Mix the cornmeal and starch in a bowl along with the salt. Add the egg, olive oil, and stir with a spoon until you get a homogeneous dough. If the dough is dry or cracks, add a little water. Put the dough in a new bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let stand for about 30 minutes. Stretch it with a rolling pin or the pasta laminator until you get thin and wide layers, and let stand for a few minutes.
- For the filling, peel and diced the onion, poel it and add the mushrooms and boletus. Cook about 8 minutes.
- Add the truffle paste or the previously grated natural truffle and, with a food processor, end up creating a filling with a soft texture. Cut the pasta sheets into rectangles of the same size, add the filling balls for each ravioli, brush the joints with water and cut with a pasta cutter or knife.
- Boil water in a pot with salt and cook the ravioli for about 8 minutes. Serve the ravioli with a mushroom sauce or just add a good splash of extra virgin olive oil, salt flakes and some truffle slices. A delight.
PANZEROTTI OR CROISSANTS OF RICE WITH PEAR AND RICOTTA FILLING
INGREDIENTS (SERVES 4):
For the pasta:
- 2 eggs
- 200 g rice flour
- a pinch of salt and water
For the filling:
- 500 g fresh spinach
- 200 g ricotta cheese
- 3 pears
- 1 small onion
- extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt
For the sauce:
- 1 onion
- Vegetable cream for cooking
- nutmeg
- white pepper
PREPARATION (1 H. 20′):
- In a bowl create a flour volcano and incorporate the two whole eggs and add a little salt. Knead with your fingers making small circles. If you need it, add a little water. A unified and silky mass should remain, but not viscous. Create a ball and let cool and rest in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.
- Poach the diced onion with the oil and salt, until translucent. Add the spinach. Peel and grate the pears and cook together with the rest of the ingredients, until the liquid evaporates almost entirely. Add the crumbled ricotta cheese.
- Form small dumplings and smooth them with a rolling pin. If you flour the work surface with cornstarch, it will be easier. Create spheres of pasta with the edge of a glass and put the filling. Fold and shape it into a crescent. With the help of a fork close the panzerottis. Cook them in plenty of salted water for 5 to 7 minutes.
- For the sauce, poach an onion, add the vegetable cream, nutmeg and white pepper.
- Plate the pasta and enjoy. You can add some nuts such as almonds or walnuts.
WHOLE BUCKWHEAT NOODLES WITH ARRABBIATA SAUCE
INGREDIENTS (SERVES 4):
For the pasta:
- 200 g buckwheat flour
- 2 eggs
- 25 ml water
- a pinch of salt
For the sauce:
- 400 g ripe tomatoes
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 garlic
- 100 g black olives
- 3 or 4 cayennes (to taste)
- a pinch of salt
- fresh parsley or basil leaves (optional)
PREPARATION (40′):
- Create a flour volcano in a bowl and then add the whole eggs and a pinch of salt. Mix with your hands gently and making circles with your fingers and add the water in parts, little by little. When all the ingredients have come together, flour your hands with a little cornstarch and create a ball, cover it with a film and let stand in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Flour the work surface and stretch the dough with the help of a rolling pin until you get a rectangular griddle. You can help yourself with a pasta laminator. With a pasta cutting roller or knife, cut to get the noodles. Try to make them as straight as possible.
- Boil the noodles for about 6 or 7 minutes in plenty of water with a pinch of salt. Peel the tomatoes and sauté them in a pan with the three chopped garlic and olive oil. When the tomato begins to reduce, add the chopped cayennes and salt, black olives, and let cook a couple of minutes more.
- Serve the noodles with plenty of sauce. If you like, as an option, you can decorate the dish with a little chopped parsley or fresh basil, to give more freshness and aroma to the noodles.
POTATO AND BUCKWHEAT GNOCCHI WITH ARUGULA AND WALNUT PESTO SAUCE
INGREDIENTS (SERVES 4):
For the pasta:
- 200 g potato
- 500 g buckwheat flour
- 1 egg yolk
- a pinch of nutmeg, salt and pepper
For the sauce:
- 150 g arugula
- 250 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 200 g walnuts
- A handful of cherry tomatoes
- A touch of salt
PREPARATION (1 H.):
- Cook the potatoes with the skin in plenty of water, until softened, and then peel them and reserve them in a bowl.
- Crush the potatoes with the help of a fork or a manual purée. Then add the buckwheat flour, egg yolk and spices along with the salt. Knead well with your hands with all the ingredients until you get a uniform dough.
- Flour a board and work the dough into long cylinders of medium thickness, about the size of a thumb. Cut the cylinders into portions and, with the tips of a fork, shape the gnocchi. Boil them in a pot with plenty of water and salt. Just a few minutes of cooking is enough. When they float on the surface of the water, they will be ready.
- Prepare the arugula pesto, crushing the arugula with a pinch of salt and plenty of extra virgin olive oil. Chop half of the nuts with the knife and incorporate them into the sauce.
- Mix gnocchi with pesto and plate. You can decorate with some whole nuts and then add some cherry tomatoes cut into halves, and you have the dish ready to serve.
5 DRESSINGS FOR A VEGETARIAN PASTA DISH
- Lightweight. With just a splash of extra virgin olive oil and some aromatic, you get a delicious dish.
- “Cheese”. Try nutritional yeast, a vegan option to cheese.
- Funghi. Fresh or dehydrated, the wide variety of mushrooms are a winning choice.
- Spicy. The soul of the arrabbiata sauce, the chilli, suitable for daring palates.
- Bolognese. Make it with textured soy a little golden as altenative to the meat.
