RECIPE - GF Green Pea Pasta w/ Zucchini

I've been imagining this pasta ever since I saw the Green Pea Flour on Bob's Red Mill's website. The green color of the flour is beautiful! And how fortunate was I that Bob's Red Mill sent me a sample of the flour?!? So I got to work.

Now, I'm not an expert on pasta making. I looked up a basic recipe and noticed that you need semolina flour and all purpose flour. I researched semolina flour and saw that a popular substitute is garbanzo bean flour. So I decided to replace the semolina with garbanzo, and replace the all purpose with green pea. 

Ingredients:
For the pasta:
1 cup Garbanzo Bean Flour
1 cup Green Pea Flour
3 eggs
1 tbsp olive oil
1 pinch of salt

For the sauce:
1 zucchini, sliced
1 clove garlic, smashed
2 tbsp olive oil
1 oz Parmesan cheese, shaved

Directions:
Sift together the garbanzo bean flour, green pea flour, and salt. Pile into a mound and create a wide well in the middle. Crack eggs into the well and add olive oil. Slowly stir with a fork, gradually incorporating the flour into the mix. Once all the flour is integrated, kneed with your hands for a minute or two. Roll into a disc, wrap in plastic, and store in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Prepare a cutting board by sprinkling with garbanzo bean flour. Unwrap the dough and sprinkle more flour on top. Roll out by hand (or use a pasta machine if you have) until the pasta is as thin as you can make it (I split dough in half, and this made it much easier).

Carefully slice dough into pasta shapes, I chose linguini because it was easy. If you're feeling adventurous, try spaghetti.

To cook the pasta, boil water. Once boiling, add salt. Cook fresh pasta for NO MORE THAN 3-4 minutes. Drain and pour a little olive oil to prevent sticking.

In the meantime, saute the crushed garlic in olive oil, until lightly browned. Remove garlic, heat oil to medium-high, and fry zucchini. Once zucchini is lightly browned, add freshly cooked pasta and toss to coat. Serve and top with shaved Parmesan cheese.

Do you have other ideas for what to pair with Green Pea Pasta? Let me know!

RECIPE - GF Pasta a la Meatballs

I've been working on this pasta recipe for a while now, and I think it's pretty close to perfect! There's a few secrets and tricks I use in this recipe, like using rice cereal in the meatballs (instead of breadcrumbs), using ground turkey instead of beef (makes it lighter), and adding oil to the pasta water (prevents the pasta from sticking together.

This recipe would go great with the GF Focaccia I reviewed earlier this week

Try it and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:
For the meatballs:
1 lb ground turkey or beef
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp red pepper flakes
salt + black pepper
1/3 cup almond milk
1/3 cup crushed GF puffed rice cereal
2 tbsp olive oil

For the pasta:
1 lb GF spaghetti (TJ rice pasta is just fine...and cheap)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp salt

For the sauce:
1 jar/can crushed tomatoes (I like the TJ plain marinara sauce)
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp red pepper flakes
salt + black pepper

Directions:
1. To make the meatballs, mix together ground meet, seasonings, milk and crushed rice cereal. Crush the rice cereal pretty fine, either in your hand or in a plastic bag. Once combined, roll meatballs into ping pong ball-size balls.
2. Fry meatballs in a pan in 2 tbsp olive oil (if using beef, you can use less or no olive oil). Turn meatballs occasionally until browned on all sides. Drain excess oil.
3. Transfer meatballs into a pot. Add tomato sauce ingredients, including garlic, tomatoes, and spices. Cook sauce over low heat, stirring gently every few minutes.

4. To make the pasta, heat a lot of water in a large pot. Once boiling, add 2 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp olive oil and GF spaghetti. The olive oil will help prevent the pasta from sticking together after it is cooked. Stir often until pasta is just cooked through. Drain pasta and return to large pot.
5. Pour meatballs and sauce into pot with cooked pasta. Stir and and heat on medium for about 2 minutes, until sauce boils and the pasta absorbs some of the sauce. Serve with parmesan cheese or parsley.