Pasta. Oh, pasta…
This pasta isn’t just any ordinary pasta though. It’s cassava pasta. Wha? Yes yes, cassava. Yuca. It’s flour that’s made with yuca. You know, that root that makes many-a-delicious things throughout many Caribbean and Latin countries. I love the stuff. But wait, it gets even better! Cassava flour is, without a doubt, the closest GF thing to wheat flour you can your pretty little hands on. So when Otto’s Naturals sent me a baggie to sample, I freaked out, like a kid at Christmas, thrilled about all the things I could create with my new food toy.
So I started crafting. I made pasta. I made pie crust. I made waffles. I even made a cake! I’ve been going cassava crazy. On to buying more bags… 😉
It’s pasta though, I’m pretty certain, most people who can’t eat regular all-purpose flour miss most. So that’s one the one I’ve focused on most.
Can you make this with regular flour too? Absolutely! That’s what’s amazing. Cassava is used just like regular all-purpose flour. No weird calculations or substitutions, no chewy textures or strange tastes. No, it’s not exaaactly the same as ‘regular’ pasta, ’cause there’s no gluten, but I personally don’t even suffer from a gluten intolerance and I love the stuff! I think it’s fabulous for all… ♥
The first few times I made this recipe, I started as I would a regular pasta dough… 1 cup flour, 2 eggs. Olive oil isn’t a must, but many find it makes dough easier to roll out. Including me. While the first couple of time worked great, I found the last one to be a little dry. It was tough to roll out… too much work I thought. So I decided I needed to reconfigure my amounts so that the dough was always easy to make and roll.
I found the missing ingredient- it was an egg yolk! Just one little yolk. That one yolk though makes all the difference. It makes it a pliable, easy-to-roll, simple dough. Hopefully you find the same to be true.
This pasta can be made ahead, then once ready to eat, can be tossed with a hot bowl of sauciness to come back to life. Enjoy with your fav marinara, some pesto, or whatever else you may desire.
serves two
INGREDIENTS
1 cup flour (I use Otto’s cassava flour, found HERE)
2 eggs, plus 1 extra yolk
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
*Otto’s can be used exactly like all-purpose flour is- use which ever you prefer, same method 🙂
DIRECTIONS
Make a little mound of flour in the middle of a large cutting board
Create a crater in the middle, just big enough to hold the eggs
(Make those walls high… those little buggers like to make escape routes!)
Add the salt and oil, right in with the eggs
(This pic was taken before the extra egg yolk… that one yolk makes a difference, don’t forget him!)
Using a fork, begin whisking the eggs together, slowly forming
a pasty dough as you drag in more and more flour with each whisk
Once a dough-like texture forms, ban the fork and start kneading with your hands
(If the dough is dry, try adding in a smidgen of water or an extra yolk- flour brands vary in texture, as do egg sizes)
Knead and knead and knead, folding it into a ball…
Wrap Saran around the dough, nice and tight, and refrigerate for 30 minutes or so
Glutenous dough will need this more than cassava,
but I’m of the philosophy that all things should be treated equally… but if you don’t feel up to it,
just move right along to the next step 😉
Of course if you have a pasta-maker, you’ll follow some completely different step here,
but I don’t have one of those, so I’m doing this the old school way… with my hands
My hands and some random tools I found around my house to help
Flour your surface and rolling pin
Roll the dough out as thin as you can with a rolling pin
Get it as thin and even as you possibly can (unless you want thick noodles of course)
I found a pizza cutter works marvelously for making pasta!
Here’s a little trick I came up with…
Use a plastic cutting board or other light straight
item to act as an edge as you cut out the noodles
Working centimeter by centimeter (or however thick you want your guys),
slice down the dough, making long little strips
Continue until all dough has been noodled
It should be easy to pull part, move around, etc… though keep in mind, pasta is delicate 🙂
If you’re not making it right away, seal it up and keep it
refrigerated until you do… as with most things though, it’s best when fresh
To cook…
Boil a pot salted water
Add the pasta, cook for approx 2 1/2 minutes, depending on thickness
Strain
Some rinse, some don’t…
I don’t ’cause I like the starches to stay on so my sauces will stick better
That’s it!
Toss with your favorite goodies…
Dig in and enjoy!
wooza darling thank you for posting. Giving up wheat pasta has well nearly killed me. As much as zucchini pasta is good it’s not my pasta replacement I just can’t get with it. This on the other hand looks like heck yea. I gotta get some of this flour. 🙂
Hi! Haha, zuke pasta is great, but yes, one can only handle only so much zucchini in one week! Hope you like this one!! 🙂
You are an Angel. Thank you for posting this!!!!!
Totally did not work. I used Julia cassava flour. A big crumbly unusable mess. What a waste. There are some recipes that are like fake or promoted by an industry.
Hi Karl,
I’m really sorry to hear this didn’t work for you. Maybe the brands have a slightly different texture- I’m not familiar with that one, but I made a note that some brands may be drier, and to add another egg yolk if needed until the right texture is formed. Also, egg yolk sizes vary, so if they’re small, more may be needed. This is not a paid recipe or post- I am just a normal gal who really loves cooking and tries to do her best to create recipes for others to enjoy… this isn’t my job (I’m a teacher), nor do companies pay me to write fake crap- seems maybe this one was just a fail for you. My sincere apologies for the waste. Hope you find some others things you enjoy on here some other day. 🙂
Otto’s is the brand to get as it is ground finer than other cassava flour
You can try tweaking it a bit because it depends on the consistency of the flour you buy and not all brands are the same. I am currently watching pasta making class online using regular flour and they use eggs and oil. I also found another recipe using eggs and oil. If it’s too dry and crumbly it needs more moisture and you need an adjustment. If you’re accustomed cooking and mix in the flour a little at a time you usually get an idea of when to stop adding flour to the wet ingredients so it won’t be too dry. Nothing is exact to me when cooking you have to use your judgement and work to suit.
Hi Jaci! Thank you for posting this- great reminder! Food is well, food… it’s not always the same, judgment is a must. If something doesn’t look right, sometimes you just gotta go with your gut and not a formulated list in front of you. Especially with pasta! 😉
I used a different brand of cassava and ended up using that last egg yolk’s white, so all three eggs in total, and the dough was great! I agree that nothing is exact in cooking, so just have fun with it and add more of each ingredient until the dough is pliable. I didn’t even refrigerate the dough either. Awesome recipe!!
Thanks so much, D! Happy it worked out for you… a little intuition and experimentation can go a long way in the kitchen!! 🙂
you should please stop decieving others because it never work
else we would have tons of cassva products in the market
never work
I have to laugh at this comment. Cassava is everywhere! 😉
big help!
Happy to hear!!
I just made this is Anthony’s cassava flour. I wanted some doughy noodles for my chicken noodle soup. These were perfect! I rolled the dough kinda thin, and didn’t cut them very precisely. I cut your recipe in half, used 2 yolk and needed to add a bit if moisture so I did a big glug of chicken stock. Rolled out with a little more cassava flour. They weren’t pretty noodles, not really good for a nice linguine and clams recipe or anything (but I messed with the chip a bit!) but tasted great and were PERFECT for my chicken soup. THANK YOU
Hi Cori!
That sounds great- what a lovely idea using chicken broth!! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Do you think this could be frozen? Would love to make a few batches and freeze to have some ready to go for the kids! Made this and my daughter loved it….as did I.
Hi!!
I have never tried, so I can’t say for sure, I’m sorry. If you do try, I’d love to hear how it goes! 🙂
I was able to freeze, then boil it successfully!! Pretty excited about this.
I’m so glad to hear this! I used to make homemade gluten pasta all the time and miss it desperately. I’m going to try this today. I used to freeze nests of noodles in big muffin cups and the toss the frozen nests in a freezer bag. Each nest was one serving so I could pull out as many as I needed with no waste.
Love that idea!!
Hi, thanks for this recipe! I can’t wait to try it, as a friend made it and raved about how great it was. I wanted to mention that the name ”yucca” in reference to cassava is incorrect. Cassava is also called “yuca” (with one “c”), while yucca (two “c”s) is a different plant, in the agave family. The two plants are unrelated botanically. Yucca is grown primarily as an ornamental plant, though some of its above-ground parts are sometimes used in cooking. The pronunciation is different: yuca is “yooka” while yucca is “yucka”.
The yuca/cassava plant is also called manioc and tapioca (though the production processes for cassava flour and tapioca flour differ: cassava flour is the whole root peeled, dried and ground, while tapioca flour or tapioca starch is the starch extracted from the cassava root through a process of washing and pulping).
I see the yucca/yuca naming mistake a lot on blogs and in grocery stores, and thought you might want to know about the difference.
Hi! Oh how embarrassing- I totally know the difference and which is which actually, but rely way to heavily on spell check when whipping up these posts. Eeek! Thanks SO much for catching that- will fix it right away!! 🙂
Have a lovely night,
Natalie
Can you make this AIP using gelatin “eggs” instead of regular eggs?
Hi Jennifer! Honestly, I have never tried, so really can’t say with certainty, so sorry! Please let me know how it goes if you give it a whirl!! 🙂
I just tried this recipe and it came out dry. Then I added some water and it balled up perfectly. it’s sitting in the refrigerator right now and I can’t wait to put it in my pasta maker .
Hi! I hope it went well!!
Hi Natalie
Have you ever considered adding xanthan gum to the csssave flour mixture? Wont it give you a glutenous texture? I am going to try it and see if it workd.
Thanks for posting the recipe for padta.
Jeanette
Hi!
I haven’t, but will be curious to hear what happens when you try!! 🙂
Hi, what a fun idea! I’ve explored a lot more with gf versions of pasta since creating this recipe, so imagine there are some fun variations we could come up with! :
I just found this and I am excited to try it. We are doing whole30 right now and this will be perfect because I love pasta and I am beginning to think wheat is no good for me. Thanks for posting this!!!!
Wonderful, I hope it turns out tasty for you!
I cant have eggs & was really wanted some noodles in my soup & saw that you were wanted to try some eggless Cassava noodles. I may have a solution for you – I made some cassava flour tortillas [Cassava flour, salt, a little palm shortening, and water] cooked them as tortillas in a dry cast iron pan, then cut them into noodle width strips & put them in y simmering soup – they were pretty good!
I also think you could dehydrate these to make them for backpacking or to just have them more shelf stable.
Genius!!!! This was so good!!!!!!
My kids were even fooled mwahaha!!!
I used Anthony’s. The egg yolk is totally necessary.
SO happy to hear this!! 🙂
Hi Natalie, First off, thank you very much for all that you do!!!!
Second, I’m having a really tough time keeping my dough together.
I’ve tried an extra yolk, extra water/broth, kneading it to death and getting it cold.
Any suggestions?
Best Regards,
Hi Bill!
First, I’m so sorry for the delay in reply- thank you for your patience.
Second, thank you for the kind words. 🙂
Lastly, is the dough dry, or just falling apart? I’ll see what I can do to help!
HI Natalie
The pasta looks great but I cannot eat eggs. Any suggestions for suitable or even passable substitute for eggs? thanks so much
Susan
Hi Susan, I haven’t tried without eggs personally, but you could look up AIP recipes and possibly find a good one! 🙂
very nice publish, i actually love this web site, keep on it!
Have a question I made this recipe and rolled it thin as possible and cut it into lasagna noodle size The problem was when I went to pick them up to place in boiling water they fell apart I did cook them and piece-mealed them together as best I could. The tasted wonderful. My husband didn’t even notice the difference But I need to know what I did wrong for the pasta to fall apart after being rolled I adore the noodles taste; just not the falling apart part
Hello! Thank you for your comment. I’m not sure exactly what the question is :), but it sounds like maybe if they were cut into lasagna size noodles, they were heavy and fell apart. Sorry to hear that, but happy to hear you liked the flavor!
Hi Nathalie,
Thanks for the recipe. I have recently become gluten intolerant and am in the process of adjusting all the delicious recipes I used to make, so this is very helpful! Do you think this recipe would work for ravioli dough as well? Have you tried? I’ve found it very difficult to work with cassava flour dough in general, it goes from too sticky to work with to too dry and crumbling, would you have any tips?
Thanks so much in advance!
Hi!! I haven’t personally, but I’ve seen others post their ravioli versions with this recipe on IG. I’d say it’s def worth a try!! 🙂
Hello can I substitute eggs with gelatin we are doing the aip protocol and we can’t eat eggs
Hello! I’ve never tried, so can’t say for sure. If you try, please let us know how it goes so others whoa re curious can hear! 🙂
Hi,
My first time here.
I’m from Brazil, from where the cassava comes from to the world by Portuguese ships. I didn’t understand what you mean by cassava flour. A direct translation would mean another meaning “manioc flour” what could we Brazilian understand. But it means what we call here “maMassaavada”- something in English as washed pasta.
Despite this meaning flood, I’m very glad about your article. I have searched for a noodle recipe with cassava for a long time ago. A merely thank u
Note where is written “maMassaavada” I mean “massa lavada”.
Hello! Thanks for popping by and your comment!! Cassava flour is the type of flour I used- I used Otto’s brand cassava flour for for this recipe, but there are several available in stores now. I didn’t make the flour from cassava… but it’s what it’s called on the package! Hope that makes sense. 🙂