Just had low crb "spaghetti"!

Ok bsc, I stole this from the lowcarb friends forum. Its supposed to be indistinguishable from carb pasta to the non-Italian. =^)

"Pasta"
Note: all these powders were packed down with the back of a butter knife and then scraped across measuring cup level with the back of butter knife.

1/2 cup + 1/8 cup of WPI
1/8 cup white flour
1/8 cup semolina flour
1 Tbsp soy protein isolate
dash salt
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large beaten egg

Put all dry ingredients in food processor (3 cup size), turn on food processor a hair before you add the 1 T oil (have the oil already measured out when you do this part) then slowly add the beaten egg . Wait for it to turn into a ball then stop machine. Powder your cutting board and hands with plain protein powder first, because this dough is very sticky. Cut the ball of dough into 4 sections, cover with bowl so it doesn't dry out. Using hand crank pasta maker, take one section at a time and roll through pasta maker.....Start with #1 and work your way up to # 7. Before putting it through cutter rub protein powder on it so it cuts easy. If you cook it fresh then cook about 2 minutes in rapid boiling water, stir the noodles the whole time, drain but don't rinse. If you dry it and cook at a later time it takes about 10-15 minutes

I made my own, the sauce was after braising Italian sausages with milled tomatoes.

Thanks. I used to be a member there. Long story. I’ve seen that recipe. Semolina is a high gluten flour and is needed to give the dough the necessary elasticity. I suspect from the proportions that the noodles will not have much stretch and won’t hold together very well. Given the comments on the dough I also suspect it also has a sticky consistency, and may be difficult to work with. The machine is a bit tricky and really needs a dry dough. It may work with a hand crank machine. Let’s see what the Chef says, and I’ll try to dig out my machines this weekend.

Using this recipe, the pasta would probably be better dried before cooked. I have a friend from Rome. She laughs at American interest in fresh pasta. She said Italians always use dried pasta & that fresh pasta is rubbery & doesn't have the correct texture.

Have a marble rolling pin, or the kind you fill with water & freeze? Rolling out pasta to an even thin thickness is a major pain, but works for sticky dough.

But I have both a hand crank machine and an actual electric pasta machine! It's not pasta if you have to roll it out like some pie crust. Do you really roll out your pasta like that?

I made pasta twice. Both were diasters & I don’t know why anyone (who can eat real pasta) would go to the bother. First time, I rolled it. My neighbor, Mrs. Guisto, in the old neighborhood rolled out pasta for ravioli & lasagna. She was from

Sicily & cooked everything from scratch. I spent a lot of time in her kitchen as a kid, mesmerized by the incredible things she made. Second time, I got a hand cranked machine as a gift & figured it was worth trying again. I had pasta hanging on hangers all over the kitchen drying out. It had the texture of rubber bands. Gave the pasta maker away. Good quality dry packaged pasta was far superior.

Pasta gets its elasticity from the gluten in the flour. Kneading the dough activates the gluten. If you overdo the kneading, the gluten gets too "excited" and you get rubber noodles. If you kept it up, the gluten would have broken down and your noodles would have crumbled. Part of the trick with pasta is to work it just the right amount to get the desired elasticity.

I don't know why I am even talking about this. This is like an alcoholic talking about the fine points of making beer.

bsc, were you saying you never found a recipe with vital wheat gluten or never found the vital wheat gluten itsself?

I picked some of this VWG up at whole foods I think. At any rate I have a bag at home. It can be found on the web as well.

So looks like it will be WPI, VWG, Maybe some white flour, olive oil, a dash of salt and an egg. I suppose Im going to have to roll and cut this if I make it. I dont have a pasta machine.

Bsc, can you shoot me over your original pasta recipe? I would much rather work from that than a faux one. Oh, also, any word from ze Chef?

I found recipes that used vital wheat gluten but never experimented. I believe that my Whole Foods carries it. It is low carb, but it is unclear whether it can be mixed with things like almond meal or whey to make a good pasta. Mixing it with flour or semolina is just making a carby pasta again. I’m going to try to dig up my machines and hope that the Chef can save the day.

Mmm carby carb pasta. lol.

Ive used it in breads and with gravy so far. It seems to mix fine with those flours you mentioned, although pasta is another beast all together.

bsc, I probably did over knead it. The recipe that came with pasta maker was badly translated from Italian. “Place ingredients gently together. Amalgamate well.” Never forget the amalgamate:) The recipe may not have converted from metric measurements correctly.

Dear well done chef

Sorry to be off topic but maybe you can answer this. Sometimes when I cook a low fat fish like sole or basa I end up gelatinizing it somewhat. This does taste good and gives a poor texture. What should be done to prevent or minimize this?

Spaghetti squash is a good substitute. Tonight I happily dined on spaghetti squash while my husband enjoyed his regular pasta. I had simply cooked it in the microwave (piercing the squash first). Then I mixed the squash with low fat mozzarella and Parmsean with the sauce and heated it through in the oven. OMG - It was delicious!