To be honest, I had no intention of learning how to make this until my friends had begged me to try and make it for them since their keto diet was depriving them of delicious, carb heavy pasta. I, like all of you, went online to do my research so my friends could finally get some sghetti’ in their systems. Low and behold I find an abnormal amount of mozzarella cheese “pastas” that lose their shape faster than you can say “prego”, or “egg noodles” that is just a very very sad, soft omelette cut into shapes of fettuccine. I found some promising contenders but nothing close to what I think the glory that pasta is. I knew it wasn’t possible to completely emulate it, but I wanted something similar to how vegans eat vegan meat. I guess what I’m trying to say is I didn’t want “oh it’s kind of good enough”, I wanted “damn, finally!”.

I filmed my experience trying the combination that I thought would be a good attempt at this challenge and I think what came out was a very promising contender.

So the ingredients that I chose were wheat gluten, xanthum gum, coconut flour, and almond flour.

Almond and coconut flour are good, hearty flours that aren’t carb heavy and almond gives it a grittier texture that allows it to hold sauces and its shape, coconut flour adds a softer consistency to the mix.

Xanthum gum is a popular ingredient utilized in many restricting recipes and acts as a binder.

Wheat gluten was something that I wanted to add because it gives vegan meat its “bounce” and firmness.

Take a mixing bowl and add your almond, coconut, xanthum gum, wheat gluten, and black pepper to to it. I like starting my pasta in a bowl just because I am a hot ass mess and this keeps my hot ass mess in a more controlled environment. I looove adding black pepper to pasta just for the cute freckled look and of course, the peppery taste.

Make a well and add your 5 eggs, add your minced garlic, then begin stirring with a fork. Whisk the eggs until you break the yolks and gradually begin to add flour with large circles.

Eventually you won’t need your fork anymore and wipe off an excess into the bowl and begin using your hands.

Fold the flour until it becomes a pliable dough and use coconut flour to dust your flat work surface

Take out your dough and begin kneading it on your flat surface and if you have ever made pasta you understand that this is a very important process!

The kneading for this keto pasta is really quite difficult since the dough is really quite rough and hard, but push through and knead for at least 10 minutes.

After kneading the pasta, wrap it in plastic and leave it on the side for at least 20 minutes.

I have been making a lot of pasta lately, so I invested in a pasta maker that I got off of amazon and it has saved me TONS of time and work. The trick to working with this keto pasta is getting it the right amount of thickness. A lot of the times I saw people going straight for the fettuccini or pappardelle type of pasta and thought that it wouldn’t give the small amount of gluten a chance in holding the sauce. So I decided on bow ties, and to get to that point you need to have it thin but not “see your hand through it thin”. I got my pasta to the second to last thinnest and it was perfect. I cut them into little squares with my pizza cutter and then used my fingers to pinch the squares into bow ties. And I did this.. About fifty times, this recipe was made for 6 people and so it was 6 servings (my poor hands!). After you get everything situated with your bow ties, make sure you let them dry for about 10 minutes before deciding to cook them, but while you’re waiting, you can make your pasta sauce! I have my keto pasta sauce here, or you can choose your own!

On my four burners my set up was:

One pot full of pasta sauce on the lowest heat

One pot full of boiling salt water on high heat

One large pan on low to medium heat with nothing in it.

I like using the large pan to portion out my pasta and allow it to adhere to the sauce better

So get your pasta water to a rolling boil, add pasta, keep your empty pan at medium heat and add one ladle full of pasta sauce into your empty pan.

Boil your pasta for one minute

Use a slotted ladle to move your cooked pasta to the frying pan (it’ll naturally carry its own pasta water to help with a better sauce), and stir your pasta in the pan.

Scoop another ladle full of pasta sauce into your pan to saturate the pasta

This “pan frying” will cook the pasta more without boiling it for too long which I found people were having trouble with.

About 2-3 minutes into cooking, take out your pasta and plate it!

Add freshly ground black pepper, mozzarella or whatever keto friendly toppings you’d like!

Ingredients

Refrigerated:
5 whole eggs
Minced garlic
Baking and spices:
1 tbsp xanthum gum
¼ cup of wheat gluten
1 cup of coconut flour
1 cup of almond flour
1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

Equipment needed:
Mixing bowl
Pot
Pan
Pasta Maker
Pizza cutter or knife
A fork
Plastic wrap

I was able to get all of my dry ingredients in one easy online purchase from amazon here:

*Xanthum gum

Organic Cococnut Flour*

Tips:

- Take out your 5 eggs 10 minutes before starting everything so they’re closer to room temperature for better kneading.

- I like to use minced garlic from a tube because I’m a lazy piece of shit and a lot of the time it’s preserved with olive oil.

- You don’t have to stop at black pepper, you can add any italian herb like oregano, thyme or rosemary or all three from a simple grinder.

Directions:

- Add 1 cup of coconut flour, 1 cup of almond flour, ¼ of a cup of wheat gluten, 1 tbsp of xanthum gum, and 1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper to a mixing bowl

- Mix dry ingredients so they’re thoroughly incorporated

- Make a well in the middle of your dry ingredients

- Crack a total of 5 eggs into your well along with a teaspoon of minced garlic

- Take a fork and stir the eggs vigorously, breaking the yolks

- Gradually take in the flour and begin mixing and stirring until the fork is no longer needed

- Begin mixing with your hands until it is a pliable ball

- Take your coconut flour and dust a flat surface

- Take your ball of dough out and begin kneading the dough

- Knead for at least 10 minutes

- Knead until smooth and wrap with plastic wrap, set aside and let it rest for twenty minutes

- Take pasta and cut into ⅛ triangular parts and put through pasta machine

- Make sure to begin at the thickest cut and gradually get to the second thinnest on your pasta machine until it’s a long band