tender noodles

Rachael, Annie, and our friend Julie came over for dinner last week, and I made them these summery noodles. Annie was very impressed with the noodles themselves--they're thin and tender and have no egg--and asked me to post the recipe ASAP. The secret ingredient is chickpea flour, AKA gram flour or besan. It's used by Indian vegetarians, who don't eat eggs, for its sticky, binding properties. You can get some at the health food store or Indian store, or a regular grocery store with a big flour selection. I think these noodles are best served with a light sauce, such as the one pictured: it's just raw tomatoes, corn, herbs, and spring onions, along with olive oil, olives, salt and pepper.

Tender, Eggless Pasta
makes a lot, enough for 6 or so

300g all-purpose flour
150g chickpea flour
1/2t salt
200ml water
3T olive oil

Mix everything together with your hands, then knead till it's a nice ball of dough. It'll seem too stiff and dry at first, but persevere and incorporate all of the flour. Wrap it up in Saran Wrap and let it rest for about half an hour, then roll it out and cut it as you would any other pasta dough.

In this case I rolled it in sheets of the penultimate thinness my Atlas pasta machine does, then let them dry out a little while I fixed the rest of the dinner. Right before I cooked the pasta, I cut it by hand into broad noodles. I boiled them briefly--only a couple of minutes--then tossed them with the sauce.