Low Fat Pasta: Why and How to Make it.

Making your own pasta is not difficult. It's actually very easy.

But you may wonder why would you make your own pasta, when you can buy it pre-packed, and ready to cook?

Well, one reason is that by making your own, you eat fresh pasta. There is a difference of taste and texture between fresh pasta and pre-packed pasta.

But there is another reason: if you make your own pasta, you may want to use nutritius ingredients, ensuring that your pasta not only tastes good, but it is also low in fat, and generally good for you.

For instance, you may want to make your own low fat pasta with unrefined flour, ensuring that your pasta is rich in fibre and B complex Vitamins.

Finally, learning to make your own basic pasta dough is the first skill towards preparing other (more advanced?) types of pasta dishes like lasagna, raviolli, tortellini, and that type of thing.

It's not such a difficult thing to do, and it can be a fun process.

You see, normally you make pasta with refined wheat flour, eggs and salt.

But if you want low fat pasta, you need to use water instead of eggs, and you have to give salt a miss.

This recipe makes about 750 g of low fat pasta (about 1.5 pounds), and it takes about 50 minutes to make.

To make your own low fat basic pasta you need:

* 500 g (1 pound) of strong wholemeal flour

* 275 ml (a bit over a cup) of water.

This is what you do:

First, put the flour in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle (like a volcano, sort of thing).

Then, pour in the water, and mix with a knife till the dough binds.

After that, you start mixing with your hands and knead it till all the flour is evenly incorporated into the dough.

Move the dough to a kitchen bench, and knead it for about 10 minutes, till it becomes smooth and elastic.

Next, put the dough into a plastic (zip lock) bag and leave it there for about 30 minutes.

Then, take a quarter of the dough and roll it out by hand on a slightly floured surface. Roll it very thin. Leave it to rest and dry before using it.

Freeze whatever you don't use. It will remain good for up to 3 months.

You will be able to use this basic low fat pasta to make many of my delicious recipes.

Bon apetite!

Jeff, The Skinny Chef, has a growing collection of delicious (and easy to make)low fat recipes and healthy eating articles. The recipes come with the amount of fat, calories, kilo joules and Weight Watchers' points that can be incorporated into a realistic weight loss plan. Visit his site at http://www.Jeff-The-Skinny-Chef.Com and lose weight eating delicious food!