The Mish..

Part 1

My blogging friend Theresa, from gisforgluten and I drove out about a week ago to Piko, an old curiosity shop. Apart from being an old-fashioned, red-bricked building with a sign that has an outré picture of a pumpkin on it, this cosy, out-of-the-way barn has hidden treasure. Walking in was like entering gluten-free paradise; the shelves that filled up every square inch of wall were packed with every kind of organic flour, spice, chemical additive, grain, fruit, tea and cereal known to man.

It was just the kind of shop that you could stay in for hours, meditating on flours like Amaranth, millet and sorghum, agonising over xanthan vs. guar gum and pondering the merits of rice flakes and chestnut powder.

We didn't stay for hours - closer to 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour, but it was enough. By the time we'd left, I was lugging a huge box full of various flours, organic cupcake cups, xanthan, guar gum and cereal. The next part of the mish was to go to my place and try to create something edible from the flours we'd bought.

Part 2

Theresa and I love cooking, so naturally we talk about it a lot: ideas for new, revolutionary g-free recipes, ways to create lighter-textured baking, and the results of what we make. Actually eating food is fantastic, but scheming, collaborating and creating food is where the pursuit of happiness ends. Pretty much.

When we got to my house, we'd already decided to make pasta: organic, whole-grain flour, eggy pasta, with Italian tomato and herb sauce.

Here's the pictures of what we came up with:

..An action shot of the dough. It was so stretchy and sticking-together-ish. Just beautiful.

The strips of dough - tagliatelle? Before they were cooked..

Here's the 'Italian' pasta sauce - good mix of caramelised onions, chopped tomatoes and paste, some Italian herbs, spices and sausages, and a good dash of balsamic vinegar.

..The cooked pasta. We weren't too sure how long to cook it, but it turned out okay in the end!

End result..
..the melted cheese and basil enhanced the flavour and appeal of the pasta.
It was so, so good. Here's a recipe for pasta, from Recipezarre. By the way, the speckled appearance of our pasta is due to our using different types of whole-grain flours (because they're good for you!). You can have a go substituting brown rice flour, amaranth and sorghum in small quantities instead of just using tapioca, cornflour etc.

Happy cooking!