Spelt pasta

Our Kitchen Garden students love making pasta! This recipe uses spelt flour, an ancient grain that is slightly nutty. Spelt has a lower gluten content than wheat flour, and whilst not suitable for a coeliac diet, can be eaten by those with a low threshold gluten intolerance.

Spelt linguine with quick pesto

Fresh from the garden: eggs
Recipe source: adapted from a recipe by Sean Moran at Sean’s Panaroma
Makes: about 600g pasta, enough for 6, or 24 tastes

 What to do:

• Weigh the flour into the bowl of the mixer, then with the motor running, add the eggs one at a time. Process for a few minutes until the dough clings together and feels quite springy.
• Tip the dough onto a clean, dry workbench. Knead the dough for a few minutes, then wrap it in plastic film and let it rest for about an hour at room temperature.

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• Get an adult to help fix the pasta machine to a suitable bench. Screw the clamp very tightly.
• Set up your pasta hanging poles, ideally between 2 chairs.
• Clear a large space on the workbench alongside the pasta machine. All surfaces must be clean and dry. Press the dough into a rectangle about 8 cm wide.
• Set the rollers on the pasta machine to the widest setting and pass the dough through. The dough will probably look quite ragged at this stage. Fold it in 3, turn it 90 degrees and roll it through again. Go to the next-thickest setting and pass the dough through 3-4 times.
• Continue in this manner (changing the settings and passing the dough through) until the dough has passed through the second thinnest setting. Don’t use the very thinnest setting, as the dough gets too fine and is hard to manage. If the dough gets too long to handle comfortably, cut it into 2-3 pieces using the large knife, and roll each piece separately.
• Depending on which type of pasta you want, you can either lay the strips out on a lightly-floured table and cut them by hand, or you can fix the cutter attachment to the machine and carefully roll the pasta strips into strips for linguine or the thinner cutters for angel hair, gently catching them as they come through.
• Drape the pasta over the hanging poles to dry while you make your sauce.
• Clean the pasta machine parts by brushing them down with a dry pastry brush, pop the collected parts back into their boxes, and then clear and clean the table.

Notes: Never wash the pasta machine – it will rust! Just brush down with a strong pastry brush to remove the leftover dough.

Busy hands!