Gluten free Acorn Pasta
Acorn pasta is a little bit thicker, a little bit heartier, and a lot more nutritious than pasta made using wheat flour. It’s also incredibly easy to make. Acorn flour is actually a bit more forgiving for the novice pasta maker, it’s gluten free so won’t get tough if you accidentally overwork it during the process of rolling it out. This recipe works well for thicker more substantial noodles. To go thinner, you’ll want to slightly increase the amount of xantham gum to increase the elasticity.
We recommend flour from a white oak acorn for this recipe because it will tend to have a slightly higher starch content.
Ingredients
1 tsp xantham gum
2 1/4 cups fine ground cold-leached acorn flour
2 eggs
1 tablespoon acorn oil or extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon fine grain salt
Process
Mix 2 cups of the acorn flour and xantham gum together.
Mound the flour mixture on a large cutting board or put it in a bowl and make an indentation in the center. Crack you eggs into that indentation, and add the salt and oil as well.
With a fork, pop the egg yolks and begin working in the flour from around the edges by stirring in a circular pattern. Continue until the dough is thoroughly mixed and clumps together in a ball.
Cut the ball into quarters.
Dust your work surface (a butcher block, silicon mat, or very clean counter works well) with a bit of the extra flour you set aside and gently roll out the dough into a flat rectangular shape. If you prefer, you can use a pasta roller for this step.
Cut dough into strips of the desired thickness. roll them slightly if you want to make them round or shape as you desire.
Set them to dry or put them directly into boiling salted water to cook
Cook the noodles for 7-10 minutes, depending on thickness, and then remove from water. Serve with butter and salt or your sauce of choice. They are also wonderful in a noodle soup.
